Few co - op game have been able to recapture the conjuring trick ofPaydayandPayday 2 .
Even the third secret plan in that series develop by Starbreeze wasmet with negative responses , andPayday 2currently seessignificantly high player countsthan its subsequence on Steam . That may be because some of the fundamental natural endowment that created those original Payday championship at Overkill Software and Starbreeze depart to form 10 Chambers . That small squad of 10 developer createdGTFO , a sleeper bang co - op revulsion shooter , and is now returning to the Payday conception withDen of wildcat .
While it ’s now in a dystopic , futuristic sci - fi background , Den of Wolvesis a cobalt - op biz where gang of four players have to work together to pull off heists and break away with as much loot as possible . At GDC 2025 , I went hands - on withDen of Wolvesfor the first time . It ’s regulate up to be a rightful evolution of that Payday formula , one that builds on what work while still experiment with some more fantastical idea . Den of Wolvesisn’tPayday 4 , but it ’s a reinterpretation of what made the serial so fantastic in the first place .
Returning to what they know
Simon Viklund is a video plot composer best know for his work on the Payday serial , and co - ground 10 Chambers with Ulf Andersson in 2016 . At the time , the studio was intentionally kept small , and in 2019 they find breakout success with co - op repulsion gameGTFO . The developer I speak to at 10 Chambers , like Viklund , all seem very proud ofGTFO , but admitted eagerness to return to a Payday - style formula to create something that Andersson had desire to make for years . From the medicine perspective , Viklund seemed eager to get back to composing what he does easily .
“ I loved making the music to the Payday game because I really feel like that sort of aggressive , in - your - face , adrenaline pump music is my pilothouse , ” Viklund tells Digital Trends . “ GTFOwas a prissy challenge and variety of tempo to do more creepy-crawly horror medicine , but it was not my pilothouse , to be frank . That ’s what I love most aboutDen of Wolves : getting back to the variety of fantasy power character soundtrack . ”
more often than not , there ’s a mother wit that leadership at 10 Chambers is delving back into what it knows withDen of Wolves . This is a co - op heist secret plan where a group of four player have to work together to pull off heists ; this should be done stealthy at first , but before long it ’ll fall into a monolithic shootout where musician must think on their feet in Holy Order to escape . The biggest difference is that this is a futuristic sci - fi world . In this dystopian ( but eerily recognizable ) futurity , corporations have gotten permission to control outside the law and have created a giant city on the Midway atoll .
participant control the malefactor perform blind , stealing from these megacorporations and killing anyone who gets in their way . alternatively of hook banks , you ’re robbing the plenteous , and that inherently feels a minuscule more hearty to do . The stealth and shootout finger as good as they do inPayday 2andGTFO , but the sci - fi elements ofDen of Wolvesadd on unique twists . For example , this game features one of the most sturdy deployable energy shields I ’ve ever used in a shooter .
To succeed at a holdup , teams of four thespian demand to exploit together to rule the loot , pure objectives , and escape alive . The firstDen of Wolvesmission I played was a poor one that hit that bite - sized loot snap - and - go gameplay grummet Payday found , while the 2d was a bombastic - scale stickup that was thrilling to pull off . Viklund bring up how hisDen of Wolvesmusic feels more “ advanced ” thanPayday 2 ’s due to his increased experience working on game . That same mantra can be put on to the scale - up studio at big .
Heists to remember
The first mission I played was a morsel - sized , grab - and - go loot heist . Another diary keeper , two developers , and I easy snuck our way to a vault , but before we could get there I was fleck and a gunplay began . We actually did a honest business properly placing shield and defend our position long enough to break into the burial vault and steal the money , but things got dicey as we tried to get away .
One of my teammates lagged behind , so while three of us come to the descent point , the other was downed before they could get there . All four players must be together to end up a mission , and regrettably our downed friend was behind too many enemy . We all died taste to fight back our way through to him and failed the missionary post . While our delegation did not work , I still had a ton of sport doing that with others . Then , it was sentence for a bigger heist .
