4x4 EVO 2, also known as 4x4 Evolution 2, is a racing video game developed by Terminal Reality for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to 4x4 Evolution and features more trucks, and more racing tracks than the original game.
The courses are primarily in extreme environments such as deserts, canyons, and other off-road locales. Players are allowed to customize their vehicle to their liking with a variety of engines, suspensions, wheels, tires, and other aftermarket parts and modifications.
Despite the PlayStation 2 version of this game being developed in North America by Terminal Reality (in the United States particularly), it was exclusively released in Europe for unknown reasons, unlike all their other titles released for the system. The Mac and GameCube versions, on the other hand, were exclusively released in North America.
Gameplay
Settings
Different settings for vehicles, time of day, and weather are available to choose from. But unlike the first 4x4 Evolution, the night and pitch black settings were removed due to a possibly unstable frame rate, which was never fixed allegedly because it was just simply not fixable.
Career
The goal of career is to build or buy the fastest off-road vehicle possible. The player does so by purchasing their first vehicle, and then placing well in races to earn money, which is spent on better vehicles later, and various modifications. All races in career are organized into a large number of series of varying length. Certain series also require certain prerequisites, such as a specific vehicle type, or completion of a qualification event. The player is free to complete the series in any order, and can enter multiple tournaments at once without losing progress in the other. Joining a team is not a requirement, but grants various benefits that allow the player to build a faster vehicle.
Teams
There are a total of nine fictional teams in career mode, one for each vehicle manufacturer. To join a team, a player must place well in career races to improve their reputation. Doing so in a team's sponsor manufacturer will improve the player's reputation even faster with that team (for example, winning multiple races in a GMC will quickly improve a player's standing with Drehkraft, their sponsored team). Another way is to race in qualifiers, because the game counts each qualifier as an entire series. Each team has at least one team racing vehicle, which is already heavily modified, as well as covered in various sponsors and vinyls. To purchase most team vehicles, the player must be a part of the vehicle's team. Teams also possess team parts, modifications applicable to any vehicle that usually offer a substantial performance boost. As with vehicles, the player must be part of a team to purchase their parts.
Missions
The player may also play through missions set in various locations, which typically revolve around locating various objects in the area. Each location has multiple missions, which revolve around a single profession or storyline. Missions between areas are not intertwined, however, and are unrelated to the racing portion of career.
Multiplayer
Despite having been released over fifteen years ago, the online community still exists, with a fair number of players, and some moderators who manage chatrooms. Dedicated servers are long gone, but it is possible to host games over the internet, and join other player-hosted games. There has been a known issue with the multiplayer feature where it will read "missing *.sit" files. There is no known fix.
Tracks and terrains
Team RCG (Really Crazy Gamers) have some of the most well known tracks for this game made by some of their members. RTMAC (Road To Max Air's Cabin, or Return To Max Air's Cabin) is probably the most well known track made by a player by the name of [RCG] Max Air. There are several ways to download tracks. The widely used way is by downloading them from a website. The more less used ways are by downloading ingame via direct link (e.g. http://site.com/track.pod[permanent dead link]). The two types of track files are .POD and .LTE.
4x4 EVO 2 made free
In late 2007, Terminal Reality's contract with the car manufacturers whose vehicles were used in the game expired.[citation needed] That made it illegal for them to continue selling the game. So the only way for 4x4 EVO 2 to be legally obtained without purchasing it was by downloading the game from somewhere for free. The only catch was that the stock licensed vehicles could not be with it. So, TRI gave KC Vale exclusive rights to host the game on his website for free. However, all the default vehicles were uploaded in a separate .POD file somewhere on KC's 4x4 Evo 2 Place so players can drive them and experience the standard use of automobiles.
