There comes a time when
inside knowledge beyond what one knows is required. Not without modesty, I knew one of
these times had come when I first started 4X4 EVO 2 and found myself trying to decide
between, after digging through the Alaskan wilderness, a $64,000 dollar 14"
suspension lift, a $22,500 Port & Polished Head, or $250 mud flaps. Faced with a
detailed and expansive variety (with some limits that Ill go into later) of car
makes and manufacturers, there was little doubt that I needed the advise of some serious
4X4ers. I packed up my Xbox, grabbed a case of Pepsi, and gave a few friends a call. In
less than an hour, I found myself taking notes as Evo 2 was crawled over by some true
truck enthusiasts. The result left me with mixed impressions. Armed with a list of
comments and hours of personal game play under my belt, I went to work compiling all that
I had learned. Originally, 4X4 Evo 2 was going into the records as a four star
game, pretty dang good, accompanied with an explanation of why it wasnt better. As
the hourglass trickled to the last, though, and the pale horse carried its final judgment,
I find myself reducing my rating to a three stars, with explanations instead on why it
isnt a four. In short, Evo 2 has enough innovation, detail, and humor in its off
roading aspects to make it an interesting and entertaining game, but cuts itself short by
limiting its off-road missions in favor of racing -- a genre in which it is not a strong
contender. Between its two styles of game play, it offers a limited but engaging off-road
experience that will have enthusiasts at the edge of their seats, and a relatively
uninspiring racing experience that will more than likely wear thin after only a short
period of time. And they needed to add a Dixie horn.
4X4 Evo 2 is like many other racing games, save one noticeable difference: a
love of trucks. Tailored for the tastes of people who truly enjoy the power and freedom of
a vehicle that can take you anywhere, Evo 2 is half a racing game, and half a toy box of
trucks and truck parts for the enthusiast to tear around the countryside with. With this
in mind, Evo 2 is divided into two categories: missions and racing. After purchasing your
car from a rather extensive list of actual car makes and manufacturers (with the odd
exclusion of Ford, arguably one of the most predominant makers of high-powered 4X4 trucks,
a fact that bothered my advisors no end), and equipping it with an even more extensive
list of auto parts, you embark upon a career in these two styles of play.
Aside
from the mentioned under representation of Ford (meaning none), the missions are the
original reason I was considering a score of four stars. Soaked in a rich sense of ironic
humor, you are assigned tasks as a freelance wilderness traveler, tracking down plane
wreckages in Alaska, or runaway rafts (apparently bears eat them and swell up like
marshmallows). You are then paid some amount upon completion, which you use to purchase
bigger and better parts for your truck. Though locating where on your topographical map
you are supposed to be to complete your mission is sometimes hard (the maps can be very
difficult to use), the missions are an aspect of the game that will thrill those who get a
kick out of installing the biggest and best parts in their vehicle, and then using them to
climb bigger and better hills. The physics are a little tweaked, true, so that you find
yourself not always rolling when you should, but the changes are such that the average
player will enjoy it more, allowing for a quick in and out gaming experience while still
allowing for more in-depth play.
Considering how much effort went into creating the variety and effects of the
various truck makes and parts, it is surprising that more detail didnt go into the
actual gaming world. Graphically, for example, the game has both plusses and minuses.
While at times the graphic effects are truly something, such as the way that the actual
surroundings are reflected from the hood of the car, at other times the graphics are flat
and without life. Trees that should stop you dead in your tracks are sometimes passed
through like air, towns are lifeless and empty, full of buildings but no people or parked
cars. Due to the contract restrictions brought about by using actual car models, the game
shows no damage to the vehicles as you slam into trees and roll down hills. With the
exception of a few wooden posts that fall down as you run them over, little of the driving
environment is damaged by your vehicle's passage. Trees show no signs of scrapes or
bruises, and fences that should be easily destroyable react to an impact like super
reinforced steel walls, all the while leaving your truck looking like it was just driven
from the sellers lot. Two of the three views available are almost worthless most of
the time, especially under heavy foliage. It is almost as if the elements are in place,
but not fully flushed out in such a way that would have made this game truly spectacular.
