| Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks | |||
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| Gameplay & Story | Release Date | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks is a free-to-play combat racing game set in the 41st Millennium where the Kult of Speed take their obsession with high octane racing to a whole new level. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Review Overview
What is Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks?
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks is a free-to-play live-service combat racing game where teams compete against each other for glory. Set in the Warhammer 40K universe, the game is based on the Kult of Speed Clan of Orks who are obsessed with and addicted to driving really fast, instead of the normal obsession with slaughter and explosions.
The game has two game modes that are available to play which are a point capture game mode and a payload-like game mode where both teams race their payload against each other. It also has customization options to personalize the different playable vehicles to give it your own personal touch. Additionally, the game will have battle passes and in-game cash shop items that are purely cosmetic.
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks features:
⚫︎ Set in the Warhammer 40k universe, mainly on the The Kult of Speed
⚫︎ Classic Combat Racing Gameplay
⚫︎ Two Different Game Modes - Deff Rally and Kill Konvoy
⚫︎ 8 Playable Vehicles and Customizable Appearance
⚫︎ Free-to-Play with Microtransactions for Cosmetics
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks's gameplay and story.
 Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks |
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 Steam |
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Pros & Cons
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| Pros | Cons |
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 Completely Free-to-Play Extremely Fun and Simple Gameplay Personalize Your Rides |
No Tutorial Matchmaking Issues Not Much to Keep You Playing |
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Overall - 80/100
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks is a fun reminder of the classic combat racing gameplay of old. With the game focused more on its gameplay and a bit of its cosmetics, adopting a live-service model works in its favor. It’s quite literally a game that you install and play immediately, and it’s actually simple to grasp and immensely fun. There are some missed chances with regards to introducing the Kult of Speed or other Warhammer lore with single player modes, music during actual gameplay, and other Early Access woes that it’s currently facing, but the game being free absolutely makes it worth it.
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Story - 5/10
The lore and universe of Warhammer 40k are massive, and it’s a shame that they don’t really get touched on in gameplay aside from some in-game text. While the Kult of Speed and the Orks can be a launching pad for you to get into Warhammer (like it did for us), they could have done a better job to get players into the franchise with a single player mode or maybe more lore bits during gameplay.
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Gameplay - 9/10
The game is very direct, simple, and to the point. As soon as you get in, there’s no tutorials, no fluff, nothing. It immediately drops you in the main menu, where you can queue up for a game as soon as you get in. It’s a live-service game, so battle passes and other microtransactions are to be expected. However, these are purely cosmetic and do not affect gameplay at all.
The best part about this is that the game is amazingly fun as well, as there’s good variety among the playable vehicles since they’re equipped with different weaponry and fulfill different roles. It’s simple to grasp and fun to play, especially with friends. There are some things to fix, as the game is still in Early Access, like the matchmaking and more content to play, but it’s foundation as a fun multiplayer PvP game is solid and will only get better from here on.
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Visuals - 8/10
Visually speaking, the game looks pretty good, even on lower settings. The whole aesthetic of the game being a huge vehicle death rally and combat sport for the Orks captures the vibe of Warhammer 40k. It’s also great to point out that the game’s UI is also great, it’s easy to understand and translates to the gameplay as well. To add to this, the number of customization options that you have for each vehicle is quite impressive for a game that’s still in Early Access.
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Audio - 8/10
The game severely lacks music during gameplay, which is probably the biggest hit to the audio score. It would definitely add more to the game’s vibe if it had some hard rock or metal tracks to bolster the game during combat, as the voice acting and the sound effects are already pretty good and were definitely delivered well.
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Value for Money - 10/10
The game is completely free-to-play; what’s not to like? Additionally, the game’s microtransactions are purely cosmetic and will not affect the gameplay at all. In a PvP focused game, this is great news, as it means that players who keep playing and buy every battle pass won’t stomp on new players that may come in the future.
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Review: A Warhammer 40K Combat Racer?!
With the huge world and franchise such as Warhammer, there’s a lot of different concepts and things that the franchise can translate into different media. It’s great that the Speed Freeks get the spotlight in their own combat racing game in Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks. Some of us in Game8 are huge fans of the older Twisted Metal games, which directly translated to our excitement when the game was announced in 2023.
There’s not much to talk about in the game’s story aside from the characters based on the Kult of Speed Orks in the Warhammer 40K franchise, who have an unhealthy obsession with speed. These Orks are dubbed Speed Freeks, and they’re very much into creating and outfitting vehicles to achieve suicidal speeds and massive amounts of firepower. If we’re getting into it, the vehicles in the game are based on the different vehicles that they use in the franchise, which looks amazingly accurate as well.
Now, let’s talk about the game’s audio and visuals. The audio design in the game is great, but the biggest flaw is the lack of music in the game. It would add a lot more to the gameplay, since the sound effects and voice acting are already well done and fit the vibe perfectly. Next, the game’s visuals are also good, as the game’s aesthetic and theme shine through the character and vehicle designs. Also, it’s great to point out that the game’s UI is also simple, readable, and, most of all, functional, as it helps the player understand the gameplay.
Now the biggest part of the game is its high-octane combat racing gameplay. It’s definitely a breath of fresh air since this type of genre and game have been sorely missed. The game’s mechanics are simple, each vehicle has five abilities, three of which are unique to them. These are their main weapons, sub weapons, and some sort of escape or survival tool. The last two abilities are a universal dash to help you ram into opponents and a boost to help you move around quicker.