The developer at 10 Chambers in reality laid out a physical mapping of a complex we had to break into in front of me . To dispatch the mission , we had to find key visiting card in vaults so we could access a control room , get the power to “ dive ” into the mind of an executive seen in the game ’s reveal drone , Mr. Bowman , and then get by . By right communicate , my team pulled off the first one-half of this stickup with few roadblocks . Once we get going activating the hurdle , though , all hellhole broke loose and the mission read a scrap - heavy fault .
My squad had to hunker down to hack sure degree and then do “ dives ” in the judgement of Mr. Bowman multiple times so as to get what we needed . This took the manakin of a psychedelic platforming challenge where the constabulary of purgative did not implement . It was perfectly wild and not like anything I ’ve seen in a game like this before . Viklund seemed quite majestic of all the different kinds of dive let in inDen of Wolves , which will also encompass everything from platforming gantlet to fritter challenges to escaping a fiend chase you in a maze .
I had a blast play these twoDen of Wolvesmissions , although it ’s worth remark that I did preview this in a tightly controlled surroundings while playing with developers who knew what they were doing . If I was playing by myself or without my design , I ’d expect the result of my firstDen of Wolvesmission to be a more plebeian one . Still , I did n’t see that many carbon monoxide - op plot blood-red fleur-de-lis while playingDen of Wolves , and witness it quite obvious that 10 Chambers has really scaled up its capabilities so as to pull something like this off .
Growing pains
WhileGTFOwas made with just 10 people initially , Den of Wolves ’ development team is close to 100 thanks to an investiture 10 Chambers got from Tencent to make this secret plan . As a consequence , Den of Wolvesalready feels like a AAA game , unlikeGTFO . For a co - founder like Viklund , that also means a mess more responsibility need to be taken on , as he ’s now managing a whole squad of well-grounded couturier and collaborating with Jamie Christopherson on music forDen of Wolvesrather than doing it all himself .
10 Chambers filmed a reality - infotainment throughout the development ofDen of wildcat , and is now pitching it around to potential partners for statistical distribution . You do n’t have to wait until that hail out to learn about some of the battle that come with surmount up , though , as Viklund was honest about how tough grading up 10 Chambers has been .
“ grow the studio apartment has been rough , ” Viklund says . “ I need to be honest , retaining the culture and the room you ferment and things , you need to do it , but at the same clock time it ’s impossible because it ’s a new organisation with hierarchy . It ’s a different fellowship entirely because , even though you require to , it ’s hard to keep doing things the same agency and have the same coming to things when you ’re with so many people . It ’s knotty , you move away from hands - on development ; as a founding father , you go from making games to telling other people how to make games . I ’m hold on to the responsibility for the medicine for dear life . ”
Viklund did go on to repeatedly congratulate the other sound designers and developers he works with at 10 Chambers , and admitted that “ we could n’t make a biz likeDen of Wolvesunless we had a studio like this and investiture from Tencent , so I do n’t want to fathom like I ’m thankless . ” My preview ofDen of Wolvesat GDC 2025 and this interview affirmed to me just how much of an organic evolution this game is for the developers working on it .
Ulf Andersson , Simon Viklund , and society all proved themselves and trailblazer a new kind ofco - op gamewith the first two Payday title . Then , they essay they could produce a small - scale of measurement indie repulsion hit withGTFO . Now , they ’re combining their capabilities at both to take the core of Payday and reimagine it as a wild AAA dystopian sci - fi carbon monoxide - op shooter . Denof Wolvesis different from classic Payday in quite a few slipway ; the developers make it have changed too . Despite all of that , I ’d still say thatDen of Wolvesis seem like the phylogenesis of the Payday convention that we ’ve been waiting for .
Den of Wolvesis in development for PC , PS5 , and Xbox Series X / S and will initially launch into former admittance . When require for a more specific window , 10 Chambers representatives but told me “ when it ’s quick . ”
