Trackmania

1. Summary

Players praise the driving more than anything else. Reviewers keep coming back to the same loop: short tracks, an instant restart and a ghost of their own best time, with identical cars for everyone, deterministic physics and a skill ceiling they describe as very high. New official and community tracks arrive every day, week and season. The community, its map makers and the YouTube and Twitch creators who brought some reviewers to the game get warm words, and some paying players call the yearly Club Access a fair deal for what it unlocks.

Access is the main frustration and the largest topic overall: 45% of the longer reviews bring up the subscription or the paywall. Reviewers call the free tier a demo and object to a Steam page that advertises it as free, and 7% describe the free tier shrinking, most often the change that cut free players to the first 10 of each season's 25 campaign tracks. Other complaints cover the yearly-only pricing, the mandatory Ubisoft Connect account and launcher, a thin tutorial for new players, and a ranked mode built on tracks free players cannot practice. The paywall comes up in 57% of the longer negative reviews, and 20% of those still call it a great or fun game in so many words, so much of the disagreement is over whether it is worth paying for every year.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

The chase for a better timeHigh

Shaving time off a short track is what keeps people playing. 18% of the longer reviews praise the personal-best chase, the handling and physics, or the "easy to learn, hard to master" depth, a larger share than any other strength gets. Reviewers describe spending hours to cut hundredths off a 30-second track and enjoying it; one points out that the retry button at the end of a run says IMPROVE, and another calls the game "Self Improvement: The Video Game". Others single out the fairness: "Every single person on the leaderboard is driving the identical car on the identical track." A few players who came from sim racing say the depth won them over, and one who had never been a fan of racing games says they were hooked almost at once. This praise is for the stadium car and the core surfaces; the newer cars and surfaces get a much more mixed reception (see below).

A huge community and its tracksHigh

The community and its tracks come up in 14% of the longer reviews. Players describe hundreds of thousands of user-made maps, community campaigns, clubs, map styles from full speed to RPG and "Kacky", and a friendly, low-toxicity crowd: "Hands down has the best community of any video game I have played." The track editor gets its own praise from players who say they spend as much time building as racing (3% of the longer reviews), and another 3% credit Wirtual or other streamers and YouTubers for getting them to install. In 60% of the reviews that discuss the community's tracks, the reviewer also notes that almost all of that content sits behind the subscription.

Fresh official content on a scheduleHigh

New official content arrives on a fixed rhythm, and 11% of the longer reviews mention it: a 25-track seasonal campaign every quarter, Track of the Day, Cup of the Day and the weekly shorts. Reviewers point out that the weekly shorts are free to everyone, and some free players say they are the reason they keep coming back ("the weekly shorts are worth the install alone"). Competitive players bring up Cup of the Day in particular. Complaints about particular seasons and maps are covered under frustrations.

Where players are split

Is the yearly Club Access worth it?High

The price itself splits the longer reviews: 12% take a side, and the two camps are close in size. 7% call it fair or cheap at what reviewers put at roughly $20 a year, often adding that there are no microtransactions, battle passes or currency: "20 USD a year for full access is a steal." A few note that the pass does not auto-renew, and some say maps from seasons you paid for stay yours after it lapses. On the other side, 5% say they would gladly pay once but refuse to rent a game every year, and some add that community-made content should not be what the fee buys. A recurring middle position is that the pass pays off for regular players and not for people who dip in a few times a year. Players also mention workarounds such as loading maps from Trackmania Exchange through the editor.

Is it better than the older Trackmania games?High

Comparisons with Nations Forever, United Forever, Trackmania 2 or Turbo turn up in 10% of the longer reviews. Long-time fans who like this one call it the most polished and complete entry, with better physics, more surfaces and a better editor. Others tell newcomers to play the free Nations Forever instead, citing the full free campaign there, the buy-once model of the older games and, for some, more character in the older music and environments. Two thirds of these comparisons also bring up the subscription or the paywall.

The new cars and surfacesMedium

The snow, rally and desert cars, and surfaces such as ice and wood, come up in 7% of the longer reviews. Some players enjoy the variety and the challenge of learning each car. Others dislike mid-track car switches, say the new cars handle poorly on keyboard, and object to finding them in the official campaign: "Mixing all the new effects, surfaces and cars in quick succession really hinders the flow of the tracks and makes it a pain to drive." A few later reviews say the alt cars now appear much less in the main campaign, and their authors softened their verdicts. Ice is a recurring joke and complaint of its own.

What frustrates players

The free tier feels like a demoHigh

No other topic comes up as often: 45% of the longer reviews mention the subscription or the paywall, including 57% of the longer negative ones. Free players describe getting the first 10 campaign tracks of the current season, the weekly shorts, ranked and the editor, and running into an upgrade screen almost everywhere else, including community maps, Track of the Day, clubs, car skins, past campaigns and local or LAN play. 8% of the longer reviews call the free version a demo or the free-to-play label misleading: "Please dont label this game as free, list it as a demo instead." 7% describe the free tier getting smaller over time, saying the full seasonal campaign used to be free and a cheaper standard tier was removed: "Where you could previously play the campaigns from beginning to end for free, now you must spend money to play them." Several angry reviews come from players who finished the free tracks in an hour or two and then hit the wall halfway through a campaign they were enjoying. A couple ask that locked content at least be greyed out or marked before they click it.

