Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Returning to what they know
Heists to recollect
Growing pains
Few co-op video games have been capable of recapture the magic of Payday and Payday 2.
Even the third sport in that sequence developed by Starbreeze was met with detrimental responses, and Payday 2 at present sees considerably larger participant counts than its sequel on Steam. That could also be as a result of among the key expertise that created these unique Payday titles at Overkill Software and Starbreeze left to type 10 Chambers. That small group of 10 builders created GTFO, a sleeper hit co-op horror shooter, and is now returning to the Payday idea with Den of Wolves.
While it’s now in a dystopic, futuristic sci-fi setting, Den of Wolves is a co-op sport the place crews of 4 gamers should work collectively to drag off heists and escape with as a lot loot as potential. At GDC 2025, I went hands-on with Den of Wolves for the primary time. It’s shaping as much as be a real evolution of that Payday system, one which builds on what works whereas nonetheless experimenting with some extra fantastical concepts. Den of Wolves isn’t Payday 4, however it’s a reinterpretation of what made the sequence so improbable within the first place.
Returning to what they know
Simon Viklund is a online game composer finest identified for his work on the Payday sequence, and co-founded 10 Chambers with Ulf Andersson in 2016. At the time, the studio was deliberately saved small, and in 2019 they discovered breakout success with co-op horror sport GTFO. The builders I spoke to at 10 Chambers, like Viklund, all appear very pleased with GTFO, however admitted eagerness to return to a Payday-style system to create one thing that Andersson had wished to make for years. From the music perspective, Viklund appeared desirous to get again to composing what he does finest.
“I loved making the music to the Payday games because I really feel like that sort of aggressive, in-your-face, adrenaline pumping music is my wheelhouse,” Viklund tells Digital Trends. “GTFO was a nice challenge and change of pace to do more creepy horror music, but it was not my wheelhouse, to be frank. That’s what I love most about Den of Wolves: getting back to the sort of fantasy power type soundtrack.”
Generally, there’s a way that management at 10 Chambers is delving again into what it is aware of with Den of Wolves. This is a co-op heist sport the place a bunch of 4 gamers should work collectively to drag off heists; this needs to be completed stealthy at first, however earlier than lengthy it’ll devolve into an enormous shootout the place gamers should assume on their toes as a way to escape. The greatest distinction is that it is a futuristic sci-fi world. In this dystopian (however eerily recognizable) future, firms have gotten permission to function exterior the regulation and have created a large metropolis on the Midway atoll.
Players management the criminals performing subterfuge, stealing from these megacorporations and killing anybody who will get of their means. Instead of robbing banks, you’re robbing the wealthy, and that inherently feels a little bit extra satisfying to do. The stealth and gunplay really feel pretty much as good as they do in Payday 2 and GTFO, however the sci-fi components of Den of Wolves add on distinctive twists. For instance, this sport options one of the vital sturdy deployable vitality shields I’ve ever utilized in a shooter.
To succeed at a heist, groups of 4 gamers have to work collectively to seek out the loot, full targets, and escape alive. The first Den of Wolves mission I performed was a shorter one which hit that bite-sized loot grab-and-go gameplay loop Payday established, whereas the second was a large-scale heist that was thrilling to drag off. Viklund talked about how his Den of Wolves music feels extra “sophisticated” than Payday 2’s on account of his elevated expertise engaged on video games. That identical mantra might be utilized to the scaled-up studio at massive.
Heists to recollect
The first mission I performed was a bite-sized, grab-and-go loot heist. Another journalist, two builders, and I slowly snuck our technique to a vault, however earlier than we may get there I used to be noticed and a shootout started. We truly did a superb job correctly putting shields and defending our place lengthy sufficient to interrupt into the vault and steal the cash, however issues obtained dicey as we tried to flee.
