Following the success and end-of-life update of their debut game, GTFO, developer 10 Chambers announced their next self-published project. Den of Wolves is a co-op heist shooter that pushes the boundaries of what a heist can be, and the former Payday developers felt it was time to return to their roots. Ulf Andersson, Creative Director and CEO, says he had this idea in his head for a decade and it needed to be made. Now, after a year and a half of development, we got the chance to go hands-on with a few missions set in Midway City, the proverbial and titular Den of Wolves.

Due to AI’s ever-increasing role in dismantling cybersecurity, corporations established a foothold in Midway City, free from ethical oversight. This freedom allowed them to hide their secrets in the only computer too complex for an AI: the human mind.

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Now the best way to delve into these mental vaults is by using another human to break into the mind vault and extract precious secrets metaphysically. This is where the players come in, taking the role of opportunistic guns-for-hire that can plan and execute multi-phase heists to steal knowledge, experimental prototypes or even assassinate key targets for the highest bidder.

In a group of four, we had the opportunity to select our loadout, choosing from various primary and secondary weapons and a gadget. The weapons were the familiar archetypes: rifles, shotguns, pistols and the like, but the gadgets provided more interesting options. In our time with the game we were able to choose between sentry turrets, which would automatically attack our enemies, a series of barriers, which allowed us to fire through them while protecting us from gunfire, and mines, which would explode when an unlucky enemy got too close.

We jumped into our first mission once we were happy with our weapons of choice. This was an example of a preparatory mission, which meant it was a shorter affair that you would ideally be able to complete on your lunch break. We were meant to infiltrate a secure location, break into a physical vault, and steal a drone with sniping capabilities.

Den of Wolves puts players into a thrilling heist, pushing cooperation above everything else.

The mission itself took place in a series of four or five larger rooms connected in a linear fashion, with the earlier rooms inhabited by light patrols. We had the option to sneak through these rooms or run in guns blazing, but in the interest of conserving ammo, we opted to eliminate the patrols with melee sneak attacks.

This portion of the mission felt akin to GTFO’s winning strategy, encouraging players to eliminate as many hostiles with melee attacks while they were dormant. The key difference in Den of Wolves is that firefights in key areas are no longer one-sided. Some of your enemies here attempted to rush at our group with melee weapons but many of them were wielding firearms of their own.

This became evident when we reached the vault, setting off an alarm as we started the process of cracking it open. With security forces rushing us, the one-way barriers we set up were invaluable, allowing us to fire back or revive a fallen ally from relative safety.

Once the vault was opened, we were able to pick up the drone and a few other sacks of loot. These nondescript loot bags were not essential to the success of the mission, but we were encouraged to retrieve as many of them as possible, since they will be used to unlock potential gear, accessories or gadgets when Den of Wolves releases.

With that mission successfully completed, we stepped away from our computers to overlook physical blueprints for our next job, a bank occupied by a gang. After a light planning session, we returned to the game to enact our plan. The sniping drone we stole earlier wasn’t used in this specific heist plan. Still, the developers stated that it and other preparatory missions could be undertaken to give you multiple options when executing a heist. Some decisions made within the preparatory phase can even change or lock out other options, adding some replayability when going through previously completed content.

Compared to the first job we completed, the heist was much more involved. The entire ordeal felt more cinematic, with more voice acting, introductory events, and setpieces, and most of the action taking place in a singular room larger than anything we’d seen previously. Our goal was to break into the smaller vaults around the perimeter of the room to find three pieces of a passkey. Since these fragments were randomly distributed with each session, we had to break open vaults until we found them, but each vault also had more loot bags, ammo caches and healing supplies, which would come in handy later.

As soon as we entered this room, enemies began to pour in, and they wouldn’t stop until the heist was finished. In the interest of speed, we split into two pairs to hit two vaults at a time; we only had two drones for breaking into vaults so this was the most efficient plan. Using our turrets and barriers we made our way around the room, eventually regrouping for safety.

After a few close calls we managed to find the third passkey fragment, allowing us to open an ominous spherical vault near the center of the room. Inside was a vat of some liquid enveloping a human being used to store important secrets, and the next phase of the heist was to dive, as the game referred to it, and traverse a dreamscape to find the information we needed.

This occurred at the same time as the gang’s enforcers continued to bear down on us, forcing us to set up barriers and defend ourselves in one end of the room. Thankfully, we weren’t vulnerable to their attacks while diving, but returning to a firefight after a dive was disorienting and dangerous.

Every few minutes, we were pulled into a surreal environment made of broken, floating structures. Following the curves where two walls met allowed us to shift how gravity affected us, turning this segment into a platforming puzzle. We had to reach the end of the area before the time limit expired. We had to complete three dives successfully, so if we failed one, we’d have to continue fighting to survive in the bank until we had three successes.

10 Chambers has built a great co-op experience, but PVP isn’t on their roadmap.

The developers stated that this was just one possible example of a dive. The ethereal nature of dives allows them to create fun and creative setpieces that don’t have to fit into the greater context of Den of Wolves. Once we succeeded in our dives, it was time to exit by blowing open the steel shutters and catching a ride out of the chaos. As in the previous mission, we had the opportunity to stay to retrieve more loot bags, but with our dwindling supplies, it was time to get out, bringing our time in Den of Wolves to an end.

Due to the adversarial nature of Midway City, with countless entrepreneurs trying to make a fortune through heists and other gigs, we wondered if there would ever be a heist or game mode that puts you directly against other players. The developers said that player vs player isn’t their wheelhouse and would require a whole new approach to balancing weapons, and they would rather focus on the things they do well.

However, they teased at implementing a feature to highlight other players’ achievements to encourage you to surpass them, while reinforcing that you are part of a network of criminals all aiming to find their fortune in Midway City.

10 Chambers intends to release the game into early access first, adding new heists and replayability to previous heists until it reaches the full release. Unlike their previous game, GTFO, they will not rotate content out, only adding to what is offered from the start. Den of Wolves doesn’t have a release date yet, but from our time with the game, it’s one to keep an eye on.

Den of Wolves is planned for a console release and Early Access on Steam, but no Release Date has been announced.