Trials Rising PC review – a dangerously good apex for the madcap motorcycle series

There’s a moment of crushing disappointment that comes early on in Trials Rising. It sneaks up on you, insidiously, and before you know it the damage is done. One of the songs in the game’s unrelenting, high-energy soundtrack opens with a driving drumbeat that calls to mind '80s hit ‘Take On Me’. It’s a real A-ha moment, but when the rest of the band kicks in you realise that it’s not actually an exciting new cover of a Norwegian synthpop classic. It is, in fact, a different song - and band - entirely. As any other right-thinking person who uses the internet would, I took this bait-and-switch as a personal attack and elected to uninstall the game there and then. I even briefly, and entirely rationally, considered boycotting all Ubisoft games going forward. But I’m pleased to say that, after a short period of self reflection, I instead calmed down and continued playing. I'm glad that I did: in the dozens of hours I’ve sunk into the game so far, the unfortunate song incident is just about the only time I haven’t been grinning wildly. That there’s so little of note to criticise in Rising comes as an enormous relief after Trials Fusion’s heart-stopping wobble on the beam. As with every main-series Trials game on PC since HD, Fusion’s core was a time-devouring cocktail of perfect physics platforming, deceptive depth, and a daunting skill ceiling. But bolted to that crux were a number of missteps, as well as some bold experiments that didn’t quite land.