Carmageddon: Rogue Shift puts a roguelitey twist on the series' classic wheeled warfare, will start bending fenders in early 2026

It's got a murderous camper van named after Margaret Thatcher

Crank up the pounding metal riffs and make sure you're covered in spikes. Carmageddon: Rogue Shift, a roguelite-infused take on the old school automotive murder-battler from Redout devs 34BigThings, has just been revealed and is set to smash onto the scene early next year.

You're a person in a big spiky car with guns or missiles. The folks you're racemurdering as you drive around are also in big spiky cars with guns or missiles. One of these 15 big spiky cars with upgradeable guns or missiles is a not-quite VW camper van dubbed "Iron Lady". Finally, a chance for Margaret Thatcher's evil powers to be used for good.

"By day, the skyline smolders; by night, zombie hordes - the Wasted - flood every avenue and turn them into kill-zones," reads the synopsis. "Your only way out is to win the Carmageddon: a chain of lethal underground races whose champion earns a shot at the last spaceport beyond the mountains."

Making that escape means fighting your way through roguelike runs of car murder, battling through districts bossed by the likes of "corrupted enforcers, supermutated Wasteds, and monstrous war machines". Between runs, you spend beatcoins on building the perfect combo of car, weapon, and perks. There are 13 different kinds of deathbringer, including shotguns, railguns, and lasers if you want to get all fancy. Progression's permanent, and it sounds as if you'll be reincarnated as a slightly stronger driver each time you pop your clogs.

Having taken in the trailer, it looks like it could offer me the sort of Wreckfesty rush I regularly crave, though that'll largely depend on how satisfying the cars handle and smash together. The weapons'll also need to be sufficiently weighty. As of writing, I've only ever given the demo of 34BigThings's Wipeouty spaceship racer Redout a go, and I recall that not quite scratching my itch as much as its classic inspiration in what was a very limited sample, to be fair.

Rogue Shift's certainly one I'll be keeping an eye on, though, because its premise sounds like it could be killer if executed as well as your average murdercampervan missile barrage.