The abilities of each vehicle are already explained in the game’s pregame phase, as is the summary of the vehicle’s strengths and weaknesses, but even if you disregard these, they’re quite easy to understand. One example is the Boomdakka Snazzwagon which is described as a short-range brawler type vehicle that uses Burna Bottles (Molotov Cocktails) and a Mek Speshul (Gattling Gun) to shred opponents. It’s quite clear that the playstyle revolves around staying in the fight while moving quickly to dispatch foes using your firebombs and guns.
It’s good to know that the game’s UI isn’t super overbearing to let you read these details, and if you decide to disregard or ignore them, the game isn’t super complicated to learn either. Even the two other game modes are pretty easy to learn. This is where the game’s flaw comes in, however, as the game really isn’t that deep. It’s a great multiplayer game with easy to learn gameplay and mechanics on the surface, but there isn’t much in the gameplay that compels you to keep playing.
The game’s endgame for you is to grind challenges and the free tier battle pass to unlock more cosmetics for you to spice up your vehicle’s facade. However, after playing a few games, the Early Access bug will tell you that there really isn’t much content in the game. Thankfully, the game is free, so there’s no damage to your wallet for playing the game for a few hours.
To sum it all up, Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks is great and is absolutely worth your time. However, it has to address its content problem with the coming updates. Live-service games are always playing a rollercoaster with their playerbase sliding down and climbing back up after big updates. Everything in the game has a good foundation for being a great multiplayer game that people can come back to, but the biggest hurdle would be trying to spice things up for every update and how to innovate the game’s simplicity.
Pros of Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks
| Things Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Got Right |
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Completely Free-to-Play Extremely Fun and Simple Gameplay Personalize Your Rides |
Completely Free-to-Play
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks is a free-to-play game, which is still quite surprising as the game is made of high quality and has the makings of a great live-service multiplayer game.
Extremely Fun and Simple Gameplay
There are two main game modes in the currently–Deff Rally and Kill Konvoy. Both of which are very easy to understand, as the former is a simple point capture game mode with a race twist at the end, and the latter is a payload and reverse capture-the-flag hybrid. Each game mode’s objectives are easy to understand, as with the actual gameplay.
The game doesn’t actually have a tutorial, except for the YouTube videos that they link to in the game’s menu. But credit goes to the game’s UI and simple game design, as they both work in tandem to make a simple yet extremely fun game without going overboard on the vehicle functions.
Personalize Your Rides
The game offers a lot of customization options to your vehicles. These range from paint jobs, rims, accessories, and more. It’s a great way to show off both your achievements in the game and your own style, at least in the Warhammer 40k vibe.
Cons of Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks
| Things That Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Can Improve |
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Live-Service Multiplayer Only Matchmaking Issues Lacks Content to Motivate You |
Live-Service Multiplayer Only
The game is purely a live-service multiplayer game. This means that the game is online only and has all of the microtransactions, battle passes, and cash shops. So far, there hasn’t been a second battle pass, so only time will tell if the cosmetics might have that FOMO element that the live-service model loves to use to hook players in to keep playing their game.
In addition to this, the game doesn’t really have anything going for it to really push the lore of Warhammer 40k, especially since it feels like a really big missed opportunity to not talk about the details or the background of the Kult of Speed Orks.
Matchmaking Issues
We’ll chalk this up to an Early Access issue, but there is one big flaw with the game’s matchmaking. Don’t get us wrong, the matchmaking has been very quick, but we quickly found out that we were matched with bots most of the time. It’s a shame that the game doesn’t necessarily match players properly, but at least you get games in, right?
Well, slightly wrong. There were a couple of instances where the game just kicked us out of an ongoing game with no warning or notification whatsoever. It’s definitely jarring, but on the bright side, you can just find another match again.
Lacks Content to Motivate You
The game is still in its infancy as of now, but at the moment, the game really only has two things for you to do. The customization is the end game that players will be completing challenges for, but it’s really limiting that you can only play point capture or an escort game mode. Of course, this will definitely be remedied by having more maps and different game modes in coming updates, but as of now, this is the game’s biggest hurdle to keeping players.
Is Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Worth It?
It’s Time to Join the Kult of Speed!
With the game being fully free-to-play, there’s absolutely no reason for you to not play this game. Additionally, the game’s microtransactions are purely cosmetic, and the devs have assured that they will remain this way throughout the game’s lifespan. It’s a great game to just open and play for a few hours of repetitive, mindless destruction, and may be something to keep coming back for when it gets its big updates.
| Digital Storefront | |||||
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| Steam |
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| Free-to-Play |
Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks FAQ
Will Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks have a console release?
As of writing, there is no information regarding the game having a console release.
How long will Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks be in Early Access?
According to the devs themselves, they are aiming for the game to be in Early Access for a few months. The full release is planned to be this year as well, which includes more maps, vehicles, features, and more.
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Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Product Information
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| Title | WARHAMMER 40K SPEED FREEKS |
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| Release Date | August 6, 2024 |
| Developer | Caged Element Inc. |
| Publisher | PLAION |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Genre | Shooter, Racing |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | E10+ |
| Official Website | Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks Official Website |