While I dont judge games on graphics alone, these limitations reach into the design
of the game, and are part of what brings the rating down. The ability to destroy things is
part of the fun of games such as this, and the lack of these details simply limited the
depth of the game.
Had
the missions been designed to support Evo 2 unto themselves, containing a full featured
and lengthy game style with a more detailed career mode and more numerous creative mission
designs, 4x4 Evo 2 may have scored better. Unfortunately, after only a few hours of play,
we found ourselves finishing the very last mission, and (grumbling about how much that
sucked) turned to the less spectacular, and disappointingly, more predominate aspect of
the game: the racing. Almost immediately Evo 2 started to disappoint. In a nutshell, there
was nothing new. The detail of car choices and car parts are the same as the missions. In
fact the two playing styles are merely different selections under the career menu, but
other than that Evo 2 does not offer a particularly exciting entry to the racing genre.
My first complaint becomes obvious almost immediately. With a few exceptions,
the trucks purchased stock in the game lack guts. Your career as a truck racer begins with
thirty thousand dollars in the account, which you use to purchase your vehicle, parts, and
nifty racing suit (I assume). Your job is to win races in order to make money in order to
upgrade your truck in order to win races. Youd think, therefore, that your beginning
car would be competitive in at least the very basic of races. Not necessarily true. A fact
of life is that your vehicle will almost always be underpowered compared to the other
racers, possibly because the game operates on some sort of sliding scale; the faster you
go, the faster they go. Our first time through the game, we tricked out a 2000 Dodge Ram
with several hundred thousand dollars worth of parts, making money through missions before
leaping into the racing arena. Youd think that a tricked out truck, worth far more
than the stock vehicles available, would be competitive on the first circuit races. Not
so. It took us two more tries before we were able upgrade a truck enough to out-power the
other racers, and that took a lot of money, and a monster truck with tires the size of a
human being.
That
aside, even were you able to win the races at the beginning, the purses are too
small to make a difference. At $10,000 a competition (much less than that per race), you
have to race a lot before you can afford even your first major upgrade, easily a $40,000
proposition. (On the upside, once you do acquire a truck that can get the job done, there
is little difficulty variation with the later races, so once you start winning, you can
win often.)
Considering
the above problem, one must wonder how youre supposed to progress. The missions
would be an option, were the upgrade paths not different. While off-roading for money, you
spend your hard earned cash on parts suited for more missions, not high-speed track
racing. In the end, your very expensive off-road vehicle often wont cut it side by
side another racer. Also, the AI is limited, and youll sometimes find yourself in
fourth place merely because two of your competitors missed checkpoints and didnt
have the brains to go back for them.
The
racing experience itself is also nothing new. Besides the fact that youre on a dirt
path instead of an asphalt road, there is little to separate Evo 2 from many other
available racing games with jumps. The player passes through a series of checkpoints in
order to race. Since these checkpoints are relatively close together, and all along the
beaten path, it forces all of the players onto the same roads. The shortcuts that are
available more often than not merely get you lost, making it essential to know the tracks
you are racing before theyre raced. Who cares that you have a 4x4 when youre
staying on the trail all of the time?
What makes me sad is how unique a game 4x4 Evo 2 could have been with a little
more originality in the actual game play. What if a series of races were constructed to
take advantage of the off-road aspect of the game? Instead of using preset paths, why
couldnt there be a setting that allows players to race each other to a given point
over outback terrain? Evos claim to fame is its detailed reconstruction of the
off-road experience, but it limits itself by forcing that off-road style onto a
pre-constructed track. Were there nothing more to the game than the racing, 4x4 Evo 2
would probably receive no more than two and a half stars, maybe three. Combined with the
joy that comes from the limited but relatively unique experience provided by the missions,
Evo 2 qualifies for a three star rating. The game will appeal to those people who know
their trucks and their truck parts. Best described as a toy box for tinkerers, Evo 2
should be looked at if youre trying to find a game for climbing hills, and only
partially for racing trucks. If youre looking for a racing game, rent it and decide
for yourself. If you want a 4x4ing game, the technical detail here makes it definitely
worth a look.
It still makes me wonder, though, where Ford disappeared to...