It’s not often I play a game that’s exactly what I expect it to be, but Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks truly is. I missed Caged Element’s violent racer-cum-destruction derby when it launched on PC, but now it’s coming to console I’ve been playing it on PlayStation 5, and it’s as bonkers as I wanted it to be.
Before I get into it, though, I just want to say that I’m super happy that Orks are the faction devs have decided to be experimental with. A few years ago we had Shootas, Blood & Teef, a chonky little side-scrolling shooter, and now we have Speed Freekz, something that feels spiritually linked, even though it isn’t. This is largely because Orks are the most fun faction in Games Workshop’s infamous grimdark future.
In Speed Freeks you take control of our favourite brutally-violent sentient fungi but instead of putting on your big krumpin boots, you’re jumping into big krumpin’ vehicles and smashing the snot and teef out of each other across a number of events I can only charitably refer to as races.
See, an Ork’s version of racing isn’t just about soft-touch stuff like who goes fastest and who crosses the finish line first; it’s also about how much damage you can do, how many points you can capture and hold, and how blinged-up your battle buggy looks while you do it. Orks don’t go anywhere to make friends, and yet they always seem to be having the most fun.
You can select your vehicle from a number of options, several of which are unlocked at the start and others you unlock as you go. Each race earns you experience for your “speed pass”, which is a free battle pass system that rewards cosmetics for your vehicles and pit boss. They have different weapons, which you’ll also be able to switch out as you earn more XP, and varying stats, none of which I felt made all that much difference – at least for the ground-based vehicles. Deffkoptas deserve their own category, super-fast and destructive, but very flimsy.
Once you have a vehicle you jump into one of two modes: Deff Rally is the closest thing to actual racing as you road-rage yourself through a number of checkpoints in a no-rules frag-fest. Or there’s Kill Konvoy, which is easily the better and more “orky” of the two. This is more like Capture the Flag, as you race to gather explosives, and then use them to take out two giant mech Stompas who are smashing around the arena. It’s insanely fun, and really made me wish the developer had settled into the madness and given use a few more off-the-wall modes.
Weaponry is suitably loud and silly, with rocket-launches, rapid-fire dakka-dakkas, and Squig launchers that shoot little blobs of rage strapped with explosives at the enemy. Accuracy is a problem for somebody else in Speed Freeks, and that just adds to the sense of fun.
For that reason, though, this isn’t a game for serious race fans. It might not even be a game strictly for Warhammer 40K fans either, given it eschews the usual sense of tactics and creativity that go with many games from the same stable. It is a game for fans of Orks, of course, which is why any of us are here in the first place.
Ironically, Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks feels like it came and went on a flash on PC so I’m both surprised and happy that it has a second life on console, and I’d certainly recommend it to fans of silly, smash racing action. It’s decent looking, runs pretty well, and offers enough madcap fun to satisfy anyone who enjoyed Rocket League but felt that what it really needed was more Cockney accents and, well, actual rockets.
