Platform: iOS (Android later)
Release: April 10th (Already out in Canada and Finland)
Developer: RedLynx
Publisher: Ubisoft
Price: Free*
- RedLynx.comRedLynx.com said:
Screenshots:
Launch Trailer
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Trials Frontier |OT| It's portable Trials
- Thread starter whitehawk
- Start date
Platform: iOS (Android later)
Release: April 10th (Already out in Canada and Finland)
Developer: RedLynx
Publisher: Ubisoft
Price: Free*
Screenshots:
Launch Trailer
I've been playing the Canadian soft release version for a while. While the F2P game design is really annoying, the core game play is fun enough that I thought it deserved an OT. It's worth a try at least since it's free. It's possible to play the game without buying anything, but you'll have to take lots of breaks.
Although I seem to be stuck right now. The only mission available is to connect to uPlay. I really hope that isn't mandatory to move on...
Although I seem to be stuck right now. The only mission available is to connect to uPlay. I really hope that isn't mandatory to move on...
Yup. I have an iPad mini 1st gen and it runs at a solid 60fps.
I would love a Vita version, would be a much better fit indeed. Won't happen though unfortunately. The business model that they are using to make money off this game wouldn't work on the Vita.
I don't see how that would work. They are likely hoping that there are some people who will spend $100+ on the game to balance the people who spend nothing. They do indeed sell a gem package for $99. Selling the full game for $10 or $20 means everyone would just buy that instead of the $99 package.
I think you just answered your own question on why the game is getting no love on here.
Yeah... I'm conflicted myself because I'm a huge trials junkie. While I Ioathe the business decisions affecting the game design, the core gameplay is still very good...
Neuromancer
Member
I'll give it a shot but I'm a lot more excited about Trials Fusion. Hopefully at the very least this unlocks some gear in that game, or something.
energy
It's completely playable without playing, so long as you play the game in small chunks.
To play a level, it costs gas. So far for me, 5 or 7 gas tanks. You can store up to 30 tanks in the beginning, I can now store up to 35. (From leveling up). Once you run out, you have to wait for your gas to recharge. (You get 1 tank every 3 minutes, so you have to wait about 15 minutes to play a level again).
Also when you upgrade your bike parts, it can take a long time. 1st upgrade is 3 seconds. 2nd is 30 seconds. 3rd is 3 minutes. Then 3 hours, then a day, etc. Can be very annoying. This of course can be sped up/skipped with gems.
To complete many of the challenges, you need to spin a wheel after you beat a level and get the right item on the wheel. If you don't get it (because it's all luck), then you need to spend more gas on the level, play it again and then spin again. To speed this up, they try to sell you gems. Gems will give you another spin without having to replay the level, as well as increase the odds of getting the item you want.
Basically, you don't need to spend any money. However to do so you have to deal with gameplay in very small chunks and some frustrating game design. However if you can deal with that, the core Trials gameplay is very solid and true to the series. (albeit quite a bit easier due to the touch screen controls, although I haven't gotten to the end of the game.)
Neuromancer
Member
Oh man. That's like the worst kind of IAP. =(
It'll get ignored by a lot of people because of the F2P mechanics being way too in your face. But thats a shame because its a great portable trials game, and probably the best trials-like on iPad. I'm hitting levels now with those awkward vertical walls to scale which I was never much good at on 360.
I'm pretty far in now, not needed to connect to Uplay, but it does need to connect to the Internet to pull down ghosts to compete against (required for some levels). I do like how the missions replay earlier tracks, adding ghosts to ride against, or making you get a particular medal. Adds a bit of variety. It also starts out fairly normally with the Wild West/frontier theme, but then goes a bit odd..
I did buy a 9.99 pack of gems just to make the game get out of my face. Makes the spinning wheel much less annoying, and several levels require you to get a specific item from a level. You end up repspinning a lot, and the only alternative is re-playing the level, but that uses gas which is very scarce. I bought a $15 Canadian iTunes card online, thinking I'd get the 9.99 gems pack and the 4.99 coins pack, and then discovered that the price you see is excluding sales tax :/
Also, just looking at my situation in the game, I can't see how you could possibly upgrade your bikes fully. My current favoured bike is now taking over 8 hours per upgrade, and they are getting really expensive, with no corresponding increase in winnings. And it is less than half upgraded per stat.
