Frustration doesn't really do my feelings while playing Trials Evolution justice. At times I'm pretty sure I slipped into a semi-catatonic state, my mind only able to focus on the bike and the restart button. To any onlookers Trials Evolution must appear to be the dullest, most repetitive game ever made, and I'm not surprised given I spent about eight hours during one week simply retrying the same stage over and over again. The fact that I'm not very good at the game doesn't help, but the sense of elation when you finally get that medal is worth all the pain.
Out of everything I reviewed in 2012, Trials Evolution was the closest I ever got to handing out a 10/10 score. There's just something so bloody likeable about it, and the fact I still see so many people playing is a real testament to RedLynx's guiding hand of canny development. I think the multiplayer has a wide-reaching appeal, but there's a particular subset of gamers who'll really sink their teeth into mastering the single-player campaign. It's here, as you painstakingly attempt to land the rear wheel of your bike on a six-inch platform over and over and over and over again, that you get sucked into the pitch-perfect set of rules and mechanics RedLynx has created.
Sorry Martin, and to the millions of you out there who will ultimately disagree, but Trials HD was better. Unfortunately for RedLynx, Evolution didn't rev my engine as hard as its predecessor did three years ago, despite the courses being excellent and the new multiplayer options being good fun. But as silly as it sounds, I actually think it was the new curving maps and the 'seen-it-all-before' structure which put me off.
Of course, that isn't to say that I didn't like Evolution: it was, after all, one of the strongest games on Xbox LIVE Arcade this year. But in my opinion, HD felt purer and stronger in both concept and execution. Evolution, in my opinion, didn't quite live up to its name.
Trials Evolution was the sole reason for me dusting off my Xbox 360 and tearing myself away from the warm glow of my PC monitor. That's how powerful this game was to me. In my previous workplace it was literally the only game people were playing, which in turn created an intensely competitive atmosphere.
Similar to what Autolog did for Need for Speed, scanning the Trials leaderboards for times to beat became a nightly ritual for me. I would spend countless hours attempting to shave mere milliseconds off a time just so I could proudly walk into work the next day as the number 1 in the office. Trials Evolution was a drug, and a stark reminder that I have a terribly addictive personality, especially when it comes to competitive games. It was consuming me, my life and my sleep. But I knew I had to press on. There were after all, platinum medals to get just to rub salt in the wounds of my co-workers whose times I had already decimated.
Then came the Inferno tracks. Aaaaaaaaaaand I'm done.
Has there ever been a more appropriate name for a series than "Trials"? Don't get me wrong, I think the games are great – I just think they occupy that same evil space that's home to Dark Souls and Super Meat Boy. Sometimes they feel less like entertainment, and more like a ludic form of self-flagellation.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I respect Trials Evolution more than I enjoy it. RedLynx give you so much for your money, and everything is so tight and neatly presented that it's hard to find any fault worth noting. I was swept up into the initial launch craze, and yet I rarely find myself playing it these days. To master a game like Trials you have to love it to the core, love it enough to endure the endless occasions on which it happily spits in your face. Still, I do have a lot of time for the side-by-side local multiplayer. That bail-out button was a genius idea.
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