I’ve reviewed a few Repixel8 titles on this blog before. The pretty great Formula Retro Racing – World Tour was a game that took me back to ’90s-styles racers. Well, Repixel8 have a new game out, all about mountain biking called Total Trails. Only, I’m not reviewing this one. For this review, young Dave Corn will be in the bike seat to offer his view on this PlayStation 5 title.

“Get ready to conquer the most treacherous terrains on two wheels in Total Trails, the ultimate mountain biking game! Are you up for the challenge? Immerse Yourself in Realistic Mountain Biking Total Trails is here to provide you with the most authentic mountain biking experience ever. We’ve taken realism to the next level, ensuring that you feel every bump, every turn, and every adrenaline rush as you navigate challenging trails.”

We’ve all seen those movie trailers haven’t we, you know the ones, they look amazing with a lot of big explosions and fast action? Then the film arrives and you realise that the only action and explosions are all in the trailer. Gaming has overtaken Hollywood as the biggest money earner and as there were once (and still are) endless cheap bad movies made – we now get a bargain basket worth of terrible games appear every day, money grabs, that hope enough people take a punt on their flashy explosion-filled trailer before its trashed talked out of existence. With all that being said, let me get down to business with this Total Trails review on the PS5.

From RePixel8, Total Trails is a mountain biking trail simulator, split over 3 modes –  you get career, time trial and free ride modes. The trailer (see above) offers an action-packed, fast and extreme biking sports sim. The graphics and gameplay look pretty slick for a fairly low-budget indie game too. So all good then, right? Nope! The camera angles shown in the trailer (Go Pro-esque), side of the bike views are available in the game, but impossible to play with them. You’ll start on your bike, heading towards a checkpoint in what looks like a PS2 game. No clear indicator of the next checkpoint means that you’ll soon get lost and quickly lose that initial speed element of the trailer. Even if you learn the 12 courses like the back of your hand – the handling of the bikes is so poor that as soon as you get fast – you’ll be on the floor.

To have any chance of playing this game there are only 2 views you can really use. The handlebar/first-person (the one that I used) or third-person behind back. Now, this view changes the game somewhat, because you start to feel floaty and disconnected from the ground, the graphics become even more questionable as your character is almost shiny against a flat colour of the scenery. I have played several games featuring various cycling mechanics throughout my gaming life, from Paperboy to Dave Mirra BMX. It’s crazy playing this thinking that it is a newly released PS5 game. The BMX side-missions in GTA San Andreas played far better than this entire game (I’m talking about the original PS2 version of GTA).

Well, at least the trailer offers some fast and adrenaline-fueled soundtrack to go with the action. Nope! There is no music here in the released game at all. Just ambient noise, birds tweeting and the wind blowing as you ride along. This is another layer missing from, what you have to feel, has been miss-sold by the trailer. There are a lot of similar games on the market like this at the moment – all a lot more deserving of your money than this.

In conclusion, if you are into extreme, high-speed, adrenaline-fueled mountain biking sims, then this is exactly the opposite of what you are looking for. Unless Total Trails is free and if you can provide your own soundtrack, I’d stay clear.

Graphics 4/10 Seriously let down by character models in the third-person view.
Gameplay 2/10 Not so much an extreme sim as a Sunday leg stretch sim.
Sound 0/10 possibly the lowest score I’ve ever given in this as there is no music and very limited sound effects.
Overall 2/10 – Avoid this game like a film written by M.Night Shamylan, directed by Michael Bay and starring an all-Eddie Murphy cast.