Trials Evolution: Origin of Pain DLC

The launch of the first Trials Evolutions DLC has us sparing a thought for our poor old Xbox 360 controller. As aficionados of RedLynx’s platforming racer already know, Trials requires you to precisely control your trial motorbike, Kickstart-style, across all manner of fiendish terrain by maintaining your throttle/brake triggers and balance (right stick), in perfect harmony at all times.

It’s our controller’s ‘back’ button we’re worried about though. It resets your bike to the start of the track - a necessary evil in pursuit of those elusive gold medals, which require a flawless run. You’ll be mercilessly hammering that button at even the slightest hint of your rider falling from his bike, which he will again and again. We also find throwing your controller at the wall is a worthy alternative.

Yes, Trials Evolution is back in all its infuriating glory, and peripheral abuse aside, the Origins of Pain DLC offers a decent suite of content for the measly cost of entry. Arguably, Trials Evolution’s Track Central hub of user-generated levels renders level packs like this somewhat moot, but a couple of tracks into Origins of Pain’s 36 new levels veterans will recognise a certain level of punishment that could only have come from the masochistic minds at RedLynx.

Origins of Pain offers a few events, but they're not as track-heavy as the main game.

Highlights include new circus-themed content, a number of ‘rollercoaster’ tracks which essentially requires players to hang on for dear life and land ridiculous jumps, and new in-track objects such as steam pipes and fans which float and buffer you up to new levels, or magnetic track which sticks your rider to any surface.

With its own stats and comical animation, new BMX bike the ‘Gecko’, also adds a bit of variety, and even gets a few bespoke tracks - although isn’t compatible with all of the existing Trials Evolution content, bizarrely. There are a few misfires; the ‘Gateway’ track is a clunky advert for the new teleportation objects, while other sections seem unfairly dark, making it almost impossible to traverse the terrain without toppling from your bike – more than annoying when pursuing those all-important gold medals.

This may look like a bread-and-butter track, but they get harder. And weirder.

DLC pack or not, that compulsion to first complete, then perfect a track remains Trials Evolutions’ greatest trait, and Origins of Pain does nothing to take away from that, slotting in nicely as a simple extension of an already high-value package. On top of the key stuff above (did we mention more gold medals?), you’ll also find ten new Supercross tracks to extend the fun-but-throwaway multiplayer-racing mode, while creators are treated to a new playground in which to construct new levels from their twisted imaginations - Paine Island.

They can also populate their new creations with over 100 new objects, themed around the circus, coastal-type buildings and more. Then there’s the grappling hook, which promises to inspire even more innovative/ridiculous (delete as appropriate) user-generated tracks in future – which is, perhaps, the most exciting thing about Origins of Pain. Best get saving for that new controller.

Version Tested: Xbox Live Arcade