Trials Evolution is exactly what it claims to be – an evolution of its predecessor, Trials HD; while it is largely the same game, worthy additions like multiplayer, no longer being confined to a warehouse, and seemingly being a little more forgiving make Trials Evolution worth trying if interested.

Potential players should know that there is a complete lack of options within Trials Evolution; there is no difficulty setting, no way to adjust screen brightness, no subtitles, no remapping controls, no nothing. Players play the game as the developer intended it to be played.

It isn’t as bad as it sounds though; for the most part the screen is plenty bright, and only on occasion could the screen use to be a bit brighter. Or maybe it isn’t a question of brightness at all but instead a question of needing another color to break up the tedium of a level soaked in moonlight or bathed in the light of a blood moon. Dusk levels do occur as well and they are situations where low-light may play a role in crashing more often than the player otherwise would, but much like its predecessor, Trials Evolution is big on ambiance and there is something charming about riding at night, particularly when the game is challenging the player to do so.

Little inconveniences like a hole in the ground right about where the player is going to attempt to land the bike is just some of the fun of timed obstacle-based motorcycle racing. While it may sound unappealing, in reality, getting back on the bike race after race to beat not only your time but the times of every other player on the planet make it that little bit more fun to keep getting beat down by that hole in the ground that keeps forcing a fault, and that sense of accomplishment that comes with completing a race with no faults and then seeing that you’ve earned a gold medal make the spent to earn it worth it.
Seeing a customizable control scheme in this iteration of Trials would have been great but sticking with a default control scheme that affords players options by default isn’t entirely bad either. Accelerate, decelerate/reverse, and steering are all mapped to multiple controls which affords players options which is more than can be said of most games that make use of a single control layout. Seeing buttons with no function attached to them is a bit insulting as if the control scheme would have been opened up, it would have allowed for a level of customization that can only be achieved with less fewer buttons needing functions tethered to them.

Like Trials HD before, Trials Evolution has no need for subtitling or captioning of any kind because it really doesn’t need it. That is not to say that the games wouldn’t benefit from the inclusion of captions; Many a thing make noise in Trials Evolution; from fire to ominous creaking to rider vocalization captions to inform players of what’s going on in the games current surroundings would be a nice thing – kind of like giving the person that bought the game as much as possible for the price of admission. A lot of the time obstacles don’t start making noise until they appear on-screen, but in some cases they don’t. Take rider vocalization for example, riders’ lips probably aren’t synced to the sound exactly and if they are things like bandanas or helmets might be covering the mouth making it that much more difficult to know the rider is saying anything. Again, captioning is not necessary but would have been nice.

The degree of difficulty unfortunately needs to be put over once more before gameplay is looked at further; Trials Evolution is a hard game that probably will never be finished – that’s the way it seemed to happen with Trials HD and after a couple days with Trials Evolution history will probably be repeating itself though this time around more of the game will likely be seen due to the way the game unlocks.

Steering the bike and maneuvering it over obstacles is the real challenge that the game offers; controls boil down to leaning forward and backward on the bike and accelerating and decelerating at just the right time. (This seems to be something just as difficult for the able-bodied as it is for disabled persons [thought based on leaderboards from Trials HD, passing the controller, and hours of multiplayer].) Trials Evolution is a near side-scroller which means the player doesn’t need to worry about turning right or left; accelerating and decelerating and switching from a leaned back to leaned forward posture at just the right time to get maximum height/distance in order to clear that tire-to-tire gap is one of the more successful mechanics for success in later stages.

Earlier levels aren’t so much about interacting with obstacles so much as it is avoiding them by having just enough momentum to get the bike clear of the obstacle while still not having so much that another obstacle is going to be in the way of your best landing. There is a lot of strategy as well as precision involved with being as successful as possible with Trials Evolution.

Multiplayer is more than a little fun; Trials Evolution gives players a choice between playing Trials as usual in Trials or Hardcore Trials (“Hardcore” may be putting it lightly) with the only difference between single and multiplayer being the number of ghosts to compete with on-track, as well as giving players the option to compete in Supercross events. In Supercross events players are lined up in rows of two to four on fairly straight forward tracks consisting of very few obstacles in the way of short drag races where the point is to gain points by being faster than the other players. The only issue that is presented from within a Supercross event is that it is easy to lose track of your rider as they are all fairly small compared to the riders within a single player event. Oh, and matchmaking is really slow, so be prepared to wait for a match to be made.

Supercross is the form local multiplayer takes as well.

In sum, Trials Evolution is a very natural feeling progression of what Trials HD was. In my opinion it is a game worth its price tag right now, though if multiplayer isn’t of interest, waiting for the price to droop works too. Either way, if interested, check out the demo first to make sure that the game is compatible with the player.

At a glance

Visual;
~No option to adjust brightness. While not a game-breaking feature to leave out as most of the game’s settings are bright enough as is, some players may benefit from an option like this to increase playability. Cases where it may come in handy are few and far between.
~Rider is very easily seen in single player events.
~Riders as well as some obstacles on track are a little small and could benefit easily from being bigger though this would detract from the gameplay style which is intended in multiplayer. (-0.5 point)
~Riders are colored differently in multiplayer and do switch tracks from track to track and not enough of a difference in color is present as the green used for a rider is too similar to the color blue used for another rider. (-0.5 point)
~Otherwise an easily seen game.
Recommended score of 9 out of 10

Hearing;
~Sound is not important to gameplay.
~While there are no subtitles in the game, riders do scream/celebrate/vocalize on occasion, and while these don’t make/break the game, a visual representation like subtitles may add to someone’s enjoyment. (-0.5 point)
Recommended score of 9.5 out of 10

Mobility;
~Single control scheme w/necessary buttons mapped to multiple buttons. (-0.5 point)
~Playable w/one hand.
~No difficulty settings though difficulty is implied in the title of the game. (-0.5 point)
~Tracks are semi-linear meaning that the player only has to control forward and backward motions (w/gas, brake/reverse controls at RT/LT) as well as leaning forward/backward which is done w/right and left controls on D-pad or left stick.
~Players have to earn a certain number of medals in order to unlock more tracks/events meaning it is entirely possible to not see the entire game. (-1 point)
~Events are timed. (No points deducted due to the nature of the game)
~Controls, though minimal, do get a little demanding at later stages of the game. (-0.5 point)
Recommended score of 7.5 out of 10