Ubisoft Connect, accounts and loginsHigh

Steam players also need a separate Ubisoft account and launcher, and 10% of the longer reviews complain about it. The complaints run from extra steps and repeated logins to the launcher staying open after the game closes and asking for a CD key on first launch. A smaller group (2%) could not get in at all: captcha loops, "account suspended" messages on new accounts, password resets that never arrive. "I think at least 10% of my hours in this game are just massaging Ubisoft Connect to allow me to actually play." Others report that Club Access cannot be bought through Steam and that a pass bought on Xbox or PlayStation does not carry over to PC.

Ranked and removed modesMedium

Ranked comes up in 6% of the longer reviews, mostly unhappily. 4% point out that ranked uses all 25 campaign tracks while free players can practice only 10, so they meet unfamiliar maps once they climb. Players also describe losing points after their team wins because they were not the top scorer, long queues, matches filled with bots, and disconnects that leave one player against two. A separate 3% mourn the Royal mode and the old 3v3 ranked format, and groups of three friends say the switch to 2v2 split them up: "Royal and Arcade were the only reason I played trackmania." The weekly grands, with AI cars you can collide with, draw a smaller set of complaints about bots ramming players off line.

A steep learning curve with little helpMedium

Newcomers say the game teaches almost nothing. 5% of the longer reviews talk about onboarding, and the new players among them describe no explanation of surfaces, speed slides, ice driving or action keys, and campaign tracks that expect that knowledge. "This game is hostile to new players." Even fans recommend YouTube guides. Menus and plugins come up in 6% of the longer reviews: players describe a confusing UI where it is hard to find a free track or join a friend, and recommend the OpenPlanet plugin manager for basics such as a speedometer or gear display.

Performance, ads and input devicesLow

Smaller groups report problems that matter a lot to those affected. 3% of the longer reviews describe stutters, freezes, crashes or launch failures, a few tying a drop in frame rate to the newer, more detailed scenery; another small group praises how well it runs on weak hardware. 2% object to real-world ads on in-game billboards, and some of them point out that ads stay on by default even for paying players (others note they can be turned off in settings). Steering wheel users describe inverted pedals and unusable mappings, and a few keyboard players feel the newer cars favor controllers.

Campaign and weekly track qualityLow

Recent seasonal campaigns or weekly shorts were worse, according to 2% of the longer reviews. They complain about tracks with no visual cues for where to go, esports-style maps in the main campaign and medal times that feel out of reach for casual players. Other players call the campaigns well made.

3. The player conversation

Many of the short reviews are jokes and quick praise ("car go vroom", "just one more PB"), and the arguments happen in the longer ones. Some critics praise the driving before explaining their vote, and many positive reviews carry a caveat about the subscription, so the split is mostly over price and access.

Who raises what depends on how far players got. Half of the reviews describing failed logins or account creation come from people with under two hours on Steam. The complaints about alt cars, the loss of Royal and 3v3, and the quality of recent campaigns come largely from regulars (roughly half of each from players with 50 or more Steam hours), some of whom say they started with Nations Forever or Sunrise. Both groups raise the lack of a tutorial: newcomers who got stuck, and veterans who say they had to learn everything from videos. About half of the reviews defending the yearly pass also come from players with 50 or more hours, who say the fee works out cheaply for how often they play.

Reviews written in the first half of 2024, when reviewers say free access was cut to 10 campaign tracks and the standard tier was removed, were the least positive stretch in the slice (65% and 69% by quarter). From late 2024 onward the share settled around 80%, with several reviewers crediting the free weekly shorts for giving free players more to do again. 8% of the longer negative reviews are marked as edits or updates, typically an older positive review rewritten after a monetization change or the removal of a mode the author liked.

4. What the developers could do

1. Give free players the full seasonal campaign again. The paywall comes up in 57% of the longer negative reviews, and reviewers specifically ask for the 25 seasonal tracks they used to get, which would also let free players practice every ranked map.
2. Label the free tier honestly and show what is locked before players click. 8% of the longer reviews call the free version a demo or its free-to-play label misleading, and players describe clicking through menus only to hit upgrade screens.
3. Offer a one-time or per-season purchase alongside the yearly pass. 5% of the longer reviews say they would happily buy the game or a season's content once but refuse a recurring fee, especially for occasional play.
4. Make the Ubisoft Connect step painless, and sell Club Access on Steam. 10% of the longer reviews complain about the launcher and account, some could not log in at all, and others could not find where to pay or had a purchase that never unlocked.
5. Fix ranked scoring and queues, and bring back team options. Players describe losing points after a team win and bot-filled matches, and some miss the 3v3 and Royal modes their friend groups played; a few say losing those modes is why they stopped playing.
6. Add a real tutorial and build basic plugin features into the game. Newcomers say nothing explains surfaces or core techniques, and even fans say a speedometer and gear display should not require OpenPlanet.
7. Keep alt cars and gimmick surfaces out of the core campaign, and check keyboard parity. Players who dislike mid-track car switches say finding them in the official campaign is what put them off, and keyboard users feel the new cars favor controllers.
8. Address stutters after the scenery update and turn billboard ads off by default for paying players. These are smaller complaints, but stutters cost players their runs in a game built on precision.