Review: Trials Evolution

Three years ago Microsoft Game Studios released Trials HD to the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace. The game has since sold over two million copies to become one of the top Xbox Live Arcade games of all time. Well after much anticipation, the sequel is finally available for purchase. Trials Evolution is here to claim the throne.
The core game-play mechanics are very much the same as the original Trials HD. Players can accelerate their bike forwards and in reverse, as well as lean in either direction. Thats just four different possibilities which open the door to complex and seemingly infinite possibilities.

Your goal is to complete each track in as short a time (and with as few faults) as possible. Often mere completion is tricky enough, even with infinite instant retries and frequent checkpoints. Sometimes you’ll be wondering if its even possible to complete a track. It is, its just hard.

To complicate this, you are constantly being set up for comparison against your friends. After a few hours of play you may not consider them all friends anymore. The game has persistent leaderboards and ghosts, showing you how much better your friends are than you, and never letting you forget your failures.

The constant reminders of your friend’s performance combine with the ability to instantly replay a track make the game uniquely addictive and competitive. You’ll find yourself saying “just one more try” in your head until you realize an hour has passed.

Going beyond the original Trials HD, the graphics have had a major upgrade, with a huge visual variety between levels. Everything in comparison to Trials HD is bigger, better, and more extreme. If you liked Trials HD at all, the upgrade to Trials Evolution is more than worth it.

Don’t buy this game if you have an addictive personality or if you hate competition. Trials Evolution is the exemplar of addictive competitive gaming. That already makes the game a tremendous value but there is also multiplayer races, skill games, and a wonderful level editor. This game has so much replayability it’s quite the bargain at a mere 1200 Microsoft Points.