Yet another port of a console game, Trials works pretty well on the PC. It’s a bit awkward at first to use a random key as the thrust button and then use the arrow keys to tilt the bike, but after a while I got as good with it than I did with the console version.It still has the same issues, but it’s still a blast if you like that almost puzzle-ish arcade feel.
Trials is a motorcycle race game where you need to beat the times on each track without ‘faulting’ as little as possible (basically crashing your rider due to weird tilting). It’s amazing on the first few pack of levels where the levels are quite short and easy, but the game gets progressively harder - until it gets quite insane. The trial-and-error nature of the game breaks down as the levels get longer and harder. You can’t realistically retry until you get it ‘right’ when the levels get super difficult and even 20 minutes long. They should make the requirements easier or make them shorter as to allow trial-and-error.
To unlock new bikes and new race packs, you need to collect medals from the races you can already run, it also means that you’ll need to collect silver and gold medals from some of them if you want to proceed further. After a while I’ve just stopped caring and resigned myself that I wouldn’t get any further than that. I’m not good at doing jumps and bunny-hopping and I’ve did the best I could on the tracks I have already.
I really enjoyed the first half of what I’ve played of Trials Evolution, the satisfaction of completing stages masterfully went out the window rapidly as the hair-pulling began. Some quirks here and there were annoying me too, like the fact that some levels don’t allow you to restart immediately if you fail them and you need to wade through menus to go back.