When The Game Awards 2024 revealed the next heist title, Den of Wolves, I admit I was impressed. A technopunk-infused heist title that propels the player and crew forward to finish an objective, set to a backdrop of techno beats and higher-than-ever stakes. When 10 Chambers was recruiting operatives for an opportunity to get behind the lens of a Midway City criminal-for-hire and check out what’s behind the curtain in Den of Wolves, I answered the call. Den of Wolves brings first-person heist shooters into 2025 with innovation, PvE glory, high-risk, high-reward objectives, and a “Dive” system separating this Den from the pack.
Den of Wolves takes place in the dystopian Midway City. This island is built on the Pacific Ocean, and this is where the player is inserted as a criminal mercenary-for-hire. Midway City is an unregulated innovation zone created to combat a global data security threat caused by deep-learning AI, set in the year 2030 (we aren’t far off).
Ironically enough, AI has become so advanced in Den of Wolves that nothing is safe any longer. Identity theft runs rampant, and everything isn’t exactly what it seems on the surface. As a mercenary-for-hire, you are recruited to jump when you’re told, basically. Operatives will be forced to engage in missions of tactical espionage, corporate sabotage, assassinations, and, of course, theft of goods.
“Den of Wolves brings first-person heist shooters into 2025 with innovation, PvE glory, high-risk, high-reward objectives, and a ‘Dive’ system separating this Den from the pack.”
While 10 Chambers kept some of the lore hidden behind the curtain, the stage is set for what the developers at 10 Chambers do best: design heist levels that are loaded with hazards focused on stopping players from completing their missions. Where 10 Chambers innovates is in the focus on many objectives instead of the veteran developer’s previous focus on mega theft. 10 Chambers is known for bringing GTFO (the Dark Souls of FPS shooters) to gamers everywhere, and it was such a success that the developers recouped the development cost within 10 days of the title going live. 10 Chambers knows their stuff when it comes to the heist genre.
Another innovation is the Inception-like “Dive” system. In the overarching world of Midway City, critical intel is tucked away inside information systems that resemble the human brain. This is factored into the world state, where nothing can be trusted due to advancements in AI. The human brain remains the one thing that can’t be hacked, as its complex nervous system differs too heavily from regular network architecture. Without oversight in the real world (another tie to real-life irony, where corporations act with greed), human brains are used by corporations to store their deepest, darkest secrets. This is where you come in, a certified human brain scraper hell-bent on taking what should be yours.
First things first, loadouts. Teams of four were divided into two groups: half members of the development team and half new recruits. Us recruits were saddled with the responsibility of learning the ropes (and committing professional theft at the same time). Loadout screens before the fray are very much like traditional extraction shooters, and this is a blessing.
10 Chambers understood that not everything needs innovation and deployed a straightforward loadout screen that is very easy to read. Aside from the traditional firearm fare you can select from, criminals can utilize other ordinances like stationary turrets or a holo-shield that stops enemy bullets but not yours. There are also grenades and a crab-like hacking device that automatically joins the incursion without selection (think Jack from Gears of War, except less useful).
10 Chambers really went the extra mile for their playtest, and our developer team brought us to a table (like in the movies) to outline our breach strategy in person. This is a two-storey blueprint showing exits, entrances, key spots to hack, and the main target, a globe-like structure in the centre of the building that requires four keys to open. Further details include where we enter and where our quadrant plans on jumping out to make a glorious exit (just like in the movies!).
As we are all hunched over the table looking at points of interest, it’s clear 10 Chambers is focusing on the camaraderie aspect of heisting, with a component of all-for-one permeating our group. We entered as strangers but grew into true teammates over the table banter.
After a few back-and-forths, our ragtag group of criminals came up with a simple and effective plan. After we enter and catch our adversaries unaware, we will send two players around the globe counter-clockwise and two players clockwise to cover more ground. All four-player teams are equipped with two of the Den of Wolves Jack-equivalent spider drones, which makes splitting up an ideal choice.
“10 Chambers navigates the heist atmosphere with precision unmatched in the genre.”
The mission is simple enough: deliver schematics to a particularly ruthless gang under false pretenses (it’s an excuse to get inside), and when the gullible background gang members let us inside their compound, hell breaks loose. Our task was to open the centre globe-like vault to extract secrets and get out with or without extra bags of loot from their compound. Espionage rules.
The mission starts with our heroes walking through a gang’s compound. There are two floors, as mentioned earlier, and looking over the blueprints and photos our allies with 10 Chambers had prepped for the occasion made me feel more gung-ho than normal. It’s clear upon entry, 10 Chambers’ expertise did not go unnoticed. This vault we were tasked with infiltrating was impeccably designed, with corridors for smart gang-member NPCs to abuse in an effort to flank our small troop.
