Support NeoGAF

[Keyser Soze]

This game ain't to bad. I feel like I played for a full hour before any of the F2P stuff made me stop cause it got in the way. Probably could have eek a bit more out, but made bad decision with fuel. Also, already saved up a lot of gems - they dished them out for free very quick.

Leaving the game alone now to lets counters finish - which I would have at this point regardless if it wa F2P or not.

I will see how annoying the F2P stuff gets as I get deeper in - it has not turned me off yet.

Unless this game offers a coin doubler type item, I will not be paying anything. Coin Doublers always seem like a nice 'thank you' to the developer, and they affect the whole rest of the time you spend with them game. Much better than the other consumable crap.

 

[7DollarHagane]

I can't even imagine a mobile trials game being anything but a faint shadow of the fun of the console, analog stick version..

Not sure why these kind of ports happen except money reasons.

 

[Keyser Soze]

I can't even imagine a mobile trials game being anything but a faint shadow of the fun of the console, analog stick version..

Not sure why these kind of ports happen except money reasons.

It is definitely not a port. Seem built from the ground up with the platform in mind. Nothing feels tacked on about it - which is nice. The high challenge of Trials does not seems to be there (yet), and there is an upgrade system there too (which is not a usual trials thing), It is a different kind of Trials - even though it bears the name,

It is not instantly hateable - which, for me, is a good start for a F2P game.

 

[Neuromancer]

Unless this game offers a coin doubler type item, I will not be paying anything. Coin Doublers always seem like a nice 'thank you' to the developer, and they affect the whole rest of the time you spend with them game. Much better than the other consumable crap.

It doesn't. I ended up buying the starter pack just to give the devs some money ($3 for a ton of coins and gems and a bike skin), but that's the last thing I'll buy.

 

[Thrak360]

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.

There are limitations to offline play. I can only play offline right now. Mission wise, I'm stuck because the only mission available is to connect to Uplay. So I've just been grinding levels to get better medals and collect upgrade parts. And you have to be online to upgrade the bikes.

 

[whitehawk]

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.

keep playing, the tracks get better. Bike baron doesn't hold a candle to this game.

 

[VLiberty]

Feels like it'd be a better fit on Vita. Going to see if this can get side loaded to the Ouya when it's android release occurs. Definitely a good idea to release this before Fusion, though.

Absolutely.
Oh well, I'll try it for my iPod touch

 

[Neuromancer]

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.

Hmm well either I suck or I need to upgrade one of my bikes. =(

 

[Flunkie]

Anybody have an issue with your bike stopping accelerating even though you don't lift your finger off the gas button? It's happened to me multiple times now, pretty annoying...

 

[More_Badass]

As far as I'm concerned, Motoheroz is the real Trials on IOS. Trials Frontier's visuals are nice, the physics are solid, but the mission structure, the simple tracks, the timers, and energy system just made me lose interest pretty quickly

 

[Ben Morales]

There are limitations to offline play. I can only play offline right now. Mission wise, I'm stuck because the only mission available is to connect to Uplay. So I've just been grinding levels to get better medals and collect upgrade parts. And you have to be online to upgrade the bikes.

Yeah I figured some things would be locked away if you had to play offline. But at least you can still play and have some extra cash to spend on stuff when you get connected to wifi. Sucks about the Uplay thing. After I finished that mission, I got a Game Center achievement called "Jumping through hoops" and that's exactly what it felt like. Uplay is a freaking mess, there were so many errors and crazy steps just to get it working since I haven't used in so long.

 

[The mexicutioner]

Shame how they've gone about this game, physics and graphics are spot on but I can't justify the f2p scheme behind it, played for an hour before I ran out of fuel then I just "cough cough" bypassed the gems and coins shit, honestly I love trials but this game deserves to burn at the stake, I've now played for 2-3 hours and I'm still doing meaning less shit.

Ffs just let me buy the game for £10 and race the tracks against the online leader boards,

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

Would've been amazing as a $19.99 Vita game.

