I’ve never been hyper-fixated with the cyberpunk aesthetic, but ever since completing (and loving) Cyberpunk 2077, I’ve found myself yearning for more big-budget games to embrace its gritty, neon-soaked vibes.
The indie scene has nailed it ten times over, but aside from a handful of games, the triple-A space has been lacking. Step forward Den of Wolves.
Developed by 10 Chambers, a studio that consists of members of the Payday and Payday 2 teams, Den of Wolves is a cooperative heist game in the vein of the development team’s former works, but set in a dystopian cyberpunk future.
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Den of Wolves – Gameplay Reveal Trailer
Watch the gameplay reveal for Den of Wolves, a co-op heist FPS from the creator of Payday, Payday 2 and GTFO.
Taking place on the Midway Atoll, corporations are given a safe haven to undergo whatever nefarious practices they desire, free from any law, in the hopes of making advancements in science and technology. Naturally, this attracts the worst kinds of people and businesses, and is a treasure trove of money and secrets – a perfect location to pull off heists, assassinations, and corporate espionage.
I visited the Unity Offices in Copenhagen to go hands-on with Den of Wolves, and it’s an exciting prospect that leaves me wanting more, for better, or for worse.
The Highest Of Heists
During my play session, I was put into a team of four to undertake two missions. First, prepare for a main heist by breaking into a location and stealing a drone. Second, complete an assassination in a giant bank, teeming with guards. It was a good taste of how the game will seemingly ebb and flow. You’ll have a main objective, but will be given the opportunity to complete smaller ones in order to give yourself the best chance, and tools, to accomplish the mission ahead.
Before partaking in our main missions, my partner and I were taken aside by our 10 Chambers cohorts to put together a plan of action. They unfurled a giant map, and this perhaps best illustrated the mammoth task ahead.
After selecting our loadouts, consisting of a primary and secondary weapon, plus some additional equipment such as tripmines or a portable sentry, we rolled out. As a team, we had to find three keycards split across 13 vaults, dodging bullets, taking down those that opposed us, and grabbing as much loot as we could in the process. Upon getting the keys, the location in which our assassination target was hiding opened up and we were free to take him down. We then had to hunker down before exfil.
There was lots to like here. The exchanges were intense, with enemies flanking us from strategic locations, the gunplay was tight, each weapon having a different utility, and it was brutally difficult. Me and my non-10 Chambers partner went down what felt like once a minute, with the 10 Chambers contingent saving our backsides regularly. If this genre is your jam, you’re in for a treat.
Before exfil, however, things got a little weird, and we had to enter ‘The Rift’ three times. The Rift is a cross between Cyberpunk 2077’s braindances and Control’s physics-bending Ashtray Maze. We would enter our target’s consciousness, completing what is effectively a platforming challenge, punctuated with rotating rooms and lots of red lights.
While Rifts were touched on during our pre-brief, I felt a little lost during the demo. We were pulled out mid-firefight, time freezing around us, to complete this challenge. It simultaneously felt like a welcome break from the constant waves of bullets heading our way, and like 10 Chambers had pumped the brakes on our heist, slowing down the pacing drastically. It was all very strange.
Rifts aside, from what I played, 10 Chambers has executed its mission with aplomb. It was tactical, intense, and extremely polished in its pre-alpha state. You could see the evolution from the early Payday games, and the lessons learnt from GTFO all coming together in Den of Wolves’ cyberpunk setting.
Heists And Lows
When I spoke to members of the 10 Chambers team during the event, both in my interview and the play sessions, it became clear the team was well aware of its limitations.
“It is so hard,” Den of Wolves’ sound director Simon Viklund tells me during our interview. “Respect to the people who make RPGs and open-world stuff. I wouldn’t touch that. For our players it’s like ‘oh, you want to go to that part of the city?’ and we just spawn them there.” This is why I feel like Den of Wolves might not reach its full potential.
The team has crafted what seems like a rich narrative, teeming with the potential for exploration and lore. But my preview made me feel like the game is going to be lacking.
Den of Wolves’ excellent gunplay, highly-strategic missions, and intense exchanges look set to take the genre to new heights.
Midway City is truly fascinating. The story of its inception and evolution is great, but I got a sense that it’s just there as a segue from mission to mission, each of which is chosen from a list presented to you rather than exploring the world. The team says it is committed to making Den of Wolves’ story engaging, so for now, it’s a case of wait and see.
The studio is heavily focused on the game’s core gameplay, and is very much playing to its strengths, but it was confirmed to me that everything is going to be super streamlined. Again, it makes sense in the context of Den of Wolves, but with no logs scattered around the world to expand things, loot that is auto-sold at the end of missions, and missions which are selected from a screen, rather than feeling any true autonomy, I have niggling concerns.
The core loop of Den of Wolves is going to hook players. Its excellent gunplay, highly-strategic missions, and intense exchanges look set to take the genre to new heights, but a small part of me feels like it could be an opportunity squandered. 10 Chambers is obviously the master of the cooperative shooter, but in this instance, I worry it could be to the detriment of its stunning world and great ideas.
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10 Chambers
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10 Chambers