Trials of the Blood Dragon

We love the Trials series. It has been a favourite of ours for many years, and the games have only become better with each release. It's a leading example of gameplay that's easy to learn, but incredibly difficult to master. We've spent hours upon hours brushing up on our technique to set slightly better records on the toughest extreme tracks. We've enjoyed countless masterpieces made by other players in the level editor and shared online. Trials has been one of those series where we blindly bought each new instalment, safe in the knowledge that a premium experience was in store for us. Well, so much for that trend.

As it turns out, you see, Trials of the Blood Dragon doesn't reach anywhere near as high on the scales of quality when compared to the previous games. Quite frankly, we're a bit shocked.

As long as you're allowed to stay on the bike, everything is fine. You get a game with refined, precise controls. You get a modern gameplay experience with finesse, and even though the levels never outdo the best ones from Trials Fusion or Evolution, many of them are quite entertaining.

The problems start, however, when you are forced to leave the bike behind, which is something that happens fairly often throughout the 28 included levels. That's right, for a slightly lower price than Trials Fusion you get under 30 levels to complete. By comparison Trials Fusion has 58 tracks in the base game, not counting the tens of thousands of user created tracks and the various DLC packs.

It's a very poor serving, but one we could have handled if those 28 levels were of premium quality. Sadly, they most certainly are not, making the package on offer here just short of being an embarrassment.

The levels outside of the bike are shaped like a traditional platforming game. You move around in two dimensions, do a fair bit of shooting, and a whole lot of jumping. In itself that's alright, but the execution has nothing to do with the games industry circa 2016. Quite frankly, placing this in the same category as Mario and Rayman is an insult to the both of them. The platforming levels look and feel like something a fan could have whipped together in the Trials Fusion editor, and we're not talking about the guys who use it to make amazing levels you didn't think possible, we're talking about the people who use it to share halfway done levels completely lacking in finesse. One level in particular had us close to tossing our controller out the window. The task was to transport a bomb through the level, first in a cart behind the bike, and then by jetpack. It's sound great, but not when the controls, mechanics and physics are constantly working against you.

The end result is that you suffer through the platforming levels, in hope that the next one is a bike track. What little there is in terms of challenge comes from the less than precise controls and odd design, and not from a genuine sense of difficulty. It's just not good enough. It's as simple as that.

The only positive aspect of the platforming element is the fact that you sometimes get to keep your gun when finally hopping back on the bike. Shooting enemies while riding gives the game a new dimension, and on some track you have to use a handy grapple to progress across huge gaps and chasms. If only Red Lynx had stuck to this kind of new feature, the game could have turned out way better. At least if they had bothered to make more tracks or lowered the price.

Unlike past Trials games, Trials of the Blood Dragon follows a story. The plot is nothing special, but it works. You alternate between controlling two kids who somehow already have become "cyber commando" soldiers, who are fighting to defend the United State's glory and honour in Vietnam War 4. The game is loaded with humour and references to the 80s, even though it's set in a fictitious and exaggerated future. Not all of the jokes hit home, but we did smile from time to time, particularly when the developers are making fun of American patriotism.

So to sum up, Trials of the Blood Dragon gives you a handful of decent Trials tracks, and some amusing jokes, but the rest of the game is a mess. It's really cool that Red Lynx wanted to try some different ideas, but it's not good enough to slap something simple together like this. The contrast between the proper Trials tracks and the platforming parts here is outright laughable, and it's about time the developers start taking themselves, their series, and above all the fans seriously again. With the Awesome Level Max expansion for Trials Fusion (trailer below) they started a trend where silliness became more important than good gameplay, and the spiral continues downwards with Trials of the Blood Dragon. Pull yourselves out of the quick sand, Red Lynx, before it's too late. The Trials series deserves so much better than this.