A new sequel to banned vehicle combat game Carmageddon has been announced, which takes the series in a roguelike direction.
The amount of games which have been banned in the UK is relatively small, with most examples being global victims of censorship, like the recently released Horses. But one of the most famous examples of a gamebeing proscribed only in the UK is1997’s Carmageddon.
The first entry in the vehicular combat series was refused certification by the BBFC over the ability to run over pedestrians in bloody fashion. A revised version was released where the civilians were replaced with green-blooded zombies, but after a successful appeal, the BBFC reverted the ban and the uncensored version was released as planned.
This all played out over the span of several months, but as the game wasn’t very good, not many people actually cared. Carmageddon received several sequels over the years, but the franchise has laid dormant since the 2015 reboot Carmageddon: Reincarnation… until now.
As announced during the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted, Carmageddon: Rogue Shift is a roguelike revamp of the usual car smashing formula. The open environments appear to have been replaced with more linear tracks, as you earn points by taking out opponents and performing drifts, jumps, and other vehicular tricks.
Developer 34BigThings, known for the Wipeout-inspired Redout series, is promising a roguelike campaign for Rogue Shift. In a similar vein to titles like Hades and Rogue Legacy, it will have a randomised run of events, with bosses, and a dynamically increasing difficulty.
The overall loop is summarised as ‘race, collect, upgrade, retry’ in the trailer, so hopefully it will pack in enough incentives for repeat runs.
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Rogue Shift boasts 15 upgradeable vehicles, 13 weapon classes ranging from shotguns to railguns, dynamic weather, and a perk system to customise your destructive capabilities.
You won’t be running down innocent civilians in Rogue Shift either, with the action taking place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (set in 2050, quite worryingly) filled with not-red-blooded zombie hordes.
Carmageddon doesn’t exactly have a storied reputation, but this looks like a refreshing spin on the vehicular combat genre – at a time when the likes of Twisted Metal and Burnout have fallen out of fashion.
Carmageddon: Rogue Shift is set to come out in early 2026 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
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