MAVRIX Review: A Promising MTB Sim That Crashed Straight Out of the Gate

MAVRIX by Matt Jones arrives with a hell of a promise: a massive, 100-square-kilometre open world dedicated to authentic mountain biking, blending arcade fun with sim-like controls. It’s supposed to be the game that hardcore MTB fans have been waiting for, a true successor to the likes of Descenders. And in fleeting, beautiful moments, you can absolutely see that game shining through. The problem is that this is an Early Access title in the truest sense of the word; it feels like it's straddling the line between a promising concept and a very, very early beta that we're being asked to pay a premium for.

The View from the Summit

Let’s start with the good, because there is a genuinely solid foundation buried under all the jank. The potential here is immense, which makes the current state of the game both frustrating and exciting.

A World Worth Riding

The open world, a sprawling recreation of the Welsh countryside, can be absolutely beautiful. When you’re bombing it down a well-designed trail at speed, the wind is rushing past, and the bike is flowing beneath you, MAVRIX offers a glimpse of greatness. The sense of speed is exhilarating, the environments feel vast, and the sheer number of hidden lines and massive jumps to discover is impressive. This is the game's strongest aspect by a country mile.

The Right Ideas

Conceptually, the developers are on the right track. The dual-stick control scheme, with separate triggers for front and back brakes and the right stick controlling the rider’s body, is exactly the kind of granular control the genre needs. The career mode, built around signing contracts with real-world brands, is a solid idea for progression. The bones of a fantastic, deep mountain biking sim are definitely here, waiting to be fleshed out.

The Long, Painful Crash to the Bottom

Unfortunately, those good bones are attached to a body that is clumsy, glitchy, and often unresponsive. For every moment of flow, there are a dozen moments of pure frustration that remind you this game is nowhere near finished.

Riding on Ice Skates

The physics, supposedly a key feature, are wildly inconsistent and lack the promised authenticity. There’s no real sense of weight. You can land a 50-foot drop and your bike barely reacts, but riding over a tiny rock can send you flying. The controls often feel stiff and unresponsive, and tricks don't always register, making the bike feel like it's fighting you rather than responding to your inputs. It feels more floaty and arcade-like than the grounded sim it wants to be.

A Slideshow in the Woods

The game's performance is a major hurdle. Even with my RTX 4080, I was getting bizarre, jarring frame spikes that made controlling the bike a nightmare. For a game that relies so heavily on speed and smooth inputs, the current lack of optimization is a serious problem that can sour the entire experience.

Multiplayer Mayhem

The multiplayer, a key selling point, is incredibly rough and unreliable. I tried to link up with friends, only to be met with constant "server full" errors. When we finally got into the same world, we couldn't see each other's names, not even on the map, making it virtually impossible to find each other. It’s a core feature that feels like it needs a lot more work before it's truly functional.

Questionable Choices

Beyond the technical and gameplay issues, a few decisions leave a bad taste in the mouth. The steep price tag is a lot to ask for an Early Access game in this raw state. The inclusion of a microtransaction store from day one, before the game is even stable, is also a questionable look. Add to that the misleading promotion of a Sam Pilgrim skin that wasn’t in the game at launch, and it's hard not to feel a bit let down.

The Verdict

I am so conflicted about MAVRIX. There is a brilliant game in here, screaming to be let out. The world is beautiful, the core ideas are sound, and the flashes of fun are genuinely exhilarating. But it was released far, far too early. The current experience is buried under a mountain of technical issues, clunky mechanics, and frustrating design choices. For die-hard fans of the sport who are willing to endure the jank of a true Early Access journey and act as unpaid QA testers, there's fun to be had. For everyone else, this is one to keep an eye on from a safe distance until it gets the many updates it desperately needs.

Score: 5.0/10 with potential for a 8/10 or better… Just need to have faith in the devs on this one.

The mountain biking sim we've been waiting for, just delivered with a lot of assembly still required.