Den of Wolves’ left-field feature may seem odd, but the devs believe ‘it’s something we can deliver on’ thanks to previous work with horror in GTFO

Den of Wolves is an upcoming multiplayer FPS game from 10 Chambers, the studio made up of devs known for Payday: The Heist, Payday 2, and the co-op horror game GTFO. But despite not strictly being a horror game, 10 Chambers is still planning to use the expertise they gained from perfecting GTFO in Den of Wolves.

Fans of Payday will likely see some resemblance to GTFO when they drop into Den of Wolves, however, the upcoming game will be considerably less punishing and have slightly more guidance and restrictions to make it easier for players to pick up.

But it won’t all just be shooting heads and stealing loot: Every so often, near the end of a heist, players will have to complete a Dive, a sort of Inception-like side trip where you hack into someone’s brain. Just about anything’s on the table during Dives: Remember, you’re in a Cyberpunk dystopian city run by unregulated capitalists, anything’s possible.

“Dives are whatever we come up with that would play well, or would be a cool challenge for the players,” co-founder of 10 Chambers Simon Viklund told PC Gamer.

During my time with Den of Wolves, I was on an infiltration mission where I had to collect data from the brain of some freaky guy hooked up to loads of computers. Before I could complete the objective I had to complete three Dives, fighting waves of enemies between each one. You never know what a Dive will be, until you go into one. My team and I had to complete a parkour platformer, but there are other options as well.

“We can make a horror Dive, like an isolated little snack size experience, perhaps in a small forest that you run through, or a maze,” Viklund says. “Or there could be a shooting gallery, in an arena where it’s one shot, one kill. So it’s more dangerous. It’s more like a military simulator in that regard.”

“We can sort of lean into other genres a little bit and try stuff out. It comes after you look at what resources we have as a team. Having made GTFO, we think that horror is one of those things. So we will have horror Dives as well. These will provide a change of pace for players, a change of scenery, and atmosphere.”

When I first heard about the Dives, I didn’t think they made much sense or had a place in a multiplayer FPS. It seemed a little too far-fetched for what the missions would entail and felt like just an excuse to attach another genre onto the game. But I’m happy to say that I was wrong, I actually really enjoyed the change of pace that they provided, and given the futuristic cyberpunk nature of Den of Wolves, hacking into someone’s brain feels pretty plausible.

There’s also no tutorial for how to complete a Dive, so you need to figure it out for yourself and do so as quickly as possible. “We shouldn’t provide a tutorial for it, because otherwise it won’t feel like you’re on the cutting edge of the highest technology,” Viklund says. “You’re one of a handful of people in Midway City that can do that. So you should feel like no one’s ever been done this before.”

Luckily, it’s not critical that you complete every single Dive. Only one person has to complete it, but if everyone fails, then you’ll all just get thrown out of the Dive and have to fight against enemies for a little while longer.

The Dives may not be for everyone, but I like where they’re heading so far, and I will stay cautiously optimistic about the horror Dives in particular, which are inspired by GTFO. Alongside it being more accessible, Den of Wolves does seem like the next logical step for 10 Chambers. “Every game we make is an evolution of the last one,” Viklund says. “So we’re trying to perfect the formula and then take it further. We have storytelling in GTFO, but we know we can do better.”