Carmageddon: Rogue Shift Review

One of my guilty pleasures when it comes to video games is the arcade battle racer genre. Games like Super Mario Kart, Extreme G, Kinetica, and others come to mind. One game I remembered from way back in 1997 was Carmageddon. It was a racing game about smashing into other racers, running over people, and even (at times) driving underwater. It was crazy, but what is even crazier is to think that in 2026, we would get a sequel to this under-the-radar arcade battle racer. This is Carmageddon: Rogue Shift, but can it recapture the 1997 magic?

Let’s Go!

Title: Carmageddon: Rogue Shift
Platform: PC (Reviewed)
Developer: 34BigThings
Publisher: 34BigThings
Release Date: February 6, 2026
Price: $39.99

Gameplay & Systems

Carmageddon: Rogue Shift doesn’t look or feel like its 1997 counterpart, but that’s okay because it has evolved over the nearly three decades since its debut, spanning across five total titles. While Rogue Shift is the sixth overall game to bear the Carmageddon name, it serves as a spinoff to the mainline series. Rogue Shift makes use of the power of the Unreal Engine, which naturally shows leaps and bounds in graphical fidelity since the last series entry, Max Damage, in 2016.

Here, the gameplay is rather simple. Pick the only car that they give you, the Eagle GF 429. What can I say other than it’s a starter car? It’s average across the board; however, the game incorporates some roguelite elements, which help you improve your chances of success.

Whenever you finish a race, you’ll end up earning two types of currencies: standard credits which can be used to buy weapon upgrades, car upgrades, and repairs along the track, which are temporary and only affect your current run, and Beatcoins, a clever ploy on Bitcoins right down to the emblem, which can unlock new cars and permanent upgrades across the board, making your future racers a bit easier. You can’t unlock everything with Beatcoins straight away, as you need to spend a certain amount of them before the next set of upgrades/car unlocks.

When everything is all said and done, though, you will have fifteen total cars to unlock, each with different stats such as acceleration, handling, and the type of weapon they use. Cars can use machine guns, rocket launchers, lasers, shotguns, missile racks, and more.

So far, from the cars I have unlocked, I found that the SQR-NE55 VISION74 has the best handling and acceleration; however, the tradeoff is that it uses the laser as its primary weapon, and even with a helpful lock-on system, it’s tough to remain locked on to the target… especially when navigating turns. The upside to the weapon is that it has a long active time, meaning that it gives you plenty of opportunities to relock onto your target to continue doing damage. If you manage to stay locked on during its full duration, you can deal some serious damage, making it one of the better weapons in the game.

Other weapons, such as the shotgun, can have multiple ammos stockpiled for continuous firing. Ammo is picked up along the track or dropped by enemy racers whenever you wreck them. Shops can swap out your weapons for another one if you don’t like the default, but those options only become available once you permanently unlock those weapons using Beatcoins after every run.

During races, your cars and (and will) take lots of damage. Aside from seeing the damage pile up over time, you can find repair nodes along the tracks to restore your car back to its murderous glory. In addition, wrecking enemy racers will also drop them, so be sure to be in their path when they explode!

In addition to weapons, ammo, and repairs, you end up getting a boost that charges up over time. You’ll know when it’s ready when your speedometer changes from red to blue. Hit the A button and watch your car blast ahead with a nice burst of speed. You can also get golden tickets to skip some of the nodes along the race track; however, boss fights cannot be skipped.

The progression track is not linear, which is nice. Along the way, the path will split, giving you up to three options for your next race. Some of these options give you the traditional goal of completing three laps, some only require one lap, and some can require as many as six laps. Each race has different objectives, too. For instance, one might ask you to kill 50 people along a track, and some might ask you to destroy a certain number of enemy drivers. Most of the normal tracks will have a primary objective of placing in the top 3 at the end of a race; however, there are Elite Races which will require you to finish in first place, and do so in only 1 lap! Obviously, you’ll want to complete these objectives for extra currency rewards at the end of the race.

After you progress far enough, the focus shifts to a boss fight. Here, you need to take down one or several boss-level racers. Here, you don’t have to worry about placing first, second, or third in a race because there is no finish line. Instead, it’s a race against the timer as you have a certain amount of time to kill the boss, or you automatically lose. The boss fights so far have been fun and challenging, as they have you dodging mechanics such as getting rammed, rockets, bombs, exploding barrels, and more.

To make matters worse, the police are after you as well. These police cars can show up in any race, including boss levels, to add an extra layer of annoyance (aka challenge) to your objective. They love ramming into you, sending you into a barricade, or even pinning you against a wall. In instances such as this, or if you run into a wall and come to a complete stop, you can hold Down on the D-Pad and respawn.

There is a cooldown between the number of times you can do this, so it’s not a system you can spam to get yourself out of any scenario at any time, but the cooldown is quick enough that it can be used frequently.

Overall Thoughts

Carmageddon: Rogue Shift is straightforward. You pick a car, you race, you earn currency, you unlock stuff, and you progress a bit further each time. The variety of cars and upgrades is numerous, and the RNG aspect when visiting shops can make each run feel unique.

The graphics are pretty nice as it depicts a dystopian world where lawless underground racing is king. The tracks are fun as they offer different challenges, either from their objectives or unique hazards placed in your way. Hazards from tunnels, tight turns, wrecking balls, and more can be found as you make your way down the progression track.

Does it do arcade shooter racers justice? I think so. I had a lot of fun playing this game, as nothing ever felt too frustrating. There were some moments where you questioned just how some of the enemy racers can just shoot ahead of you, and your boost doesn’t seem to feel like it makes up for their difference in speed, but those moments were few and far between.

I didn’t know if I would agree with the lock-on system at first, but when you’re trying not to spin out of control (I’m looking at you, Firecracker), that lock-on system becomes a godsend. The only qualm I have is that you cannot control your ammo usage. What I mean by that is when you have, let’s say, the machine gun, you can’t hold down the fire button, release it, and preserve the rest of your ammo.

Once you press that button, you’re committed. So, you always need to make sure that you have your shot either lined up or you’re fully locked on to your target before committing because once you fire, there’s no turning back. That would be the only improvement I would suggest… especially with the laser weapon. I can’t recall how many times I wasted a shot because I got hit from behind or had to take a sharp turn.

The soundtrack for the game is stellar if you’re a metalhead. I enjoyed the heavy riffs as they added to the atmosphere that Carmageddon has been known for throughout the past near-30 years. If that’s not your taste in music, you probably won’t enjoy it, but then again… If you’re playing a racing game with missile racks, machine guns, and painting your car red in the blood of those who dare to stand in your way, you’re probably not into soft rock or pop music. If you are, then cheers to your eccentric mixture of interests!

At a price tag of $39.99, Carmageddon: Rogue Shift is reasonably priced for what it offers, which is a fun, repeatable experience with great graphics and detail. If you’re looking for a new battle racer to add to your collection, I don’t think that you can go wrong here!

Review Disclosure Statement: Carmageddon: Rogue Shift for PC (Steam) was provided to us by 34BigThings for review purposes. For more information on how we review games and other media, please see our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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