 

[More_Badass]

I've been playing this more, and while I still think the game is too easy at the moment, I must admit, it is extremely well balanced and fair in terms of freemium elements

- You earn coins, fuel, and gems at reasonable rate
- First time I ran out of fuel, it was 50 coins for a refill. You earn more than in a single race
- Most timers are few seconds or around 30. That's not too bad. The long ones, I just save gems and skip. You earn germs regularly so that's not an issue
- I've been playing for two hours straight, haven't run out of fuel yet. Why? Besides the fact that you earn fuel regularly, the game is balanced in that every time it looks like I'm about to run out, I rank up, which refuels and increases my total fuel.
- This might change later, but races always take 5 fuel, doesn't seem to increase in fuel cost. That's pretty fair IMO

So in these ways, Trials Frontier has a very fair and balanced freemium structure. It's not frustrating (yet) and in fact feels rewarding to rank up and refill your fuel.

 

[whitehawk]

I've been playing this more, and while I still think the game is too easy at the moment, I must admit, it is extremely well balanced and fair in terms of freemium elements

- You earn coins, fuel, and gems at reasonable rate
- First time I ran out of fuel, it was 50 coins for a refill. You earn more than in a single race
- Most timers are few seconds or around 30. That's not too bad. The long ones, I just save gems and skip. You earn germs regularly so that's not an issue
- I've been playing for two hours straight, haven't run out of fuel yet. Why? Besides the fact that you earn fuel regularly, the game is balanced in that every time it looks like I'm about to run out, I rank up, which refuels and increases my total fuel.
- This might change later, but races always take 5 fuel, doesn't seem to increase in fuel cost. That's pretty fair IMO

So in these ways, Trials Frontier has a very fair and balanced freemium structure. It's not frustrating (yet) and in fact feels rewarding to rank up and refill your fuel.

Keep playing, the tracks eventually cost 7 fuel, and could go up even more later, not sure.

 

[Ben Morales]

Keep playing, the tracks eventually cost 7 fuel, and could go up even more later, not sure.

That's true, but you do get a good amount of +1's to your max gas tank, so hopefully it evens out as they start asking for more fuel. As a matter of fact, I think I will save up for the Big Tank Upgrade which gives +25. It's 470 gems and I have over 50 from a couple days of playing. Seems reachable.

 

[whitehawk]

I've wasted most of my gems on re-spins. I just spend 10 trying to get a candy. Augghh.

 

[bodyboarder]

Plays alright. Though once I hit the F2P wall I'll just delete it.

 

[Neuromancer]

Does anyone know what you have to do to unlock stuff in Fusion?

I've been playing this more, and while I still think the game is too easy at the moment, I must admit, it is extremely well balanced and fair in terms of freemium elements

- You earn coins, fuel, and gems at reasonable rate
- First time I ran out of fuel, it was 50 coins for a refill. You earn more than in a single race
- Most timers are few seconds or around 30. That's not too bad. The long ones, I just save gems and skip. You earn germs regularly so that's not an issue
- I've been playing for two hours straight, haven't run out of fuel yet. Why? Besides the fact that you earn fuel regularly, the game is balanced in that every time it looks like I'm about to run out, I rank up, which refuels and increases my total fuel.
- This might change later, but races always take 5 fuel, doesn't seem to increase in fuel cost. That's pretty fair IMO

So in these ways, Trials Frontier has a very fair and balanced freemium structure. It's not frustrating (yet) and in fact feels rewarding to rank up and refill your fuel.

Where I'm at, I can play for about 15 minutes before I'm out of fuel and have to wait to play again.

 

[RM8]

I'm liking this quite a lot, actually. But it -is- nuts that 3DS and Vita don't have a Trials game, such a gameplay-focused series is a natural fit for handhelds.

BTW apparently you can bypass fuel by setting the time forward on your device.