One of my teammates lagged behind, so whereas three of us obtained to the extraction level, the opposite was downed earlier than they may get there. All 4 gamers have to be collectively to complete a mission, and sadly our downed ally was behind too many enemies. We all died making an attempt to combat our means via to him and failed the mission. While our mission didn’t work, I nonetheless had a ton of enjoyable doing that with others. Then, it was time for an even bigger heist.
10 Chambers
The builders at 10 Chambers truly laid out a bodily map of a posh we needed to break into in entrance of me. To full the mission, we needed to discover key playing cards in vaults so we may entry a management room, get the power to “dive” into the thoughts of an govt seen within the sport’s reveal trailer, Mr. Bowman, after which escape. By correctly speaking, my group pulled off the primary half of this heist with few roadblocks. Once we began activating the vault, although, all hell broke unfastened and the mission took a combat-heavy shift.
My group needed to hunker right down to hack sure factors after which do “dives” within the thoughts of Mr. Bowman a number of occasions as a way to get what we wanted. This took the type of a psychedelic platforming problem the place the legal guidelines of physics didn’t apply. It was completely wild and never like something I’ve seen in a sport like this earlier than. Viklund appeared fairly pleased with all of the totally different sorts of dive included in Den of Wolves, which can even embody the whole lot from platforming gauntlets to capturing challenges to escaping a monster chasing you in a maze.
I had a blast enjoying these two Den of Wolves missions, though it’s value noting that I did preview this in a tightly managed surroundings whereas enjoying with builders who knew what they have been doing. If I used to be enjoying on my own or with out my plan, I’d anticipate the results of my first Den of Wolves mission to be a extra frequent one. Still, I didn’t see that many co-op sport pink flags whereas enjoying Den of Wolves, and located it fairly apparent that 10 Chambers has actually scaled up its capabilities as a way to pull one thing like this off.
Growing pains
While GTFO was made with simply 10 individuals initially, Den of Wolves’ improvement group is nearer to 100 due to an funding 10 Chambers obtained from Tencent to make this sport. As a consequence, Den of Wolves already seems like a AAA sport, in contrast to GTFO. For a co-founder like Viklund, that additionally means much more duty must be taken on, as he’s now managing an entire group of sound designers and collaborating with Jamie Christopherson on music for Den of Wolves reasonably than doing all of it himself.
10 Chambers filmed a reality-documentary all through the event of Den of Wolves, and is now pitching it round to potential companions for distribution. You don’t have to attend till that comes out to study among the struggles that include scaling up, although, as Viklund was sincere about how powerful scaling up 10 Chambers has been.
“Growing the studio has been rough,” Viklund says. “I need to be honest, retaining the culture and the way you work and things, you want to do it, but at the same time it’s impossible because it’s a new organization with hierarchy. It’s a different company entirely because, even though you want to, it’s hard to keep doing things the same way and having the same approach to things when you’re with so many people. It’s tough, you move away from hands-on development; as a founder, you go from making games to telling other people how to make games. I’m holding on to the responsibility for the music for dear life.”
10 Chambers
Viklund did go on to repeatedly praise the opposite sound designers and builders he works with at 10 Chambers, and admitted that “we couldn’t make a game like Den of Wolves unless we had a studio like this and investment from Tencent, so I don’t want to sound like I’m ungrateful.” My preview of Den of Wolves at GDC 2025 and this interview affirmed to me simply how a lot of an evolution this sport is for the builders engaged on it.
Ulf Andersson, Simon Viklund, and firm all proved themselves and trailblazer a brand new type of co-op sport with the primary two Payday titles. Then, they proved they may create a small-scale indie horror hit with GTFO. Now, they’re combining their capabilities at each to take the core of Payday and reimagine it as a wild AAA dystopian sci-fi co-op shooter. Den of Wolves is totally different from traditional Payday in fairly just a few methods; the builders making it have modified too. Despite all of that, I’d nonetheless say that Den of Wolves is trying just like the evolution of the Payday system that we’ve been ready for.
Den of Wolves is in improvement for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S and can initially launch into early entry. When requested for a extra particular window, 10 Chambers representatives merely instructed me “when it’s ready.”