Trials Fusion is the third game in the incredible Trials series, developed by RedLynx and published by Ubisoft. The most recent game in the franchise was Trials Evolution; a game with amazing level design, endless user-generated content and aesthetically pleasing. Trials Fusion makes a few changes to this formula, but does it fantastically.
Trials Fusion puts you in the role of a “trials” rider (similar to the other games in the franchise) and has you trying to complete a track with huge obstacles; some that are incredibly hard to surpass. One minute you’ll be thinking “Just one more go” and next thing you know you’ve used up all your 500 faults and have to restart the level.
With Trials Fusion, the Trials series makes it’s debut on next generation consoles – and it has never felt better. The controls are sharp as ever, and the graphics are definitely improved from the previous games – even on the Xbox 360 & PS3. Trials Fusion still features it’s renowned “Track Central” mode, where users can create their own tracks and show them off to the world. The level creator is detailed, and a user by the name of PneumaticBog484 even created a Minecraft remake in the style of Trials, called “TrialsCraft.”
Fusion’s biggest difference to the other games in the franchise is that it takes place in a futuristic setting – however the designers haven’t completely gotten rid of all the old concepts; there is still the occasional track where you’ll have to navigate a ruin, a forest, or a desert bringing a sense of the old games into Trials Fusion.
The Career mode in Trials Fusion has been refined, and requires more skill than the previous games in the franchise from my experience in the game; however in time you will become used to the game’s new mechanics, and slowly begin to master Fusion’s difficult levels – the “Extreme” tracks or even the secret “Ninja” tracks.
Trials Fusion introduces a small story; however it isn’t as detailed in it’s approach as the mobile game, “Trials Frontier.” The story is told through a pair of narrators, with a female AI who reminded me somewhat of GLaDOS from the Portal series, and her male counterpart. They can be entertaining, however if you fail a part and have to go back – you have to hear their line again. This got slowly more annoying – which made me turn off the voices from the game’s pause menu.
Fusion introduces a “trick system” where you can push the right analog stick in a certain direction to perform a specific trick; although apart from the achievements/”FMX” tracks that required me to do it, I didn’t find myself using them too often. Fortunately, on most tracks it is optional to perform these tricks.
The game features a local multiplayer and is “soon” to feature an online multiplayer. The local multiplayer has you and up to a maximum of 3 others put into a track with 4 adjacent lanes; awarding points to each player for staying in first place and punishing players if they fault. The “soon” to be coming online multiplayer will be released in a free update, and experience gained will feed into your overall character level, which you can also gain from the Career mode and Track Central.
Trials Fusion is a great and glorious return to the Trials franchise, which will provide endless hours of fun, no matter what mode you play. However, the game’s story and narration techniques aren’t great – the repeating of lines after a checkpoint can quickly get irritating. Overall, I have absolutely loved my return to the Trials series, and because of this, I am giving the game a 9/10.
9/10