 

[Neuromancer]

I'm liking this quite a lot, actually. But it -is- nuts that 3DS and Vita don't have a Trials game, such a gameplay-focused series is a natural fit for handhelds.

BTW apparently you can bypass fuel by setting the time forward on your device.

Online only patch incoming? How do other games get around that?

 

[enzo_gt]

Fuck the Trebuchet. Seriously. How the hell are you supposed to beat the player ghosts and the actual ghost on that?

 

[SmokyDave]

Finally got around to downloading this and it's cool as fuck! It feels like proper Trials, the freemium model is fair, and there's a ton of content from what I can see. It'll make a nice snack between Trials Fusion meals.

 

[Keyser Soze]

I think I am near the end of this, but finding this race impossible...

Any more upgrades mean days worth of grind ( I think), or else I will have to give Ubi some money. Maybe I will just stop.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Sorry for the double post, but I would like to add this is a pretty good F2P game overall though. Never feels like it is trying to screw money out of me. Sure, your time is limited with the game, but the timers are fair, and as long as you are not trying to rush your way through the game, everything seems tuned well enough not to annoy.

 

[Lima]

Keyser since you pretty much finished the game can you answer me one question?

All I'm really playing this for is to unlock the dashing hero costume in Fusion. I already unlocked two of the three tracks with the time machine but they seem pretty hard to gold with the Tango. I wanna know if it's even possible to gold them if I upgrade the tango more or if I need to unlock the third bike (bronco I believe).

Thanks

 

[BruiserBear]

Would've been amazing as a $19.99 Vita game.

Yup

 

[Keyser Soze]

Keyser since you pretty much finished the game can you answer me one question?

All I'm really playing this for is to unlock the dashing hero costume in Fusion. I already unlocked two of the three tracks with the time machine but they seem pretty hard to gold with the Tango. I wanna know if it's even possible to gold them if I upgrade the tango more or if I need to unlock the third bike (bronco I believe).

Thanks

I have never really tried them until right now, and initial impressions is that they seem pretty hard, Much harder than the rest of the tracks I tired. they seem even harder than (what I think) is the last boss.

The middle one is the easiest. Got a gold in two goes with the Bronco. i think the other two will cause me problems, so you might need a big time investment to get gold there.

 

[mrklaw]

Sorry for the double post, but I would like to add this is a pretty good F2P game overall though. Never feels like it is trying to screw money out of me. Sure, your time is limited with the game, but the timers are fair, and as long as you are not trying to rush your way through the game, everything seems tuned well enough not to annoy.

You're kidding right? When you get to the tracks that cost 7 gas to race, that is 5-6 races before you are empty and need to wait. And the structure of the game forces you to replay tracks over and over, so new tracks don't come along that quickly, which means you're burning your gas on old tracks.

Not to mention missions that require specific parts for upgrades to the detectors or bikes, forcing you to play spin the wheel. If you're unlucky that means gems to re-spin, or gas to re-race.

It very quickly puts walls up that makes your active time very short

 

[mrklaw]

I think I am near the end of this, but finding this race impossible...

Any more upgrades mean days worth of grind ( I think), or else I will have to give Ubi some money. Maybe I will just stop.

It goes on way past there btw. Catching butch just starts yet another 'unlock parts to a bike' challenge. Got fatigued with it so pausing for a while and will switch to fusion

 

[Nori Chan]

So honestly, I just want to unlock the costume in trials fusion and be done with the game. How far do I have to get in this game to do that? I think I beat Butch for the first time and am looking for the blueprints for the 3rd bike.

 

[Yaboosh]

The wheel of fortune at the end of each track ruins this entire game. What a miserable slog this game becomes so quickly.

 

[mrklaw]

So honestly, I just want to unlock the costume in trials fusion and be done with the game. How far do I have to get in this game to do that? I think I beat Butch for the first time and am looking for the blueprints for the 3rd bike.

I don't think it's much further, but can't be specific.

 

[NeoRausch]

any date on the android version? or just 'later'?

