Tilting With Love

TRIALS FUSION (PC, XBOX 360, XBOX ONE, PlayStation 4 – Originally Released April 15, 2014)

The greatest part about a game is how much fun you’re having. The joy of beating a level, the upgrades you acquire throughout the game, and the jubilation of finally defeating the final level are what gamers live for. This is a strive that we in the gaming community love to show off when finally completed. It is something we can create memories from for years to come. Now take all that happiness and burn it to the ground because Trials Fusion will cause more destruction than ever before.

Trials Fusion is the fourth installment in the Trials series. Made by RedLynx and developed by Ubisoft, Trials Fusion puts the happiness you love with the struggles you hate. If you haven’t played the other Trials games (Trials HD, Trials 2, and Trials Evolution) then this can be a good starting point for you. It is a platform racing game where you control a “driver” (more like a test subject) through various courses and try to complete the levels by getting a fast time and a low count of faults (mistakes you WILL make throughout the level). The best times + faults gets you a score, and that determines if you get a medal. Medal counts are important because you need a certain amount of medals to move on to the next stage.

Each stage comes with 4-5 courses and 2 skill challenges. Each level will “increase” in difficulty as you move on in the game. I put increase in quotations because that isn’t always the case. A course says Medium difficulty and could actually be very easy. However, a course could also say Medium and could rip your vocal cords out for the amount of rage you exerted. The way a difficulty is defined is not consistent and I hope that an update would help fix this issue. Each level comes with 3 different challenges to accomplish. This is all for achievements and do not help or hurt you. If you are interested in learning about how to get all the challenges, there are many tutorials on YouTube that you can go check out (shout out to Rooster Teeth’s Jack Pattillo as they did a fantastic job showing how to accomplish each challenge). The 2 skill challenges include one skill game that plays a mini game like going as far as you can but your bike will explode if you do not go as fast as possible and do a ton of tricks. The other skill challenge will have you doing tricks and acrobatics off ramps to obtain the high score. The new trick feature (using the right analog stick for the console versions) requires a TON of practice for the veterans of Trials. It does get some getting used to, however, it can be very rewarding after practice.

Trials Fusion has also a level creator that feels a bit awkward on the console versions. Positioning objects and checkpoints takes getting used to, but once you get going with the creator, the possibilities become immense. The PC version is a lot easier to control due to the mouse and keyboard but I still feel very new at creating levels. I think a tutorial would have been a bit helpful for those who have not created levels before, but this is just a personal opinion.

Customization in the character and bike shops are scarce. I can change the color of the bikes and the costumes, but I cannot add decals or letters to the items. I also would have enjoyed creating my character from scratch, or even changed my gender. All these are just suggestions, but in no way am I upset they are not in the game. The way to earn parts to purchase in the bike shop is legit and fair and the costumes are also earned through going through the game. This is a great way to have people continue to play the game even after they have completed the main campaign. I would hope all of you would try to get through and earn those upgrades.

Trials Fusion has been both a joy and a pain to play. The levels are sometimes fair, but sometimes are not properly classed and the level creator is awkward at times. However, I just can’t seem to put down the game! It might be the challenges and the thrill of beating each course. Maybe it is the hope of getting gold in all the levels so I can get the upgrades in the shops. It might be the joy of completing all the challenges and getting the achievements (or trophies for all the PS4 lovers out there) for the game. No matter the cause, I was determined to be victorious and only my own rage could stop me. This game is called Trials for a reason…to put your patience and stubbornness on Trial! It is a fun game and I highly recommend everyone not only checkout the game, but also checkout the entire Trials series.