Trials Fusion Review
Trials Fusion is a great entry into the long running series, and while I doubt it will be the Geometry Wars of this generation, this Trials is a great addition to the relatively small library of games available for the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Ubisoft studio RedLynx has been refining the Trials package since the year 2000 but the game finally hit mainstream with Trials HD in 2009 and released another wildly popular entry in the series with Trials Evolution in 2012. This iteration is packed with tracks that range from a fun stroll up and down treacherous paths to the crushingly difficult mind bending tracks Trials is famous for.
The rider is a human/robot biomass being coached by two artificial intelligence systems throughout the game. It appears that every time you retry at a checkpoint or start a course over the rider dies and is replaced by a new biomass. The story telling in the game would have you believe that whatever corporation (or AI, who knows) is behind running and creating the Trials coursing is running short on supply of the human/robot biomass. If there will be any real payout or conclusion to the tale RedLynx is telling I have no idea, as I have yet to finish all the challenges available, but I doubt it. As veteran Trials players should expect there are no cutscenes or anything of that nature in the game, the story is only told in very small bits by the AI coaches while you are riding. The tale that RedLynx tells with Trials Fusion is a very minimal part of the game but what is there usually gets a laugh out of me.
RedLynx continues to deliver a game that is packed with fine tuned mechanics. The rules throughout Trials are consistent and while they continue to up the difficulty throughout the story progression the game is never unfair. That said the game does demand that you continue to improve your skill overtime. The bunny hop mechanic is more important than ever and failure to master that will result in the back third of the game being hair-pullingly difficult at best and literally unbeatable at worst. Paired with the single player campaign and whatever the community will eventually produce Trials Fusion also has a full featured local multiplayer mode. The game currently has no online multiplayer but there is a section that was previously titled “Tournament Mode” but has been renamed to “Pyrosequencing” that is locked out with the message that it is coming soon. If I had to fathom a guess I would say that will be an online multiplayer mode.
Performance and graphics are very finely tuned with the game looking very crisp on Playstation 4 with a native resolution of 1080p and while it doesn’t run at a constant 60 frames per second it feels incredibly smooth. Ubisoft has stated the day one patch will improve the frame rate on PS4 which already feels fine and will raise the games resolution on Xbox One to 900p. Paired with the sharp yet smooth visuals of Trials Fusion the sound is great as well. Not only is the engine roar paired with the gameplay perfectly but the music and voice acting of the game made me crack more than a few smiles.
While differences do certainly exist between platforms the game plays smooth on every platform. Ubisoft states the game runs at 1080p/60fps (not locked) on PS4, 900p/60fps (locked) on Xbox One and 600p/60fps on Xbox 360. The game is packed full of different locations and distinctly different styles which all look very crisp on PS4. The game also features connectivity to Trials Frontier, Ubisoft’s mobile Trials game. If you can gold specific tracks on Frontier and Fusion you will unlock some cosmetic items for your rider.
