Trials Evolution: Gold Edition still offers the same old Trials fun but the shut-down online modes, missing DLC and atrocious Ubisoft Connect launcher unfortunately diminish the overall experience After [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/16600/Trials_2_Second_Edition/]Trials 2: Second Edition released on Steam back in 2008, Trials Evolution: Gold Edition was the second main game from developer RedLynx’ signature franchise (discounting the various Java/Flash games) to be released on PC. Thankfully, this Gold Edition would also contain all tracks from the previously Xbox 360-exclusive Trials HD , giving PC players a chance to tackle them as well. However, even despite this, the name Gold Edition doesn’t really fit the game – since Trials Evolution: Gold Edition is missing all (!) DLC from both included games, Trials HD and Trials Evolution . Putting this into numbers, Trials HD received two DLC packs: The [url=https://trials.fandom.com/wiki/Trials_HD_Big_Pack]Big Pack featuring 35 new tracks and [url=https://trials.fandom.com/wiki/Trials_HD_Big_Thrills]Big Thrills adding 40 all new tracks. This makes 75 tracks missing from Trials HD . Trials Evolution on the other hand got the [url=https://trials.fandom.com/wiki/Trials_Evolution:_Origin_of_Pain]Origin of Pain DLC, which included 36 new tracks, a BMX bike and 10 new multiplayer tracks (“Supercross”). The game also received a second DLC, called [url=https://trials.fandom.com/wiki/Trials_Evolution:_Riders_of_Doom]Riders of Doom , which added 40 new tracks, 10 new “Skill Games” and another new bike (“Banshee”). Counting all of this together, Trials Evolution: Gold Edition is missing 151 (!) tracks, 10 “Skill Games”, 10 multiplayer tracks and two bikes that have been added to the two included games through DLC on Xbox 360. Considering the large amount of content that’s missing from Trials Evolution: Gold Edition , the title almost feels misleading, since a “Gold” edition of a videogame usually tends to include all the content ever released for the game when in this case, you’re only getting the two base games of Trials HD and Trials Evolution instead. However, this goes from “almost misleading” to “downright misleading” if we also take the current [url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513175934/https://store.steampowered.com/app/220160/Trials_Evolution_Gold_Edition/]Steam store page of the game into account, which says the following: “Trials Evolution: Gold Edition will contain all the content of the original, best-selling XBLA game Trials Evolution. In addition, all of the single player tracks and skill games from Trials HD will be found in Trials Evolution […]”. As a reader, I would definitely assume that “all the content of the original” and “all the single player tracks” includes the aforementioned DLC packs as well – but as we now know, that isn’t the case for this PC version. While we’re already on the topic of missing content, as the Steam store page mentions as well, all online features of Trials Evolution: Gold Edition have been shut down by publisher Ubisoft as of January 2024. In practice, that means there’s no online multiplayer now, you can’t download player-created tracks anymore and the leaderboards don’t work. Losing access to player-created tracks is probably the biggest loss here, since apart from not getting to play the DLC tracks, you’re now not even able to download custom ones to get more out of the game by yourself. Thankfully, fellow Steam users assembled [url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/220160/discussions/0/1680315447969304289/]an archive of nearly 700 player-created tracks , which can be manually added to the game at least. Lastly, even while the online features of the game might’ve shut down, Ubisoft still went ahead and replaced the forced uPlay launcher of the game with Ubisoft Connect – which requires you to enter your Ubisoft Connect password every time (!) you start up the game. Especially those who usually play games in Big Picture Mode or on a SteamDeck are going to get tired of this very quickly. Thankfully, considering the few tracks that Trials Evolution: Gold Edition has left, one can easily unlock all tracks and thus “beat the game” in just a few hours, which probably won’t require many start-ups. After all these criticisms, it’s time to explain why I would still recommend Trials Evolution: Gold Edition after all – even if that’s only the case when the game is on sale by at least 75%. Despite being more than a decade old by now, the game itself is still a lot of fun, providing the same old “easy to learn, hard to master” 2.5D racing-platformer gameplay the franchise is known for. One button for accelerating your bike, one for braking and using the joysticks to lean forward or backward is also one needs to get your bike and driver through a variety of 2.5D stages – but even if the controls might be simple to grasp, the later stages require the player to master them and the various bikes if they want to beat a level. Beating a level under a certain time and without too many mistakes grants you more medals, which in turn are used to unlock further stages, which are slowly rising in difficulty – that’s the core Trials gameplay loop in a nutshell. Despite being more than a decade old by now, Trials Evolution: Gold Edition controls just as well as the later entries in the series do, showing its age only when it comes to the graphics – which are serviceable but hardly an eye-catcher anymore, suffering from low-detail textures and a boring mix of mostly brown and grey tracks. Especially if you’re checking out this game after playing the coming from the ([url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/dreamylotus/recommended/245490?snr=1_5_9__402]very fun! ) Trials Fusion or the ([url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/dreamylotus/recommended/641080?snr=1_5_9__402]still fun but suffering from microtransactions ) Trials Rising , you might be surprised to see just how similar most of the stages look in Trials Evolution: Gold Edition . Thankfully, if we’re strictly talking about the gameplay, the stages are once again a lot of fun and quite varied, featuring everything from loopings and ramps to tight spaces and tall obstacles. Some stages are all about handling your speed for difficult jumps while others are all about mobility to get across stage hazards. Also, quite differently from its sequels, you’re not required to learn and perform any special moves (apart from the occasional bunnyhop) to beat most of the levels – only the handful of “extreme difficulty” stages won’t be beatable otherwise. That means that even more casual Trials fans (like me!) should be able to “beat the game” by unlocking all stages without too much trouble: Earning gold medals in low difficulty stages and a few minigames should be enough to unlock everything, so don’t worry about mastering the harder stages. In the end, I can’t stress this enough: Despite the many problems that Trials Evolution: Gold Edition has, the core gameplay is still a lot of fun, even more than a decade later. Obtaining gold medals by optimizing the flow of a stage or conquering that one obstacle is simply something you won’t find elsewhere and the different minigames that are included provide some variety if you’re looking for something else between the tracks. Considering the amount of content that isn’t included here on top of the shut-down online features I can’t recommend buying the game unless it’s at least 75% off but at that point, it makes for a fun evening or two. And if you want more content, there’s always the sequels!
Read more