First Level: Trials Evolution

I don’t know why I seem to be riding a motorcycle in a war zone. I don’t know why I’ve got my skis on when there’s no snow. I have no idea why there’s scaffolding everywhere but very few buildings seem to be under repair. Do you know what? I don’t care either.

Trials HD is still one of the best downloadable games on a console. The weight-shifting physics and extremely tightly designed courses made it a leader board fetishist’s wet dream. The struggle for top spot among your friends was so compelling – unless you had friends like mine, who were like savants with it. I abandoned all hope of matching up to them early on in my Trials HD experience but I still loved the weight, the balance and  the super fast fail-and-restart nature of the game.

Now RedLynx is back with a sequel and early impressions are that it’s just as tightly balanced, finely tuned and joyously frustrating as its predecessor. I’ve played the first few stages and taken some video (below) for you to see for yourself but the long and the short of it is this: Trials Evolution is seemingly the result of a group of lunatic level designers being given free reign and an extremely high budget for explosions.

The gameplay is largely unaltered, although there does seem to be one or two little extras buried in there. What has changed, though, is the scale. Even in these very early levels, it’s clear that everything is going to be cranked up to snapping point.

You’re competitively riding a motorcycle in the midst of what seems to be a perpetual struggle between scaffolding erectors and a trigger happy air force. There’s no rhyme or reason for this insanity, other than the simple fact that it makes for an awesome backdrop for the same tightly balanced gameplay that we saw in the first Trials game. And that’s the most important point to mention about the early stages of Trials Evolution – it really feels just as well crafted as the previous game.

There are occasionally some weird things going on with collision detection. I managed to slide for some distance on my backside before the game realised that I wasn’t really in much control and crashed me out. But that’s part of the charm. It’s not always perfect but the idiosyncrasies make for the most memorable moments. Those death defying flips. The improbable recoveries from impossible angles. It all makes the Trials experience what it is and provides the talking points that you’ll want to tell all your friends about but find it next to impossible to replicate.

Our full review will be along as soon as we’ve had enough time with the game (review codes only went out this morning) but rest assured that Trials is back with a bang.

12 Comments

  1. Can’t wait. One on my most anticipated games for months.

  2. Its good, but its not Elastomania!!

  3. damn, you’re even worse than me. ^_^

    and what is this obsession this game has with killing the rider if they finish the track? o_O

    i loved the first game, but some of the later levels were a nightmare, there was no way i was gonna finish them.
    hopefully they’ve got user level distribution sorted this time, and it’s available to silvers, because that could keep me playing forever.

    • I’ll have you know that I’m number 2 and 3 in the world on some tracks :-P
      This was literally my first go on it and I hadn’t played Trials HD in about six months either.

      • of how many? o_O

        and that’s a convenient excuse. >_>

        JK.

        anyway.

        i just downloaded the trial.
        finished the first track, first time. :p
        did you stay on the screen when you finished?
        did you stay long enough to see the piano they drop on the rider?
        or the bloody train car?

        i told you they’re obsessed with killing the riders. O_O

      • ok, it wasn’t the first actual track, it was the license test.
        i fell off once in the real first track.

  4. Is this xbox exclusive?

    • yes, it’s only on 360 at the moment. Shame, it should be enjoyed by as wide an audience as possible.

  5. PLeaseeee come to steam :)

  6. Agree the difficulty curve in the first one was, for me anyway, just a little too steep at points though quite fancy going back to it before jumping in to this one.

  7. i just checked the official forums, and apparently, you can download tracks with silver, gold is only needed for online multiplayer.
    http://www.redlynxgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=77&t=7978

    so, YAY. ^_^

  8. damn, i forgot how much fun the trials game was.
    and how bloody frustrating. >_<

    i love it. ^_^

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