This Warhammer 40,000 combat-racing game makes Mad Max look subtle by comparison

Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks promotional screenshot
(Image credit: PLAION)

What you need to know

  • During Warhammer Skulls Showcase 2024 event, a new gameplay trailer was unveiled for Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks.
  • This trailer features a look at the Kill Konvoy game mode while announcing that a new open-beta has begun and that the full version will launch sometime in the summer of 2024.
  • Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks is an upcoming combat-racing PC game where players play as the violent Orks and try to blow each other up in over-the-top, chaotic races to the death called Speedwaaaghs.

On May 23, 2024, a new gameplay trailer for an upcoming combat-racing title set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe titled Warhammer 40,000 Speed Freeks was shown off at this year's Warhammer Skulls Showcase event.

This trailer shows off one of the title's game modes called Kill Konvoy, where two teams of eight players must escort a giant Ork mecha called a Stompa across the battlefield and have their respective Stompa reach the finish line first.

Player teams can attempt to sabotage their enemy's Stompas by firing bombs at them, speed up their own Stompa to get to the finish line faster, or simply blow up the enemy team so they can't their Stompa at all.

This trailer also has two important pieces of information to announce. First off, a new Open Beta test has begun for Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks where players can try out the Kill Konvoy and win exclusive cosmetic rewards for taking part. 

To sign in to the Open Beta Test, all you have to do is visit the game's Steam store page and click the request access option to join the queue. You can find more information on the conditions of the Open Beta Test on the Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks' Steam blog page.

The second big announcement is that the full version of Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks is scheduled to launch sometime during the Summer of 2024.

For the uninformed, Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks is a combat-racing game similar to titles like Twisted Metal or the racing segments of Mad Max (2015) where you play as a race of violent monsters called Orks. However, these aren't your ordinary Orks, these are SPEED FREEKS, a subgroup of Orks obsessed with building the gnarliest, fastest, heavily-armed racing vehicles and blowing each other up in races to the death.

Your goal in this game is to build the biggest and baddest buggy, bike, Trukk, or tank you can make and blast your way past the competition until you're the last Ork standing in the mother of all death races called the Speedwaaagh!

Orks are made for fightin' and winnin'

(Image credit: PLAION)

Orks are one of my favorite all-time races of Warhammer 40,000 and this time encapsulates them perfectly. Contrasted against stone-cold serious factions like Space Marines, Necrons, and Imperial Guard, Orks are a bunch of hilarious, stupid, chaotic, degenerate hooligans that act as the franchise's comic relief due to their violent yet loveable personalities. 

I'm not usually a fan of racing games, but I do enjoy games with brutal vehicular combat, like the aforementioned Mad Max game or Rage 2. If this upcoming PC game can capture the same satisfying levels of road rage carnage of those games while adding entertaining Ork shenanigans as a bonus, this could potentially become one of the best racing games on PC, or even one of the best PC games of 2024.

We will have to wait and see if it lives to its potential when Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks launches on PC via Steam later this summer.

Alexander Cope

Alexander Cope is a gaming veteran of 30-plus years, primarily covering PC and Xbox games here on Windows Central. Gaming since the 8-bit era, Alexander's expertise revolves around gaming guides and news, with a particular focus on Japanese titles from the likes of Elden Ring to Final Fantasy. Alexander is always on deck to help our readers conquer the industry's most difficult games — when he can pry himself away from Monster Hunter that is!