 

[Keyser Soze]

You're kidding right? When you get to the tracks that cost 7 gas to race, that is 5-6 races before you are empty and need to wait. And the structure of the game forces you to replay tracks over and over, so new tracks don't come along that quickly, which means you're burning your gas on old tracks.

Not to mention missions that require specific parts for upgrades to the detectors or bikes, forcing you to play spin the wheel. If you're unlucky that means gems to re-spin, or gas to re-race.

It very quickly puts walls up that makes your active time very short

Up until today, and up until the point where I posted that screenshot, I never felt the game was too bad. It never fell into the usual F2P grind I hate. However, it now feels like it has gone headfirst into that trap. No way I can beat Butch in that race, and I am about DAYS WORTH of coins away from upgrading my bike.

IMO it was a great F2P - well up until this point anyway.

 

[petethepanda]

Level 10, the game is just now getting to the point where I'm frequently running out of fuel. Incredibly frustrating. I would spend $5-10 to do a "unlock all" but I'm not spending a dime on this F2P leeching bullshit.

 

[Neuromancer]

Yeah I'm about at the end of my tether too. Good thing Fusion just came out, it's quite excellent. Frontier would be great if it wasn't for all the F2P nonsense, I'd have happily paid $10 maybe more to have a proper game.

 

[enzo_gt]

I think I am near the end of this, but finding this race impossible...

Any more upgrades mean days worth of grind ( I think), or else I will have to give Ubi some money. Maybe I will just stop.

I wouldn't say you need to grind when you got there. You should be upgrading the Jackal and should be at about 3 levels per part or more, which shouldn't be too difficult if you've been regularly upgrading your best bike.

You're not close to the end at all BTW. I'm level 25 and there's a crapload of blueprint stuff left. Stuff does get increasingly fetch quest or Gold this, silver that though.

Overall this is a really good game, captures the essence of trials and is beautiful for the tiny app size too. Lots of variety in content.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Right, I beat Butch. But the game is now taking the piss with upgrade times.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Really surprised at how well this game controls. THey nailed the Trials feel with onscreen controls. Visuals and presentation are all very polished. The F2P and timer stuff might get annoying, but I rarely play mobile games for more than 15-20 minute chunks and usually at the gym or on break at work when looking for something to kill time so I don't think it will bother me all that much.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Really surprised at how well this game controls. THey nailed the Trials feel with onscreen controls. Visuals and presentation are all very polished. The F2P and timer stuff might get annoying, but I rarely play mobile games for more than 15-20 minute chunks and usually at the gym or on break at work when looking for something to kill time so I don't think it will bother me all that much.

2 days bothers me.
200 Gems = $5

Seems a lot to ask for me just to my bike slightly quicker.

 

[INTERNET]

Totally done and deleted at level 16, after grinding off and on in 10 minute increments yesterday. My only missions were to upgrade the second and third bikes, for which I needed (tier II) spark plugs and springs. This meant running "Rooftops" or I think one other map over and over until the wheel played nice. After I had one spring and could upgrade the Tango - whoops it's 2000 gold, go ahead and grind Rooftops 10 more times (because I still need more springs and spark plugs) at ~100 coins per 15 minute recharging window. So finally done, with a little help from the slot machine (which still costs a 15 minute recharge, by the way). Now, wait 45 minutes for the upgrade, and finally I can finish the mission chain I've been doing all this for - wait, nope, the quest giver who was just seconds earlier ecstatic at the prospect of an upgraded bike is just gone. My only remaining mission is to upgrade two components of the third bike. It involves running a lot of Rooftops, because I still needed springs which can only be fused at this point, and I still need spark plugs. Luckily the upgrades were only 500, so I upgrade one after half a dozen runs and - whoops, you'll need to actually do two upgrades for each of the two components, and the second is not cheap. Screw you skinny swedish Hulk Hogan, I'm out.

 

[Neuromancer]

Right, I beat Butch. But the game is now taking the piss with upgrade times.

