A solid truck racing game with plenty of trucks to race.

4x4 Evo is a 3D truck racing game that allows you to drive a variety of trucks through unique tracks and locations. You can choose trucks between Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Toyota. Each manufacturer has anywhere from 2 - 10 models to choose from. There are 4 main game types to choose from as well: Quick Race, Time Attack, Career, and Multiplayer. Quick Race and Time Attack both allow you to choose from any truck (even ones created in Career mode) and 1 of 15 tracks. In Quick Race, you can set the number of computer players to compete against, while Time Attack will constantly display a ghost of your best run to race against. These modes are fairly straightforward, so I'll focus more on the Career mode and the multitude of options available therein.

Career mode allows you to set one or more profiles, which can be loaded, saved, or deleted from the game menu. First thing you'll have to do is buy a car, so you can rummage through the different manufacturer's models and select a nice, new ride. During this selection process, the current truck is displayed in a showroom, with a beautiful, reflective marble floor. The camera rotates 360 degrees in order to show off the incredible lighting effects that shine over and around the truck's frame - very nice effect indeed and well worth a few minutes of gawking. Once you're satisfied with your purchase, you can leave the showroom and get onto the races.

In each profile, you are able to compete in a variety of competitions, which are separated into 2 main categories: Series and Special Events. In Series, you race against computer drivers, and your placement at the end of the race determines what percentage of the overall purse you get to collect. Each race is recorded, and replayed immediately after you finish, allowing you the ability to save the replay if you find it worthwhile. Special Events work the same way, except they are designed for particular truck models, so you won't be able to race them all with the same truck - i.e. you'll have to collect enough dough to buy some more. Also, Special Events are one-time only races, but you can race each one over and over again if you find them highly enjoyable.

As you progress through the races and start earning some serious money, you are able to return to the shop to purchase additional parts to give your truck an edge. There are plenty of options to select from, including Appearance, Brakes, Chassis, Drivetrain, Electronics, Engine, Lights, Suspension, and Tires. And if you don't know what a certain part does, there is a fairly detailed description for each item, which is very helpful for those of us who don't know much about individual parts. Once a part is purchased and installed, it will show up on your truck model. Parts can either be installed immediately after buying them or they can be removed and reinstalled in your garage, where you do all your tweaking to the vehicle. Once you're satisfied, get back to the races!

Before each race, there are options to set specifics on your car, such as handling, tire type, and transmission setting. The handling will alter how hard or easy it is to turn, while the tire type determines the cut of the tire, and the transmission can be set to manual or automatic, naturally. Once everything is set up, you can finally start racing.

Each track in the game is made fairly well, providing all types of ways to go off-road in order to gain some ground during a race. The races consist of making it through eight markers. You must go through these markers in order to proceed to the next one, which helps add a bit of a challenge as well as making the race a little more fair by not letting you go completely off-road. Races require three laps completed and take under ten minutes.

There are all sorts of obstacles on the terrain that can stop your car cold, so you need to be pretty tight with your turning in order to avoid them. Such annoyances are cactuses, jungle plants, buildings, bridges, and even a moving freight train. Each level also can have different weather conditions too, such as snow or rain. There are even races that take place in the dark, so you'll have to utilize those headlights in order to follow the track. These altering conditions provide a decent variety to the multitude of races available.

The visuals in the game are very nice. The truck models are pretty much perfect from what I've seen and the environments have nice textures, lighting, and shadowing. There's even a nice addition of being able to see the driver through the windshield (during the replays) and watch him as he turns the wheel back and forth during turns.

The gameplay is what seems to be lacking in this game. It doesn't seem to follow a very strict physics model. The trucks do not take or display damage when crashing into obstacles or each other. You can get pretty big hang-time after going off relatively low jumps in the track. The turning is fairly realistic, and the trucks will slide when attempting a sharp turn while at a high speed. However, the mass of the truck just doesn't feel like it's there.

Overall, 4x4 Evo is made well, with plenty of options and game types, as well as tons of upgrades and truck features for all those vehicle experts out there. However, the gameplay just doesn't have the excitement it could have without the lenient physics model. Albeit, damaging another truck and disabling it from the race wouldn't be the fairest feature in the game, but it seems with the attention to detail on the truck parts and fine-tuning of the vehicles, there should be much more detail in the gameplay. The sound effects are bland as well, giving no real personality to the trucks, just providing a universal engine sound for each one that revs up once in a while. 4x4 Evo is a solid game by itself, but seems bland compared to the gameplay mechanics of other titles out there.

The last thing that definitely deserves mentioning is that this game can be played online across multiple platforms. So, gamers on the PC can race against Dreamcast players or PS2 players over the Internet. This is quite a step ahead as far as multiplayer functionality is concerned and lends itself a peek into the future of gaming.

Reviewed by Brian Federici.