I'm pretty far in now, not needed to connect to Uplay, but it does need to connect to the Internet to pull down ghosts to compete against (required for some levels). I do like how the missions replay earlier tracks, adding ghosts to ride against, or making you get a particular medal. Adds a bit of variety. It also starts out fairly normally with the Wild West/frontier theme, but then goes a bit odd..
I did buy a 9.99 pack of gems just to make the game get out of my face. Makes the spinning wheel much less annoying, and several levels require you to get a specific item from a level. You end up repspinning a lot, and the only alternative is re-playing the level, but that uses gas which is very scarce. I bought a $15 Canadian iTunes card online, thinking I'd get the 9.99 gems pack and the 4.99 coins pack, and then discovered that the price you see is excluding sales tax :/
Also, just looking at my situation in the game, I can't see how you could possibly upgrade your bikes fully. My current favoured bike is now taking over 8 hours per upgrade, and they are getting really expensive, with no corresponding increase in winnings. And it is less than half upgraded per stat.
petethepanda
Member
Energy meters and in-game currency that takes far too long to build up? That's a damn shame. I would have gladly paid $10 for a simple "unlock" for the entire game.
If they were smart, yes. If they are playing and in the moment just need a quick fix, they'd go the cheaper route. And then again, and again, and again.
The IAP model seems to fly in the face of how the older Trials games work. When you're going for those gold/platinum medals, you're restarting a lot as a lot can go wrong while you're trying to get a clean run... but now you're actively discouraged from doing that, since you only have so many attempts banked at once. That and previous games never had you upgrade anything, you had a couple of bikes to unlock but from there the only thing to upgrade was your skill. Now you're never going to hit those top times without paying up. And if that wasn't bad enough, the roulette wheel just sounds gross. You clear the stage... only to have the game tell you to get fucked and to either pay them money or try again? Screw that.
Neuromancer
Member
Yep me too.
Does anyone know if there a 'coin doubler' type thing that makes progression better? Because on the one hand I want to support Red Lynx somehow, but on the other hand I'm not going to pay for anything that's just going to run out.
yes there's a boost that costs 5 gems which will speed up how many coins you get for each track.
dazzlerazzle
Banned
I see only one option Rooted device and modded credits ....
Neuromancer
Member
OK maybe I'll do that.
I don't think pirating the game is justified even if the F2P scheme is messed up.
Apparently Canada and Finland has had it since December. I didn't find out until last week. =/
You can retry a race as many times as you like without needing more gas, as long as you stay in that race (I.e. dont go back to the level map). Even after the race has finished - providing you don't progress for the results screen.
There are two 'boosts' I've seen so far - a magnet that gives you a coin boost for an hour, so you get more coins of each checkpoint. And an 'infinite fuel' boost that lets you race as often as you like for I think 3 hours (not entirely sure). They give you one for free early in the game, to see how handy they are. But to buy one costs 120 gems (basically you'd have to buy them, you'll never have that many naturally through play)
Wonder if there is a chance they'll tune the F2P part for the wider release?
Neuromancer
Member
Is there anything you can buy that isn't time limited?
I wonder why this isn't out on the US store yet.
Forget Trials if you dislike IAP... Bike Baron has been out for a long time and doesn't have any of that bullshit. It's pretty good too. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bike-baron/id433847884?mt=8
Honestly, yes. Bike Baron is actually pretty great, cheap and IAP-free. But Frontiers is okay too.
Cute art, pretty similar to their motoheroz
It's a shame that in the wake of Trials HD doing gangbusters Redlynx tried a lot of different things (MotoHeroz, 1000 Heroz, Nutty Fluffies, Draw Race) and now of them really stuck. Kind of feel like if MotoHeroz had a bike in it and called it Trials people would have been more receptive to it, which is what they're doing now.
I tried that game. It's not nearly as good. The physics system isn't comparable in the slightest. Even with IAP trials frontier is better.
Neuromancer
Member
Spent some time with the game, here are my impressions.
The good:
The touch screen controls are surprisingly responsive. Graphics are excellent and it really feels like Trials which is the highest complement I can give it.
The bad:
Not a fan of the story or characters.
