Trials 2: Second Edition was one of the hit PC indie titles of 2008, and still ranks as one of my favourite games of the past few years. When its Xbox Live sequel, Trials HD launched one year later, the series exploded into life with masses of new fans. It should come as no surprise then to realise that the latest game from RedLynx, Trials Evolution is another masterpiece.

No more are you restricted to the warehouse setting which was made famous in the previous games, Evolution takes things outside to some extremely impressive locales. There is a D-Day landing level which surpasses Medal of Honour’s efforts along with levels set high in the sky and around industrial sites.

Not only do the new settings provide a glorious background to your trial bike adventures, the environments are what you will often be riding on, be it grassy knolls or rocky outcrops or even a highway. Every level you take to looks gorgeous and has been perfectly designed to offer a suitable degree of challenge.

Between groups of stages are licence tests which introduce a new element of riding that will feature in the next, more challenging, batch of levels. This might be something as simple as showing you how to bunny hop across a gap to using the physics of a level to open the next section of a stage, perhaps by pushing a plank down over a large gap or pressing a button to activate a lift.

Aside from the main point-to-point levels, there are a variety of special challenge tracks to test out, they range from driving as far as possible with a limited amount of fuel to trying to send your rider flying as far as possible after a jump. These provide a welcome breather from the main stages which can get extremely difficult at the higher levels.

If you have a creative mind, you can take to the track editor to make your own devious creations. The editors are the same as what developers RedLynx used, and while they may seem daunting at first, once you get used to them you can make you own masterpieces.

Of course, as an Arcade game there is a brilliant multiplayer mode, while the singleplayer tracks are brilliantly designed, getting the chance to race head-to-head with others is a brilliant experience. Of course, it wouldn’t be much fun to win the race and wait for what could be minutes on the longer stages for your opponents to finish, so other riders have a time limit once the winner crosses the finish line to get there themselves otherwise they are classed as not finishing the race.

Trials: Evolution is a perfect follow up to HD, and by taking the action to new areas the action just becomes so much more enjoyable. Costing only 1200 MS Points, this really is one of the games that you must buy from the Marketplace. RedLynx have made a truly great game.

Verdict – Headshot

Platforms Available/Reviewed – 360