An action-packed heist game with Payday pedigree

An open vault in Midway City draws a crew ready to steal its contents. Likewise, techno-thriller heist game Den of Wolves inevitably attracts comparisons to Payday. Swedish studio 10 Chambers’ upcoming title is a frantic cyberpunk take on the heist genre—and it’s riveting enough even in a pre-alpha build.

Industry veterans Ulf Andersson and Simon Viklund were key players in the Payday franchise’s first two titles before founding 10 Chambers in 2015. Now, they’re aiming to return to heist territory and break the mold with Den of Wolves.

We tried out Den of Wolves last month by invitation from the studio, which paid for our travel expenses to San Francisco. The build was still in development, so none of it was final—but everything was promising.

Andersson and Viklund bring their Payday pedigree to Den of Wolves. The motto used to promote the game before publicly revealing its name—“back on that heist shit”—drew precisely from that experience, touting it as a “seal of approval or a proof that we can handle that type of game,” Viklund told us in 2023.

Despite the shared heritage, 10 Chambers wasn’t making Den of Wolves as a spiritual successor to Payday, he said. We did feel similarities between the games—getting shot at while running away with a bag of cash strapped to your back is the same in Midway City or in New York, and we thought of the heist franchise whenever our drill robot glitched out—but 10 Chambers also draws from a different well.

The studio’s DNA is palpable in Den of Wolves, and the lion’s share of that stems from its unforgiving debut title GTFO. The two siblings share weapons, gadgets, and mechanics, so there’s certainly some familiarity between them. The youngest didn’t inherit any ultra-hardcore genes, though, so expect a far more forgiving experience.

Den of Wolves arms you to your teeth, and you’ll need your gear to make it out with all the spoils. You can get through some of the parts in stealth, but loud heists are also an option. Our experience going loud had a small army of enemies trying to fend us off, with bullets flying from nearly every direction and the occasional beefier target trying to destroy us. The action barely stopped, and any lulls were short-lived and between respawn waves.

Despite being an early build, we could choose from a handful of different guns and gadgets, each more unique than the next. We skipped GTFO‘s lethal sentry turrets in favor of deployable shields, which block enemy damage without stopping your shots. They’re a strong tool to close choke points and secure revives. The devices stick to walls, too, opening up plenty of options to approach a fight. You can recall them from a reasonable distance, though they can break if they take too much damage. (In our experience, this didn’t happen easily.)

Our weapon of choice, the DMR, felt and sounded incredible. It gave the impression of a camera-ready weapon despite being in a pre-alpha build, likely because of its GTFO counterpart. Secondaries didn’t feel as good, though that’s not a surprise given they’re likely weaker by design.

The gunplay was thrilling enough, but the environments were just as enthralling. We played through two missions: a shorter prep and a heist finale. The setting and the story threads were enough to keep us keen to hear what would happen next, especially because they have roots in Midway City’s storylines.

The first mission was similar to a setup job in GTA Online, where we needed to secure a tool to help us in the main event. The final one was a full-on heist, complete with a cinematic escape through a window after blowing up the security bars covering it. In both cases, we had a primary objective and the opportunity to grab bags of cash for extra rewards, so get ready if you’re used to doing greed runs.

If you like co-op shooters, Den of Wolves will appeal to you regardless if you’ve played any of the developers’ previous titles. The game left us wanting more even as a pre-alpha build, though 10 Chambers still doesn’t have an ETA for an early-access release. For now, fans will have to wait—and Payday and GTFO will have to fill the void until then.