The ugly:
Microtransactions everywhere. You can buy fuel (energy in other f2p games), because when you run out you can't play at all (I haven't run out yet, but I'm sure I will shortly) unless you give the game a rest for a while.You can buy the coins that you ordinarily earn by completing courses, to upgrade your ride. And some upgrades take a really long time, like half an hour, so you can spend money on gems to speed that up. So that's at least 3 different points where they can try to hit you up for cash, which is about 2 more than I would like, but at least they're not too in your face about it.
The good:
The touch screen controls are surprisingly responsive. Graphics are excellent and it really feels like Trials which is the highest complement I can give it.
The bad:
Not a fan of the story or characters.
The ugly:
Microtransactions everywhere. You can buy fuel (energy in other f2p games), because when you run out you can't play at all (I haven't run out yet, but I'm sure I will shortly) unless you give the game a rest for a while.You can buy the coins that you ordinarily earn by completing courses, to upgrade your ride. And some upgrades take a really long time, like half an hour, so you can spend money on gems to speed that up. So that's at least 3 different points where they can try to hit you up for cash, which is about 2 more than I would like, but at least they're not too in your face about it.
Neuromancer
Member
Yikes
Ben Morales
Member
One really good thing about this game that I haven't seen anyone mention is that you can play it offline. That is a huge perk for a freemium game like this.
Wait, some mobile games are online only?
Ben Morales
Member
Neuromancer
Member
I've hit what I can only describe as an insane difficulty hike. Has anyone beaten the race on Cannon Ridge to get the jackal blueprint? I haven't had any trouble with the game until now but I've tried this race probably 20 times and can't beat this guy.
Dash Kappei
Not actually that important
This is great to hear
There's even premium paid games like Rhythm Thief that are online-only! -_-
Yeah, I've got the gold medal on that. I've gotten up to Planks and Mozzies so far near the mountains at the left.
You think that's ugly?
I've upgraded one of the bikes about halfway, and now each upgrade is taking 48hrs.. And I'm level 25, so each level is far enough apart that I run out of fuel every 6-7 races (depending on whether they are 5 or 7 fuel to enter)
Then don't forget some missions that require specific parts (or candy), so the random roulette wheel at the end of a race can cost you a lot of gems if you get unlucky spins
Edit: just unlocked platinum medals. Think I'm hitting my limits now, at least with the bikes I have. But there are still at least two more bikes to build so they might help.
Dash Kappei
Not actually that important
Last I checked out of more than 100 gaffers I was #1 or #2 on Bike Baron's leaderboards, spent a lot of time with it since this is one of my favorite genre, but even that game didn't completely fill the void of a proper Trials game, something was missing so you can imagine how excited I was to finally see Frontier announced together with Fusion; after the first impression of "goddamn, awesome gfx!" tho, I have to admit that as much as I love RedLynx (you guys should also try Draw Race 2, such a neat little-great game!) I'm not feeling it. So far (I'm level 9 and just beat Butch for the first time) I have to say the besides the fantastic graphics and performance of the game and clearly high production values, Bike Baron makes a better Trials than Trials Frontier and that's without taking into consideration the awful f2p gouging mechanics.
This seems more Trials-Lite than a full blown game in the series, also so far every track has been what feels like a tiny section of a proper Trials HD/Evo/Fusion track, even tho they're so short they still manage to feel "empty. Even the physics seems more like Motoheroz (which is good, but a different game) than Trials' proper.I mean it's not bad, the whole audiovisual package makes it more appealing than it should be imo, but Bike Baron's superior in every way as far as gameplay and tracks design go... *so far*.
Will keep playing.
This seems more Trials-Lite than a full blown game in the series, also so far every track has been what feels like a tiny section of a proper Trials HD/Evo/Fusion track, even tho they're so short they still manage to feel "empty. Even the physics seems more like Motoheroz (which is good, but a different game) than Trials' proper.I mean it's not bad, the whole audiovisual package makes it more appealing than it should be imo, but Bike Baron's superior in every way as far as gameplay and tracks design go... *so far*.
Will keep playing.
This game feels so sad to play. I mean, it looks fantastic, runs smoothly and it clearly has great production values (one of the best I've seen on mobile to date), but the actual game is quite shallow (at least so far, kinda like a sort of "baby trials"), and the F2P stuff is more than annoying.