After years of working and growing as a studio, 10 Chambers has revealed the second fruits of their labor: a first-person shooter cooperative heist game named Den of Wolves. Much of the studio’s founding team included industry veterans who worked on Payday 1 and 2, including the original designer Ulf Andersson. It shows, because Den of Wolves is a return to form for the genre. The studio hopes that with their added experience and perspective, they can craft an experience that will “elevate what a heist can be.”
Due to the increasing power of AI, traditional security infrastructures are decimated, sending various world economies into freefall. The situation allowed corporations to offer a solution, requiring experimental and morally dubious measures. Enter Midway City, where anything goes, including using the human mind to store invaluable data where AI cannot reach it. Corporations have entered a sort of corporate cold war, where they depend on mercenaries who can enter a target’s mind and retrieve information to help their bottom line or hurt their rivals, setting the stage for Den of Wolves.
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While Den of Wolves takes place in the not-too-distant future, near the end of the 21st century, with architecture inspired by the likes of Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell, 10 Chambers is adamant that the game largely remains grounded. Diving into someone’s mind for information is right out of sci-fi, but the time period was chosen more for its potential to world-build, creating their own version of history that results in a more believable setting for players to inhabit.
When it comes to narrative, the developer fully acknowledges that some players will skip right past any of its beats to get into the action sooner. However, they also insist that working for and interacting with these fabricated corporations throughout the world will subconsciously pull them deeper into the experience, especially when players replay heists, exposing themselves repeatedly to the story threads that pull them unwittingly along the narrative. Their goal is to create a cohesive city in which to exist, complete with the brands that fuel the conflict. Whether it’s in a corporate high-rise or the mindscape of a rival contractor, Den of Wolves is sure to deliver exciting and beautiful backdrops not often associated with heists.
Den of Wolves isn’t planned as an open-world game, but 10 Chambers wants to give players the freedom to gather information and plan their heists. The game should have good replayability based on how they prepare for heists or some of the decisions they make. These choices aren’t intended to drastically change the narrative but should allow for slight deviations that reveal more of the world while shaking up the experience for players on subsequent playthroughs. These decisions are key to player agency because their intent is for players to feel like the criminal entrepreneur in charge of their own success or failure. This includes taking on missions to gather intel or act on intel to retrieve tools that will help them complete a future heist.
Regarding heists, 10 Chambers is attempting to delve into the abstract to redefine what a heist can be. Den of Wolves‘ sci-fi setting lends itself to this endeavor, even if the action is familiar. Players swap between stealth gameplay and high-octane shootouts on the fly. This back-and-forth keeps the gameplay fresh while preserving the various missions from feeling ruined once things go wrong. Naturally, a key tenet for Den of Wolves is designing it to bring players together, even potential strangers meeting for the first time in the game during matchmaking. This includes planning and executing heists, so the developer will be working to ensure players have the necessary tools to communicate with each other and execute plans.
Ultimately, Den of Wolves presents an exciting yet foreboding future with the potential for some of the most striking heist settings in recent memory. For now, it’s up to 10 Chambers to properly plan and pull off their latest heist (game).
Den of Wolves is planned for a console release and Early Access on Steam, but no Release Date has been announced.
