I enjoy driving games. I have sunk many a quarter into driver’s like Pole Position, Bump N Jump and Sky Hunter. You can even see one of the classic fighting drivers in DeathTrack in my countdown already as well as things like MaroKart.

Dark Future was a Games Workshop wargame from ’88. It was probably inspired by Car Wars from Steve Jackson. This version appears to have been influenced by the Bethesda Fallouts as well as Mad Max and others.


In this game, you are running a number of missions as part of a campaign. Each mission is locked into 10 minutes, although some can take a few minutes more if they go later into the time trial based on a mechanic below is heavily used. During that time, you will need to drive missions down the road like protect an escort, kill a number of baddies, break through a number of blockages and so forth.

The driving part takes place in four lanes and the AI will keep you at a certain speed. You use buttons to move into other lanes or speed up/down or brake/turbo boost. The AI will move you into that lane, and you can shoot weapons on your vehicle, ram for serious damage, and loads more.


Much like in Fallout where you can head to the VATS system to plan, aim, shoot, heal, and crouch, you can move into a focused mode here too. You can fire weapons, move into a few different lanes, and more, and then move off and those things will happen.


There are a number of campaigns where you unlock new cars, as well as pick up stuff along the way. Each campaign ends around 2-3 hours of missions later. Each of the campaigns has perma-death. So if you die, you are dead dead. Unless you took the second chance perk, and then you get one free death.



Now, I have a unique take of this game.

As someone with a degenerative neurological disorder (Huntington's Disease), this is the first driving game I've been able to play in the last five years. The unique driving method and Fallout ability to pause-ish and plan my moves while driving enables me to play the game. Thanks! I can see myself playing this for a long time to come.

I went and bought the soundtrack for the game, as a special thanks (it’s really good too!).


Drive on!

This game has so much potential unfortunately it comes up a bit short.
In it's current state it is repetative and once you play through a certain missiontype you've pretty much seen all that that kinds of mission has to offer.
And there's like 6 different kinds of mission totally.

You play different characters locked in a season and the only replay value lies within unlocking perks and new characters without the option to create your own driver. And once you're done with a season that's it. Start a new season with a new character and so on..

If the devs would add the option to create your own driver, build your own car, create your own gang, maybe add missions where you could take over (and had to hold) different strategic points, fuel etc and so on this game would be awesome but unfortunately it delivers none of that.

It's beeing praised for it's strategic elements but the only strategy is where to have your car placed, when to use boost and when to brake and what enemy you should DPS. Oh and ofc, how to outfit your car.

The game looks beautiful and runs smooth but in it's current state it's just shallow and repetative.

I wanted this to be so much more than it was.

Maybe its my age, but I enjoy games that others will find to be little more than a grind. All the games in my youth were pretty grindy. Like re-watching a TV show, novelty is replace with slight changes of a pattern. This gives the game nice rhythm.

The over-arching story line is ok- pretty typical (I was expect more from James Swallow- but maybe there is more to come).

The only issue so far is that after the 10 hour mark the Unreal engine crashes at the end of every second or third mission.

So, if you still double tap the space bar at the end of a sentence you'll enjoy the game a bit more. It is an 80's game through and though.

I for one really enjoy this game. I also like Blasted Road Terror, Death ♥♥♥♥ Marks, and Convoy was ok to me. Maybe cause I grew up at a time when Mad Max was popular and I loved all types of Car Combat I am biased toward this. One of my favorite games of all time is Roadwar 2000 (which I would love a remake of) and I didn't get to play it as much as I wanted to, but Autoduel as well.

I will admit, this game isn't for everyone. It might not "look" or "sound" like a 2019 game to them, but it's also less than $30 not on sale. The gameplay isn't you driving the car as much as giving orders, so it's more strategic. Be in the right lane, choose the right weapons and such. The game gives me an old school feel and some nostalgia vibes and so far I am really enjoying it.

I saw this and was like woah. I am an OG Steve Jackson Carwars player and played about every vehicle combat game that exists. I was ready to love it, and love it I did. Until i reached the second campaign. It's crashed 5 out of 5 times after i complete the first mission. Looking at the discussion board is full of people complaining about crashes way back in july of 2019, and here I am almost a year later warning you not to waste your money. Sorry developers, you had a good thing, but a consistent issue that isn't fixed after a year? That's on you.

A maybe would be the most appropriate rating. Take note of my in game time.

