Carmageddon: Rogue Shift Revives the Cult Classic Vehicular-Combat Series

Between 1997 and 2005, Carmageddon carved out a notorious niche with its chaotic destruction-derby racing across PCs, consoles, and handhelds — a run defined by a trilogy and several spinoffs. Stainless Games briefly resurrected the franchise with Carmageddon: Reincarnation in 2014 and followed with Carmageddon: Max Damage in 2016, but the series has been largely dormant until today, when a new spin-off was unveiled during the PC Gaming Show: Carmageddon: Rogue Shift.

Rogue Shift grafts roguelite design onto the series’ arcade-style vehicular mayhem. Each attempt drops you into a procedurally arranged city where you’ll choose routes on a branching map, confront bosses, and assemble loadouts of weapons, perks, and vehicle classes. Runs unfold under a shifting day/night cycle with dynamic weather — and when night falls, streets fill with ravenous zombie hordes. Progression is persistent through unlocks, encouraging experimentation with tactical builds and daring driving maneuvers as you chase victory in the Carmageddon street-racing tournament.

According to game director Giuseppe Enrico Franchi, the goal is to refresh the franchise while preserving its core identity: exploration, destructive creativity, and fast, brutal encounters. The team aims to have players adapt on the fly, upgrade their arsenals, and gleefully unleash chaos on both rivals and zombie swarms from behind the wheel.

The last two Carmageddon console entries — Reincarnation and Max Damage — received lukewarm critical responses, each averaging scores in the 50s on aggregate sites. Rogue Shift is being developed by 34BigThings, a new partner for the franchise; that studio’s most recent racing effort, Redout 2, earned generally favorable notices (reaching roughly the high 70s on Metacritic) with many reviewers praising its speed and handling.

Carmageddon: Rogue Shift is scheduled to launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC in early 2026.