Slightly Mad Studios, the developer responsible for Need For Speed: Shift and racing-sim Project CARS, today announced team-based arcade-racing free-to-play MMO, World of Speed

The title is set for release on PC later this year and speaking at the announcement event, technical director, Ged Keaveney, suggested that while there aren’t currently any plans to launch on PS4 and Xbox One it shouldn’t be ruled out, “Putting the game on new platforms is something that we’re well geared-up for and could do without too much trouble or without compromising performance,” commented Keaveney.At its core, World of Speed is a team-based racer in which two teams vie for control of real world locations starting with London, Moscow and Monaco, with many more to come. One of its key mandates is to address two of the main issues in racing games, as Slightly Mad Studios sees it. The first is the sense of futility experienced by players who crash out on the first corner and then spend the rest of their time on the track desperately trying to make up lost ground. The second is that it’s generally only podium finishes that award points, glory or a sense of having meaningfully affected the outcome of a race.World of Speed aims to mitigate these failings by widening the scope of your involvement in each contest so that it includes more than just a race to the finish and by issuing challenges that contribute to a team’s overall race score. To facilitate the former, players will take on roles in a similar vein to those found in other MMOs and team-based online experiences of different genres.“Even if you're not amazing at racing but you know you’re friend is then you can play a support role, which is the equivalent of something like the medic in Team Fortress,” explains creative director, Andy Tudor. “You can support your guy and contribute to your team maybe by being a blocker and stopping other people overtaking or as a damage dealer looking to take out competitors.”To empower you to do this, varied load-outs are available for the numerous car models, with new parts and items awarded as you earn experience during races but that can also be crafted, again emulating more traditional RPG MMOs.It’s possible to flit between load-outs to suit a particular role without having to change cars and while some models will more naturally lend themselves to clattering opponents or out and out racing, there’s no reason why with the right load-out you can’t turn a hulking Dodge into a speed machine. More likely, though, is that you’ll find a couple of favourite vehicles and customise them accordingly to suit your team strategy.“We want people to be planning and strategising before they even get to the start line,” Tudor enthuses. “By working together as a clan, you can establish who’s doing what and ensure that people’s talents are effectively utilised rather than just aiming to get all of your racers across the line as quickly as possible.”Hands-on experience with two of the UK courses illustrated how that might work in practice, with straight-up racing circuit, Brands Hatch, and the tortuously circuitous St James’ district offering very different experiences. On the former, World of Speed feels like a traditional arcade-racer, as I attempt to follow the ideal-race line around the track and fight against my car’s heavy handling, which Tudor later suggests is one of the many areas that will be upgradeable.Switching to the streets of central London I get a better feel for how working as a team pays dividends as the tightly twisting streets ensure that each member in the 4 Vs 4 match-up is either exploiting their racing skills or trying to take the opposing team out of the race. At one point, with the opposing team occupying three of the top four positions, I run headlong into the team’s fourth member who has parked across a bottleneck to form a barricade in order to buy a few more precious seconds to win the race.This role-play is further bolstered by the challenges, such as having to tag every other car in the race or drafting a player for sixty seconds. Completing these challenges combined with nabbing a couple of high-ranking race spots can swing victory your team’s way. In addition, there’s personal XP to be gained for performing actions such driving a clean course section, taking shortcuts and fulfilling role-based tasks such as blocking and damage dealing.With only the vanilla models on-hand it’s difficult to establish just how much the upgrades might change the feel and handling of the cars. Damage is intended to be persistent across races but it’s currently undecided if this will impact handling or just mar the cosmetic appearance of your favourite ride. Similarly, gear shifting is currently set to automatic-only and with the option to control your racer via the keyboard, it’s unclear just how nuanced the control scheme will ultimately be.World of Speed looks set to offer an unintimidating entry point into the world of free-to-play MMO racing. However, its best ideas and most interesting concepts currently exist in theory rather than in a hands-on build. We’ll have to wait until later this year to find out whether the depth suggested by the XP, challenge and role-play systems materialises in practice and whether the microtransactions and social features that will form its lifeblood will be as accessible as its pick-up and play racing.

Stace Harman is a freelance contributor to IGN and is convinced that zombies will one day inherent the Earth. You can follow him on