Wait that's 48 hours?! Oh my Christ

F2P like this is so messed up. It's as though they actively don't want you to play the game.

 

[enzo_gt]

Totally done and deleted at level 16, after grinding off and on in 10 minute increments yesterday. My only missions were to upgrade the second and third bikes, for which I needed (tier II) spark plugs and springs. This meant running "Rooftops" or I think one other map over and over until the wheel played nice. After I had one spring and could upgrade the Tango - whoops it's 2000 gold, go ahead and grind Rooftops 10 more times (because I still need more springs and spark plugs) at ~100 coins per 15 minute recharging window. So finally done, with a little help from the slot machine (which still costs a 15 minute recharge, by the way). Now, wait 45 minutes for the upgrade, and finally I can finish the mission chain I've been doing all this for - wait, nope, the quest giver who was just seconds earlier ecstatic at the prospect of an upgraded bike is just gone. My only remaining mission is to upgrade two components of the third bike. It involves running a lot of Rooftops, because I still needed springs which can only be fused at this point, and I still need spark plugs. Luckily the upgrades were only 500, so I upgrade one after half a dozen runs and - whoops, you'll need to actually do two upgrades for each of the two components, and the second is not cheap. Screw you skinny swedish Hulk Hogan, I'm out.

Why aren't you using the slots? I've never had an issue with money... ever. I'm sitting on nearly 60k surplus.

 

[mrklaw]

For those willing to pay $10 to 'unlock' the game, the $10 gems pack almost does that. I bought that and haven't had any issues with gems shortages. So the wheel becomes less annoying to re-spin, and if I want a slightly longer session, I can refuel for around 15 gems.

Still have issues with bike upgrades taking a long time though. Hard to believe how they layer on the restrictions. Even after you've paid gems to race and spin and get parts, you still have to wait for upgrades. Crazy.

I'll probably finish the trials fusion cross-game levels but stop after that. If trials fusion ever lets me sign in to Uplay

 

[Keyser Soze]

I am refusing to pay now, out of sheer stubbornness. I shall finish this thoug (before they add more).

 

[Furyous]

Does anyone know how to beat "the first charge"? I've died too much for my tastes.

 

[Zeth]

I built the Mantis.

Whoa.

 

[Thrak360]

I'm at level 15 now. The game is indeed a real slog. Although I really like the core gameplay. The limited gas doesn't bother me as much as the wheel of fortune at the end. I hate shelling out the gems to re-spin. But often that seems the better option to spending more gas to re-race.

Currently working on getting blueprints for the Bronco. And upgrading Tango and Jackal at times to try and get the upper hand on some of the races.

I really hate some of those ghost races for the robot. I've been stuck on one for days, trying to beat a ghost on Rocky Road, a course that I've struggled to beat cleanly. And I can't even practice that course without being overlapped with the ghost.

 

[INTERNET]

Why aren't you using the slots? I've never had an issue with money... ever. I'm sitting on nearly 60k surplus.

I don't know, my slots are like level 4? I've spun it maybe 15 times in the three or four days I was playing, and got 1k once and 2k once, and then nickels and dimes after that. But beyond that, I don't even know what surplus means in this context. Like you are waiting on the upgrade timers, or waiting on fuel for parts, because there almost literally seems to be no end to the amount of coins you need in this game. For example, for Zeth to max out his new Mantis (from the RedLynx forums):

Yes, just the last 3 levels of a fully upgraded Mantis costs: 4X(150K+220K+380K) = 3 million. So even the $99 purchased coin option (best value! ) of 2.8 million wont even pay for the last levels of a SINGLE BIKE! (besides which, if I upgraded the last tier of Mantis I'd be another year older before the game finished upgrading it)

Keep in mind there are 4 other bikes coming (Marauder + 3 other Tier3 bikes) that will cost as much; Tier 3 bikes are likely to have even higher starting costs too.

Haha, this is like a thousand dollar game.