Orks screaming “Red wunz go fasta!” as they smash their bashed-together death-bringing vehicles into each other is part of the fundamental vision of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Nearly 30 years ago, Games Workshop released a game called Gorkamorka, a game of vehicular carnage – basically the tabletop version of Twisted Metal – that was a bright, but short-lived flame amongst the grim darkness of the Imperium. It was fun, and I liked it, not least because it was basically Destruction Derby with green idiots and guns.
Here we are in 2025 with Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks, a game of vehicular carnage that makes good on Gorkamorka’s original promise, but without any of that pesky painting, dice, or having to use a ruler. It is, like its Orkish stars, pretty straightforward, but there’s a lot of fun to be found in its arena battling and racing.
You, and your team of green-skinned online buddies – or random people you’ll never hear from again – are dropped into different arenas to do battle. You’re given a selection of vehicle types, armed with boosts, special abilities and a variety of guns and bombs, and you want to blow up the enemy team’s cars more often than they blow yours up.
There’s two main modes here, with Deff Rally – seriously, Orks can’t spell anything – tasking players with racing to different waypoints while trying to destroy each other. You earn points for your team by making it to the waypoint first, or by blowing up enemy drivers, and both tactics seem like legitimate choices, hopefully sharing the roles between your team.
There’s a batch of different vehicles to choose from, with each boasting their own unique set of abilities, as well as different stats for speed, damage and armour. They broadly fit into classes like any other multiplayer shooter, so slower, more heavily armoured tanks are… well, they’re tanks, while faster damage dealers take the role of DPS. I found myself gravitating to support, as I often do, and it’s a great vehicle class that launches explosive Squigs for damage, or alternate ones that can heal your teammates.
The second main mode is Kill Konvoy, and it’s easily my favourite of the two. Combining Capture The Flag with Deathmatch, there’s two giant Stompas – hulking great Ork mechs – and they’re moving steadily towards a finish line. Your aim is to collect bombs and drive them straight up to these mechs’ feet, with each successful detonation slowing the Stompa down and giving your team the advantage.
There’s a great push and pull to these encounters, as you frantically try to get your teammate with the bomb to the enemy Stompa, while the enemy team aim to stop you by any means necessary, while doing the same things. It’s glorious, chaotic fun, and it gets your heart racing as fast as your war buggy.
Speed Freeks was set to be a free-to-play game, but as Wired Productions stepped in to publish it, they’ve altered the business model to make it it a single payment release. There’s a faint aftertaste of the free-to-play model that existed through the open beta, and Speed Freeks is undoubtedly a relatively slim game because of it; there’s two main modes, two free battle pass pathways, and a series of unlockable cosmetics and further vehicles. You will have grasped the fundamentals within a couple of hours and unlocked a chunk of its wares a few hours later. That said, it’s launched at an extremely reasonable £12.99, and even once the introductory offer is done, £19.99 is a great jumping on price for what is a hugely enjoyable multiplayer experience.
That’s even more true if you have any love whatsoever for Warhammer 40,000 – especially Gorkamorka – and there’s a lightness of tone that you’re not getting from Space Marine 2 or Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
There aren’t loads of multiplayer vehicular combat options right now, and Speed Freeks feels like something of a throwback to a simpler time. There’s unlockables, a sense of progression, and a heap of multiplayer shenanigans, but it feels less serious and less regimented than we’re probably used to. It’s just… well, fun.
Speed Freeks is a perfect example of how smaller, more focused, multiplayer titles can find a place in the swollen games market. It’s all the better for losing its free-to-play status, and it deserves to find a committed community of players. Here’s hoping that it’ll find its way to console, as I think it’s a great fit for pick up and play action, especially for people who want to play online, without having to devote their entire life and personality to gaining access to the next tier league or justifying a battle pass purchase.
