Evolution puts players in the driver's seat of one of several different real-world light trucks and sport utility vehicles as they race for credits or fun on a variety of different tracks. In the press preview version of 4x4 Evolution MacCentral was provided with, a variety of trucks from different manufacturers were modeled, ranging from offerings from Ford, Lexus, Nissan, and Toyota. If the specs as listed on each vehicle's statistics page are to be believed, the changes in this build of the game were cosmetic only, except for minor differences like wheelbase measurements. Players are also able to extensively customize the attributes of their vehicles. Users can put on different tires, for example, with different tread cuts suited for different types of terrain and weather conditions.
Users can also choose manual or automatic transmissions.
And players can also dial in a variety of other attributes like suspension firmness, axle ratio, brake balance, torque split and handling balance. Best of all, players can save their preferred settings, so if you come across one great combo for a particular track or race condition, you can easily go back to it without having to remember each configuration. Evolution also features high-score lists with plenty of statistical data to keep hardcore racers interested. Evolution is enormous fun, partly because the computer AI is quite adept at figuring out the shortest distance between two points, and it's rarely where the track is. It can be quite a bit of challenge to keep up with the computer drivers, and you should expect to lose a few races until you figure out the best way to get from checkpoint to checkpoint.