4x4 EVO by Terminal Reality/G.O.D. Review by Vince Cuffaro

4x4 EVO 
Developed by TERMINAL REALITY
Published by Gathering of Developers

System Requirements (minimum):
Windows 95, 98, 2000 and ME
Pentium 200 MMX or comparable
32 megs System RAM
300 MB Hard drive
100% DirectX7 compatible 3D accelerator with 4 MB Texture RAM
TCP/IP Internet connection required for online play

Test system:
1ghz AMD Athlon
128 Megs SDRAM
Nvidia VANTA 16 meg video card
Windows ME


The purchase:

Well.....becoming a father has been quite a challenge. And mostly in my lifestyle! I went from racing my Honda, to looking for a larger, more roomy vehicle. Yes, I did consider a SUV, but settled on a Minivan instead! Yes I know...but it is a Honda, and it's the fastest minivan in the world so I guess I really can't complain! 

Anyhow, this isn't about a van game...its' about an SUV based sim/game. And seeing as how I HAD looked into SUV's at one point, I know a bit more about them....and how much they have lent to our society over the recent years. I suppose an SUV/4x4 game was eminent...I suppose. But, the question remains...who would buy it?

I saw "4x4 EVO" on the shelf, a new release and priced at a premium ($39.99 us) I looked at it, read the box....hmmmm...how enticing! But isn't that the marketers job? I passed, telling myself I'd get it when the price dropped.

That night I got online, remembering "4x4 EVO" by TERMINAL REALITY. I looked up some sites, asked some fellow Pits members about it...etc. IT LOOKED interesting...got favorable reviews...seemed great! Sounded awesome! hehehe...I went back the next day and bought it. Bad me!

Box was nice. Opened it up to find a cardboard/paper disc holder....This was actually cool the way it opens up to pull the disc out. A basic 32 page (deceivingly large) instruction manual that gave some pretty decent explanations, details and tips....better than most manuals do! But man was that thing small! It has to fit in a jewel case size holder! The CD itself was themed nicely in the graphics department....white with grey/black rocks and the "4x4 EVO" emblazoned across it. Very appropriate!

The Install:

Nothing new here...just point and shoot! 

The Drive:

  Well, we won't get to much into the extensive "Career mode" but I will say...it's pretty cool! You get $30,000 to buy anything you can afford from the likes of Nissan, Toyota, Chevy, Dodge, Lexus, Mitsubishi and Ford. All of the larger Trucks and SUV's are present. And the pricing is very real world. 
  You get the truck NEW and put actual miles on it and all! Then as you get money you can supe it up....all the way to an 800,000 dollar Ivan Stewart monster!
I ran the quick race to get the initial feel of the game. There are dozens of tracks, tons of series and special event races...just a plethora of good things!
Grabbing the nearest Toyota Tundra, I headed to the hills...really! You match up against as many AI as you can handle....up to 7, and take to the road.  The cool part was that the idea of the game is to NOT follow the course!  If you do....you'll lose every time!   The way to gain the edge and win is to take shortcuts...the best part of which there is really on limit to how far you can drive "outside" the box.  As long as you pass your designated checkpoints your ok.  Eventually, however, the screen repeats itself and you WILL start back from where you left off....eventually.
  I really liked this game...I say "liked" for a reason. At first glance it's alot of fun! And I suppose still is. 

  The initial issue I noticed, even with 1ghz of computer, was the fact that with full graphics and such, this game is a HOG! I had several instances of choppy play, which I hate! I dropped the graphics a bit, and still had some issues. But the graphics are GREAT! Some of the best 'sim' graphics I've seen in a while! At least since SCGT.  The truck graphics are AWESOME as well. They REALLY LOOK like the real thing! 
  Modifying your truck is cool too! You can do EVERYTHING under the sun and more! ECU's, Suspension, tires, tranny, diffs, aesthetics, even such things as racing radiators, lightweight tranny shrouds, fiberglass hoods, fenders and such, winches (for what I have NO idea as the game doesn't call for them!), lights...you name it for an SUV/Truck, they have it! And the best part is you can't do one thing without doing the logical previous step. For instance you can't upgrade certain engine areas without doing the electrical first....or you can't get 37" tires without raising it alot! 
  As you put the mods on, a rotating image of your ride shows the progress...click "yes" and up goes my Tundra 6 inches! Click again and there are the lights! 
  The problem was handling....It seemed as if you were racing in slow motion? Everything seemed to lope along. I've been in 4x4's before, and this definitely was not right. Just seemed so slow! The physics of it wasn't that far off...just something about the overall game play that was weird. Even with a suped up truck, it didn't feel any different than the stock one...and if it did, it wasn't THAT noticeable.
  This 'game' was beginning to show it's flaws. And they turned out to be many!
I'm not sure what the creators of EVO had in mind....but sim racing was NOT one of them!
  There was no dashboard, but a 'cockpit' view. You had choice of about 7 different views...and why a dash was not one of them is beyond me! you had the good old "looks like I'm on the bumper" cam as the closest thing to a cockpit...complete with overlay tach and speedo.
  You want damage from flying over tons of hills and dales? Not here! I jumped some 190 feet once....was airborne for over 2 seconds and hit ground....nothing. Just kept on 'truckin'. I even got it to ALMOST rollover and nothing...you actually can't rollover from what I've seen so far....you will fall on your side, but that's about it!
And the best one was dropping off of a 300 foot cliff, landing on your wheels and just keep on driving along! Or getting hit head on by a semi and just getting pushed with it until you turn out of the way. And damn if you try and bump one of the AI! You'll get 'bounced' out of the way....talk about weird! This one is hard to explain...just trust me when I say "What the??"  sigh....so promising....

The conclusion:

Well, this IS a fun game. It's just that doing so much sim racing that is somewhat 'real' in feel, it gets disappointing pretty quick at the little annoyances of this one. No damage, iffy 'physics'...on and on. I hope that TR comes out with a patch of sorts. I hope they listened when I emailed them on some of the quirks. Sad part is...this could be a REALLY good sim! REALLY GOOD! Splendid graphics, incredible details...even down to the birds taking off in front of you as you dive past, the level of mods you can do to your ride...To put so much effort into something and then have it fall so far short is a shame. I'll keep racing "4x4 EVO".....when I've nothing left to do.

If you'd like any further info one this game from me, drop me a line!

Overall rating: V6 at best.