Onceagain,youmanoeuvreyour
rider across a series of obstacle laden,
sidescrolling tracks. Trials is all about
small corrections and adjustments as
you lean forwards and backwards to
land jumps and cross piles of debris.
The tracks are
micro-stories, both
mechanically and in
the absurdity behind
the main event. Pacing
is perfected in each
course, leading
effortlessly from a
relatively-gentle intro
to the track’s motif, to a
setpiece puzzle leading into the
roaring finish.
In Trials Rising those backgrounds
have been taken to the extreme. A
jaunt through a movie set will take
you through an explosive tour of
Hollywood genres, even cutting away
from grey props and scenery to show
the CG alien horror-show unfolding
on camera.
Another has you racing through
an old Soviet missile base – rockets
launching closer and closer before
the track ends with your haplessriderblazingintothestarsonthe
door-handle of an old Vostok.
Trials Rising is playful in
perspective. The 2.5D control never
changes, but the path taken winds
back and forth through a lively,
dangerous world.
Ubisoft RedLynx gets a
lot of mileage out of the
relatively simple setup.
Even within each of
the game’s nine main
leagues, there’s a
wealth of visual and
mechanical variety.
Rising adds a
number of new ideas to the Trials
mix. The metagame brought in by
Contracts isn’t hugely compelling, but
the idea of mixing up a time-trial
with new goals for new gear is.
Tandem bikes offer a novel, wonky
mode for local co-op partners, and
each league ends with a ‘stadium’
series of head-to-head races.
There’s a new University of Trials
tutorial mode headed up by Professor
FatShady that does a fair enough job
of explaining the new mechanics. It
does suffer a little from telling, notshowing,although its biggest flaw is
inarrivingafter the player has
alreadycompleted a couple of
introductory levels that explain the
coremechanics perfectly.
Thelearning curve rarely feels too
steep,either. Minus one stop on my
firsttriptoEurope, the campaign
providesjust enough challenge that
progressalwaysfeltwithinreach.HittHe brakes
The downtime between levels isn’t
exactly smooth, unfortunately. A
flashy, modern UI spends too much
time counting rewards, experience
and currencies after a track’s
completion. The world map is a neat
way of contextualising stages but
often obscures the next step in your
career. Games like Trials thrive on
that ‘just one more go’ attitude, but
Rising struggles to keep momentum.
It only gets worse in the main
menu, which is awash with icons and
submenus that just needed a cleaner
way to show me what I want. I also
found gamepad controls to be
inconsistent in menus.
Trials Rising has cosmetic
microtransactions, but its loot boxes
offer the most underwhelming prizes
around. I’m a sucker for character
dress-up, but with so many sticker
shapes and sizes flooding the reward
pool, I can’t see myself ever shilling
out. Rising also commits the
unforgivable sin of duplicate loot.
Sure, you can sticker and colour up
different versions of the same polo
tee, but more often than not it’s going
to the recycling bin for a measly
handful of coins.
For me, these are tiny
inconveniences, not game-breakers.
Trials is still the same addictive
puzzle-box I remember from those
childishflashgamingdays.NeedtoKNow
Whatisit?
Bigjumps,wildstunts
andhorrificcrashes.
Onbikes
EXPECttOPaY
£21
DEvElOPEr
UbisoftRedLynx
PublishEr
Ubisoft
rEviEWEDOn
AMD FX4130, GTX 1060,
8GBRAM,Windows 10
MultiPlaYEr
Eight player online, four
playerlocal
link
http://www.ubisoft.com/
en-gb/game/
trials-rising/85
Modern
inconveniences can’t
get in the way of what
has to be the tightest
Trials game yet.vErDiCtAnother has
you racing
through an
old Soviet
missile baseT
rials has come a long way. I still remember it as something
played between classes, after working out what flash game
portal the school hadn’t blacklisted from the network. It’s
been almost two decades since its first outing, but 20 years of
polish and experimentation haven’t hidden the core of what
made Trials so good. Trials Rising, RedLynx’s latest take, is a shining
example of why that is.TRIAL BY TYRE
trialsrisiNgpaysoffon 20 years
ofpush-bikepolish.By Natalie Clayton
if you build it...
Getting to grips with Trials Rising’s track editor
2
Carve a path
A track’s not a track
without, well, a track.
Place nodes to lay the
groundwork for some
sick stunts.3
briCKbybriCK
There are over 8,000
objects from both Rising
and past Trials games, so
let’s start building out our
masterpiece.4
perfeCtfiNish
Henry would be
proud. Let’s give it a test
run and pop it on the web,
and give others a chance
to try it out.1
set the stage
First, pick a location
and twiddle with the
lighting. We’re going for a
little bit of a Firewatch vibe
if you can’t tell.TrialsRising
rEviEW