‘We could go from a shooter to a platformer to a horror theme’: How stepping away from Payday 2’s real-world framing has helped Den of Wolves turn high-stakes heisting on its head

By the developer’s own admission, Den of Wolves is driven by its creators’ past experiences working on the Payday series. After all, 10 Chambers’ follow-up to GTFO is indeed a co-operative heist ‘em up. Each high-stakes excursion balances heart-in-mouth stealth and backs-to-the-wall chaos with fine precision, wherein choosing the right identity-hiding mask and distinct weapon loadout carry the same weight.

Where Den of Wolves strays from the path carved by its spiritual forerunners, however...