DEN OF WOLVES

10 Chambers' kinetic co-op heister is a cyberpunk take on Payday 2

- Jake Tucker

Den of Wolves makes me feel like I'm drowning. In my brief playtest, a first hands-on for 10 Chambers' heist 'em up taking place in Tokyo, I found that when the enemies start to push at you from every direction it's often all you can do to stay alive, let alone push toward your objectives.

If you want to keep your head above the enemy tide hitting you from all directions, you'll need to stay close to your teammates. We failed near the final hurdle in our first attempt at Den of Wolves, but pulled it out of the bag for the second, extracting with nearly empty weapons, bags full of loot and a mission well done. Live or die in Den of Wolves, you'll do it alongside your teammates.

That singular focus on the squad feels like 10 Chambers is doing what it was made to do. The developer has made a name for itself as a studio that wants to make co-op games at their most punishing. It was a company founded with developers that conceptualised and developed Payday and Payday 2.

Hell, in an interview with, um, me, over at NME, studio CEO and co-founder Ulf Andersson explained that they were "back on that heist shit".

Outside of that bold statement of intent, information was scarce. Since then we've learnt a lot more about the world. Den of Wolves is about criminals trying to accumulate wealth, but the setting is much more interesting than most heist games. Midway island has become a lawless corporate haven where corporations screw each other over relentlessly for profit. So far, so London in 2025, but add a futuristic setting, body modifications and a whole lot of neon lights, and Den of Wolves is giving cyberpunk vibes, instead.

BODY HORROR