10 Chambers, the Swedish game dev comprised of veterans behind the first two Payday games and the developer of GTFO, has revealed a good chunk of new gameplay of its upcoming co-op FPS, Den Of Wolves.
The gameplay, served raw, is based on a pre-alpha build, and it gets immediately into the action. No preamble, no title sequence, no fancy editing or scene transition. Just a sequence of shootouts in a bank that depicts gameplay (sans any UI elements).
But the sub-3-minute gameplay shows enough to give you a good idea what to expect of Den Of Wolves. It’s near-future setting is grounded in reality in some parts and filled with high-tech gizmos in others. The guns looks like modern assault rifles, but there’s a scene where you can shoot through a one-way holographic shield.
The final few seconds is something completely new 10 Chambers are revealing for the first time. This is what’s called a “dive”, where you hack into a neural network which then sends you into another dimension of reality.
“What we call The Dive is when you’re hacking one of these neural networks, and it throws you into another dimension where rules can be bent however we want—and the location
and environment as well,” said Ulf Andersson, Game Director.
“In this specific Dive, you are parkouring in a space setting, but a Dive can take place anywhere. For example, we are currently working on a dive set in a horror setting, in a Norwegian forest, and monsters are chasing you.”
Essentially, mid-way through your heists in 2030 Midway City, you’ll likely have to go do a Dive, and there’s no limit to what odd things you might see in this dimension.
In Den Of Wolves, the world has been devastated by AI-driven cyberattacks, corporations invented Bio-Stashes to store data not in a computer network, but “a network based on human neural pattern” that is inaccessible by AI.
As mercs-for hire, you and fellow players will team up to do various work for corporations including industrial espionage, steal prototypes, sabotage operations, and assassinations. These are “Unauthorised errands”, to use the corpo’s euphemism.
Think of Den Of Wolves not as a copy-for-copy Payday by the original Payday devs, but an evolution of that heist-based horde shooter gameplay by the folks that pioneered it. And that evolution includes a near-future setting with some worldbuilding attached to it, and a mechanic that has potential for the game to be just about anything, if executed right.
Announced back in 2023, Den Of Wolves is set for a Steam Early Access release on PC, but with no release window still. Intentionally so, “as 10 Chambers emphasizes their
commitment to quality over rushed deadlines,” the press release of this announcement reads.