Den of Wolves: Everything We Know

10 Chambers’ Den of Wolves is on the cusp of reviving the co-op heist blueprint its creators had previously used to fuel life into Payday: The Heist, Payday 2, and GTFO. That’s right, there’s another looter-shooter on the horizon, and if what its figureheads are saying turns out to be true, then we could be in for quite the treat when the sci-fi chapter arrives on consoles and PC. That is, of course, provided it doesn’t run into any snags along the way.

“With Den of Wolves, we are creating an action-packed techno-thriller – a session-based cooperative heist shooter where you can make your mark whether you have 20 minutes or 2 hours to play,” 10 Chambers wrote in an elevator pitch. “You can only rob so many banks. Den of Wolves will have a wider range of heisting, corporate espionage, sabotage, assassinations… the sci-fi theme lets us try many things.”

So, introductory spiel out in the open, what more do you need to know about 10 Chambers’ upcoming IP? Well, if you are keen to get your foot in the door ahead of its debut, then be sure to read on. Here’s everything we currently know about Den of Wolves.

What Is Den of Wolves?

From what we’ve caught of the game so far, Den of Wolves is a first-person shooter in which players take on the roles of “criminals for hire” in a cyber-infused metropolis—a corporate-led world in which monopolies are commonplace, and the need to exploit them for private gain is higher than ever before. This is where you, along with a band of like-minded thieves, will make your mark — bound for the loot, and acting as a hooded sledgehammer in need of a renovation project.

In 10 Chambers’ own words, “Den of Wolves is a cooperative heist FPS where you and your friends operate as criminals-for-hire in Midway City, an unregulated innovation zone. You take advantage of the growing need for “unauthorized errands” created by rival business entities in this corporate haven.”

Story

Den of Wolves will transport its fledgling thieves to Midway City, an “unregulated” metropolis in which powerful industries pull the strings and dominate the once AI-controlled market. As one of the city’s marked thieves for hire, you will need to load up on odd jobs and learn how to ascend the ladder — even if it means defacing the code that revolutionized the world and carved out its future.

“Founded by an elite consortium of global corporations, Midway Island is an unregulated innovation zone created to combat a global data security threat caused by deep learning AI,” the blurb reads in part. “With no human rights agencies to appease, they developed a new data transmission and storage concept based on the human brain – so fundamentally different from traditional network architecture, AI couldn’t navigate it. With security came market confidence, and now Midway City has become a sprawling nerve center for international trade – it is the new land of opportunity; and where there is opportunity, crime finds a way…”

Gameplay

Given the fact that Den of Wolves is, more or less, a souped-up, sci-fi version of the Payday series, it’s safe to say that the gameplay will likely feature a fair share of similarities. In other words, we can expect to see something of an episodic format—a timeline of events, in ways, with each chapter taking place in a brand-new location and with a separate collection of objectives to shovel through. As something of a Payday clone, Den of Wolves will also make way for all the usual bullet-brazen shenanigans of a traditional co-op shooter.

“Plan and execute heists through industrial espionage, sabotage, theft and assassinations,” the game description reads. “Gather your crew, decide the best approach, acquire the weapons, gadgets and intel, penetrate the security systems and execute the heist.”

“The game isn’t open-world, but we still value worldbuilding enormously, and the narrative we’ve built around the island is vast,” 10 Chambers’ Simon Viklund noted. “We want Midway City to feel like a believable city of the near future, where late-stage capitalism has gone rampant and corporations set the rules”.

Development

If you happen to think that Den of Wolves looks a great deal like Payday, but in something of an exoskeleton skin, then you’ll be pleased to know that it’s the upcoming game is, weirdly enough, being created by several of the same developers. And so, with that in mind, we can anticipate some of its core DNA to channel through to the newest IP.

“As a development studio, 10 Chambers is built for creating cooperative shooters; it’s in our DNA,” the team wrote in a press release. “We focus all our efforts on cooperative gameplay and engaging storytelling – and we take the time we need. We will do our best to keep you updated throughout development.” We’ll hold you to that, 10 Chambers.

Trailer

Thanks to The Game Awards, we do have a small amount of footage to share. Granted, it doesn’t shed the greatest of lights on its actual gameplay features, but it does compromise by providing an in-depth look at its general setting and “criminals for hire” combatants. Need we say more? You can catch a glimpse of what’s to come in Den of Wolves in the announcement trailer embedded above.

Release Date, Platforms & Editions

Den of Wolves will be launching in its Early Access state on Steam in the (hopefully) not-so-distant future. It’ll also be coming to consoles, too, according to 10 Chambers, which means we can expect to see it hit the likes of Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 in the weeks, months, or perhaps even years following its PC debut. To begin with, though, it appears the game will find its feet on Steam, if only to allow future players the opportunity to provide valuable feedback for future updates.

It’s still early days yet, so we can’t really confirm whether or not there’ll be any special editions of Den of Wolves outside of its standard copy. Until we do find out, however, we’ll have to settle for the digital-only version, which is currently available to wishlist on Steam here.

Interested in keeping up to date with 10 Chambers’ newest IP? If so, then be sure to check in with the team over on their official social handle here. If anything changes ahead of its global release, then we’ll be sure to fill you in on all the key details right here on gaming.net

So, what’s your take? Will you be picking up a copy of Den of Wolves when it comes to its chosen platforms? Let us know your thoughts over on our socials here.