Alrighty then, I got my drink. I got my sammich. And I got my 4 X 4 Hummer simulator…
uhhhhhhhh Yeah, I said HUMMER (I feel dirty)
I am the LAST person that should do a review for a Hummer game. And that is EXACTLY why I shall! ^_^
4X4 Hummer by 1C, part of the Racing Megapack on Steam, is an off-road simulator that lets you drive a 4WD vehicle over terrain that would get you killed in real life! ^_^
I boot the game, watch the little intro video (looks like Hummer Porn), and create my profile! LET’S PLAY!!
Wait…what? My USB controller isn’t automatically set up??? …OKAY…. let’s set up the basic buttons for now….
Yeah, that was annoying, and without knowing what some of these functions will be used for, I will have to come back and edit this set up for sure.
🙁 Frown down already…lets go drive a bit!
I am given $32000 to start, so lets pick a ride. Looks like only three vehicles are available for now, lets see what they are. Chevy TrailBlazer, Chevy Colorado, and the oh so popular Hummer H3. Since this is the Hummer game, I guess I will go with the H3 to start out. With no money left for any real upgrades, and a warning to save some for repairs, I’m ready.
Got mah Hum-Vee and ahm ready ta drive…. oh brother … here we go!
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After playing for about an hour and a half, I think I am done. Not that it sucks, but I have better things to do today. ^_^
Let’s see what I thought:
Graphics/Audio
I can’t say these are bad graphics, but they are about standard. Better attention to details than most low budget titles usually invest. Not much to mention…
The sound, I am kind of torn on. The music is HORRIBLE!! I know this game is low budget, but this is one area you want to invest a little effort in to. The menu music is all instrumental, mostly “Classic Rock” guitar sounds, but not bad. The driving music is what kills me, low budget bands, non of whom I would ever listen to on my own. One song was a guy, sounded like someone stomped on his head…….. I will stop before I ramble about my hatred.
The sound effects are also mixed in quality. The environmental effects are pretty nice. Birds chirping, grass blowing, water flowing downstream, it’s nice. But, the car effects seem off, or cheap. This confuses me, because I would have assumed they would have used the sounds of the actual vehicles, it is a licensed Chevrolet video game after all.
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Gameplay
The controls aren’t automatically assigned to a controller, and I felt that the steering was a little sensitive, even after adjustments. I was always crashing into things I couldn’t see, or that looked shorter. I was constantly getting stuck on random things, or in what I assumed was mud.
The Race modes made it so easy to go off course, and almost impossible to see the small cones that line the path. The map isnt much help, since it is too small, and not very clear about which way you are traveling, let alone the correct way.
No free roaming mode either, this was a major let down. Large environments, and no time to go looking around? The premise of this title was to be an offroading simulator of many 4WD vehicles. I kind of expected it to at least let me dink around. That alone would have made me play this game A TON! I love games like Smugglers Run, where you can play the game to earn better things, but you can also just drive around and have fun doing nothing. Even after I had beaten Smugglers Run, I spent hours in free roam mode.
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Good
You can make some modifications to your vehicle, and tweak it the way you like it.
The simulation part is fairly realistic, though many things prevent you from enjoying this aspect of the game.
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Bad
Kind of slow on the load times, not bad, but not great either.
Can’t use gamepad to control menus… this is a normal feature, who drives with a keyboard and mouse??
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Summary
If I put on my own music, and spent a good amount of time to get to know the courses, this game isn’t all bad. Completely playable, just not by me. It reminded me of the old Offroad in the arcade, though that game I could play for hours 😀
Overall, I would call it average, which is about what I expected. At least this way I can try to enjoy a Hummer without spending hundreds on gas!! ^_^
I will be reviewing the other titles in this racing pack in the weeks to come, and now for some screenshots:
<I can’t believe I can say I enjoyed driving a Hummer :O >