I feel as though once you have about 1-2 hours of game time, you've pretty much seen what the game will be like 10 hours in. It's mostly comprised of running missions ad inifitum until you "win" (if that's even a case) or you die; a rogue-like of sorts. The only problem I can see is that most runs are going to run more or less the same; you'll run the same mission types again and again with little in the way of variety. There are different weapons, and upgrades, but I wouldn't say you'll see anything in the way of Binding of Isaac when it comes to builds and variety that keep the game interesting.

I almost feel as though Auroch could have saved themselves a good bit of money by NOT buying a licence from GW, and simply skinned this as a Mad Max-esque car shooter in the vein of Road Redemption or Convoy and few would have really noticed. It's missing some of the fun nuances that the table-top game has that you'll notice if you've ever played it before.

IT would almost be like taking Star Wars Armada, the pretty fun table-top game, and making a digital version of it, but a RTS with Pause. It could be a serviceable game, undoubtedly, but not quite what a fan of Armada was looking for.

It's essentially a roguelite crossed over with an endless runner.
Simple, but helluva fun - and the simplicity helps in the more hectic fights (especially if you have more than one vehicle to manage, ie your own + hired mercenary + escort VIP)
The "one more level" syndrome is STRONG with this one.

I did just refund the game. Its seems super interesting in theory, but the forty minutes or so of gameplay I put in felt very samey. The car is driven for you, meaning that most of what you do is select a target for your turret, change lanes, and occasionally hit the turbo to ram someone. This left me wanting for more decisions to make. Mostly I was just waiting for the cooldown on my weapons, and hitting the buttons. I made almost no interesting decisions, and nothing I did felt particularly challenging or engaging. The enemies felt tanky enough that a lot of what I was doing was kind of a slog, maybe this was because all of the starting weapons are ineffectual peashooters, but that doesn't really excuse the game getting boring so fast.

I definitely would have enjoyed it more if I had access to the roguelike elements of the game, but sadly when you first launch, all of the interesting characters, all of the interesting cars, and all of the perks, are locked, and the only thing you have access to is the starting character who's 'special ability' is that his progress isn't reset when he dies.

I can't say with authority that all of my complaints wouldn't have dissipated if I got further into the game. I ended up refunding after about an hour played because the game crashed as I was loading back to the hub from a successfully completed 10 minute long mission. Life is too short to replay boring missions over again.

As a game developer, I'm sympathetic to the technical hiccups involved in game development. But if they're going to use Epic's prima-donna of an engine, they have to expect this stuff.

Based on a board game from the 80s, Dark Future: Blood Red States is a tactical car combat strategy game set in the near future in an American wasteland ruled by a number of warring factions with armoured cars with big guns. The game consists of multiple seasons, with each season seeing you assume a new role fighting for or against these factions. With each season, you have a choice of missions to undertake, be it Escort missions, where you have to escort a vehicle a certain distance, or to just kill as many opponents as you can.

With each successful mission you earn cash, which you then use to upgrade your vehicles armour and weapons, as well as fuel so that you can carry on with the season. Run out of fuel or get blown up, and your season is over.

While everything is done in real time, the combat system slows time down so that you can plan your moves. Change lane, while dropping that mine and then speeding up, or perhaps braking hard so that you can get aim on the back of that car, there are a number of tactics you can deploy to beat your opponents. The system works extremely well, which helps craft some amazingly satisfying vehicle combat. The detail and even the physics are spot on. Cars exploding, rolling over, flying through the air, crashing into one another - the action is great.

The futuristic, 1980s vibe is awesome - the car designs are fun, and the soundtrack has that eerie, 80s synth, apocalyptic suspense feel to it. The game is presented well and the environments look great.

Though, it is with sadness that I have to say that the game is really let down by its frequent crashing (side note: I am running i5 4690k, 1060 6GB, 8GB RAM, W10). Mostly at the end of a mission, but it has hung a couple of times mid loading and in game. While I haven't investigated the forums deeply for a solution, if there is one, it crashes more than one would hope when buying a new game.

Also, it feels like it needs a replay feature, allowing to watch (and export!) those great moments when you smashed your way through some opponents, or blew up that boss in spectacular fashion.

Overall, a fantastic game which is a lot of fun to play, marred by it's desire to crash at the most inconvenient of times. Still, recommended.

Car Wars !!!!!! Just missing Uncle Albert. Loving this game, the lovely ability to slow game play to try to dodge mines. You are able to customise your car, over time, which gives you a great advantage against the bandit's. Be careful of driving through a wreckage though, as it may propel you over a cliff ..... ooooops :D