After we regained control of our team, we put our expertly surmised plan into effect. This is where 10 Chambers channels its inner MONACO; if things can go wrong, they will. This is the magic of Den of Wolves. Although it may look like “just another extraction shooter,” there are other mechanics working beneath the surface that add much more to the tried-and-true gameplay of PAYDAY and GTFO.
While bullets whizz by our heads, we deployed the spider drones to unlock individual doors in the compound (about 12 rooms to ransack) and rip the doors off their hinges. Spider drones are fickle devices, so often a stray bullet will penetrate their suspect armour, requiring one of our squad to reactivate them. This small disruption in gameplay manufactures true robbery anxiety. If I were over a counter staring down a clerk, my hands would have started to shake profusely. Seeing the ‘drone is offline’ message is a wonderful dose of adrenaline injected straight into Den of Wolves’ heist DNA, and it’s glorious.
Restarting drones places whoever draws the shortest straw in grave danger. A small timer appears that takes approximately 5-6 seconds, but it felt like watching a tense scene in a show. 10 Chambers navigates the heist atmosphere with precision unmatched in the genre. This anxiety, expertly manufactured by the developers, turns the dial to 11 with these small lessons of “I’m committing a crime and can get caught.”
This anxiety is exacerbated by Music and Audio Director Simon Viklund, and his insistence that the sweaty atmosphere deployed by 10 Chambers should be taken up a notch. The heavy techno beats that straddle the atmosphere of heisting were appropriate in adding an extra degree of tension to Den of Wolves, making the title much stronger in sound. After the spider drone does its thing, we can ransack each room for ammo, equipment, and glorious unmarked bags of loot. There is the occasional prototype technology lying around that can be stolen (on our run, we located a drone for the taking), and returning with more is always good for thieving.
“The heavy techno beats that straddle the atmosphere of heisting were appropriate in adding an extra degree of tension to Den of Wolves, making the title much stronger in sound.”
After our well-tooled plan fell apart when we located the four keys to open the centre vault, our squad regrouped on the ground floor to take on the gang leader, denoted by a unique character name, a big weapon, and a monologue that screams, “I’m the boss, target me!” Dropping shields, turrets, and land mines was essential to staying alive during our gameplay, and a comrade would get downed due to bullet allergies.
Deploying a shield or turret when reviving a member of our squad was almost crucial, as the AI deployed by the Den of Wolves team are wolves in their own right. After scraping our capable team into the vault, we had to proceed with diving into a human brain to steal the real target of the operation.
After a brief countdown, I entered a completely different plane of existence (or what felt like one). In true Inception-fashion, the world appears to almost crumble around the player, and the mission is to simply get to the end of these hellscapes. Gravity, floors, and even discerning up from down is a difficult task when under the Dive, so getting to the end requires precise teamwork, like the rest of Den of Wolves. Only one teammate needs to succeed in the Dive to be successful, so working together to figure out the distorted human brain labyrinth is a task made for us greedy criminals. All for one is Den of Wolves’ creed; everything is permitted indeed.
After succeeding in the first Dive, we were met with two more countdown timers, making us dive once again into the labyrinth constructed by the human brains at 10 Chambers. Each time we dove, the hellscape we were met with was different from the last, with walls, floors, and the world state behaving differently. The task is still to get to the end, but with many dead ends, our group of four can only get as far as teamwork will take us. After finishing the dive sequences, it was high time we escaped, with or without loot.
Loot comes in unmarked duffels strapped to an operative’s back, and only one can be held at a time. This stage had 35 total loot bags to find and steal, which meant we had to go back into the vault at least nine more times within a time limit to secure all of the bags (which is optional; higher risks taken give operatives higher rewards). Our team, after being traumatized by bullet hell, invading the human mind, and, worst of all, dealing with faulty spider drones, decided to call it after securing four bags. Loot is worth nothing if you’re dead, after all.
Den of Wolves is the next step forward in the heist genre. 10 Chambers is comprised of developers who have worked on the genre before, and it shows, all the way down to the musical score that permeates each heist. Innovative additions like faulty equipment that needs to be babysat (looking at the spider drones), ordinance that can be deployed and picked up tactically (looking at the shield, turret, and land mines), and the entire Dive system set Den of Wolves apart from the pack of extraction shooters, becoming a beast of its own.
Den of Wolves doesn’t just borrow from the heist playbook—it tears it up and writes its own. While we were only given a small look behind the curtain of what Den of Wolves has to offer, it’s abundantly clear that 10 Chambers is “back on that heist s***” for the better.
