Darkwind
Released Aug 2014
Darkwind is a multiplayer online, simultaneous turn-based game of vehicular combat. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, it involves physics-based tactical combat and deathracing, online leagues, cooperative wilderness scouting and looting, trading and camp-based crafting. Live and online since 2006!
51% positive · 479 reviews
Done
All announced content has been released
Medium confidence
Done
All announced content has been released
Medium confidence
Where to get it
Free on Steam
Evaluation
Darkwind is a free-to-play multiplayer vehicular combat game that has been live since 2006 and arrived on Steam in August 2014. The developer, Psychic Software, continued adding content to the game through 2020, with notable updates including the Camp Wars system (June 2020), new Solo Missions (May 2020), a new Deathrally League (March 2020), and a year-milestone post in November 2020. However, the developer's attention has clearly shifted elsewhere: they have spent several years building The Necromancer's Tale (a separate RPG whose demo launched in June 2025), and in March 2026, Psychic Software announced War on Wheels — the explicit "follow-up to Darkwind" — describing it as taking the core concept to a modern game engine. The studio's March 2026 post is framed as a transition announcement, directing players to wishlist the new game rather than signaling any further Darkwind updates. No new content for Darkwind has been announced, and there have been no Darkwind-specific development posts since late 2020. The game appears to have reached its final state as an ongoing persistent-world server, with the studio having moved on to successor projects.
Evidence
Psychic Software announced War on Wheels, explicitly described as 'the follow-up to Darkwind,' built on a modern engine. The post directs players to wishlist the new game, with no mention of further Darkwind updates.
Camp Wars system introduced — a major new PvP hex-grid feature adding territorial control and resource competition between player camps.
Media
Details
Developer
Publisher
Psychic Software
Achievements
—
Platform
Windows, macOS
Controller
—
Steam Deck
Playable
Players
Multiplayer
About this game
Our Next Game is Announced!
Battle for survival and supremacy in a gritty post-apocalyptic world of vehicular combat where strategy and tactics determines who wins.
Darkwind is a simultaneous turn-based, physics-based game. It is often described as "X-Com meets Mad Max" or "Car Wars [1980s boardgame] Online".
Darkwind is the only car game we know of that combines accurate physics with turn-based play. Not just turn based racing and Death-racing (with multiple cars), but also combats with up to 20 vehicles is where you realise why turn based is a must in this game. Running 10 trucks at once through a slaver ambush in Badlands, managing speed, steering, gun fire from anywhere up to 8 points on a truck would not be possible in real time.
Manage your gang, train your characters, design your own cars and scavenge for parts. Make your fortune in racing, deathracing and arena combat leagues, or venture into the wilderness and engage in tense multiplayer battles with pirates, traders and other players.
Trade for parts, cars and weapons in the dynamic economy of a world where your characters will age, sustain permanent injuries, and die. The detailed weapon stats, and the detailed combat system with physics, critical hits, injuries and healing, psychology, leadership and perma-death ensures a strategic challenge like few other games.
Award winning in the indie gaming community, acclaimed in the main-stream computer gaming press and praised in the war-gaming media: play it yourself to find out why.
Are these done yet?
Last evaluated Jun 28, 2026
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