Screamer 4x4 Demo

While most racing competitions out there revolve around who has the fastest car, there are those who have different expectations from cars, other than an impressive top speed. Off-road tournaments, as an example, are more focused on durability, versatility and driver experience, while speed is more or less neglected.

Screamer 4x4 is a racing game that allows you to take advantage of the power and versatility of off-road vehicles, as well as participate in a variety of intense races across tough terrains. While timing is still rather important, you need to pay more attention to navigating the tracks, since going too fast is not really as productive as it would be in an ordinary racing game.

To start off with, the available vehicles are properly equipped for the conditions, especially when it comes to suspension, shock absorbers and axle differentials. You are even allowed to manually control the differentials, in order to block or release them whenever you decide. Hence, you are solely responsible for getting out of ditches when you happen to run into them.

Naturally, all of the work that went into depicting realistic car behavior would have been for nothing if you weren't able to properly handle the vehicles. Because of that, the controls have been refined and they accurately respond to your input, not to mention the fact that you get to customize them as you see fit. Depending on experience, it is also possible to use a manual gearbox, which makes the gameplay that much more difficult.

Visually, a lot of effort when into the vehicles themselves, which are nicely modeled after their real counterparts and made to look as realistic as possible, or at least as much as the technology allowed at the time. However, the environments are rather lackluster, since they only feature barren hills, rocks and the occasional tree, which does not feature a collision box anyway.

Even if it doesn't get everything right, Screamed 4x4 tried to do something different and bring a bit of change to the genre, which it managed quite well, in retrospect. Hence, despite the occasional flaw and the lack of attention when it comes to the landscapes, the game deserves a shot, especially if you are a fan of off-racing.