Speed Freeks: A Warhammer 40K Vehicle Brawler With More Noise Than Traction

Speed Freeks is a multiplayer-only vehicle combat game set in the Warhammer 40K universe, built around the Orks and their obsession with speed, dakka, and barely functional mechanics. It mixes team-based objective modes with high-speed vehicular chaos, somewhere between Twisted Metal, Overwatch, and Rocket League—if you stripped out polish, added a lot of yelling, and duct-taped rockets to scrap.

You choose from a roster of Ork vehicles, each falling into classic roles: Damage, Tank, or Support. Every one of them is loud, mobile, and armed to the teeth. Some are speedy buggies with jump jets. Others are slow-moving fortresses. Each one has unique primary weapons, alt-fire modes, and an ability. There’s depth here, even if the game doesn’t surface much of it.

There are two main modes. Deff Rally is a loose race-to-zone skirmish where teams fight over checkpoints across the map. You race, fight, capture, repeat. Kill Konvoy is more structured: your team’s Ork Stompa races across the map while you try to blow up the enemy’s by loading and delivering bombs. Both modes lean more into combat than racing. It’s not Mario Kart—you’re here to smash, not finesse.

The game recently relaunched as a buy-to-play title after a long stint in early access as a free-to-play product. That transition came with some big backend changes, including bot support, improved movement, server browser, and removal of the mandatory third-party login system that originally killed a lot of momentum. But the core gameplay loop is largely the same—and so are the complaints.

What Went Wrong (And Is Still Wrong)

The most common experience reported by early players was this: matchmaking would shove you into half-empty lobbies filled with bots. By the time real players showed up, the match was almost over. Then it resets, and the cycle repeats. It wasn’t unplayable, but it wasn’t what the game was clearly meant to be. Matchmaking has since been replaced with a game browser, but the low player count hasn’t gone away, so the root problem remains.

Balance has been another sore point. Vehicles have blind spots (literally—like tanks with guns mounted too high to shoot targets in front of them), and some builds were just better than others at close range or objective control. Hit registration has been sketchy, and while devs claim it’s improved, enough people have already written it off that perception hasn’t shifted. Bugs have included vehicles not unlocking properly, crashes on startup, and full lobbies breaking mid-match. A recent patch added host migration, which helps, but it should’ve been there from the start.

The move to a paid model hasn’t landed well either. For a niche multiplayer-only game with no campaign, no competitive scene, and no real player base, asking people to pay upfront kills impulse installs. Even fans admit they wouldn’t have touched it if they hadn’t gotten it free from the early access phase.

So Is It Any Good?

The short answer: sometimes.

When the stars align—when you’re in a match with other actual humans, on a map that flows well, in a vehicle you’ve learned to handle—it works. The mobility is excellent, especially in lighter vehicles with air control and dash abilities. The sense of momentum and chaos is pure Ork. Maps are well-designed for mayhem, with ramps, hazards, and verticality that reward aggressive driving. The game sounds great. Guns roar. Orks scream. Engines rattle. It’s not subtle, but it’s immersive in that junkyard way.

There’s no story. No campaign. No persistent meta beyond unlocks. This is a game about throwing yourself into the fight, blowing stuff up, and maybe crashing into a lava pit for fun. You can play solo with bots or do free roam if you just want to mess about. The Steam Deck support is solid. And no, it doesn’t work with a racing wheel—and probably shouldn’t.

Console versions don’t exist, and that’s a missed opportunity. This kind of fast, scrappy fun would probably do better on Game Pass or PS Plus, but the game is PC-only for now. The devs have hinted at interest, but nothing is confirmed.

WAAAAAGGHHH!!!

Speed Freeks is a game a lot of people wanted to love. And for a few, it’s already delivering. But right now it feels like a decent core experience surrounded by the wreckage of bad decisions: launching too early, flipping the business model, scaring off the player base, and trying to recover momentum without marketing or presence.

The devs are active, honest, and still patching. That’s rare and deserves credit. They’ve even de-monetised the game—ditching battle passes and premium currencies entirely. It’s a passion project trying to climb out of its own grave.

But in its current state, it’s a gamble. You’ll either have a blast with bots and the occasional real match, or you’ll refund it in under an hour after watching a lobby fill with three players and a sea of AI.

For Ork fans? It might still be worth a punt. For everyone else, it’s more of a curiosity than a must-play.