We are eagerly awaiting “Den of Wolves,” which is being developed by the creators of the successful Payday 2.
The Den of Wolves trailer at The Game Awards initially teases a new game from the creator of Payday: The Heist and Payday 2.While it might initially give the impression of a classic heist game, the presentation evolves into something very different. Two characters are shown exchanging screams in a sci-fi maze, in a scene reminiscent of the world of Cyberpunk 2077.So, what is the nature of this game?
The Payday connection reveals that Den of Wolves is a four-player co-op game from 10 Chambers, the Stockholm studio founded by Ulf Andersson, the designer of Payday 1 and 2. Although it's referred to as Payday 5, Den of Wolves is radically different, taking place in 2097 in a city controlled by corporations that have secured their stock market with biological encryption using human brains.
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The game is influenced by Inception, The Matrix, Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner, offering an explosive mix of science fiction and crypto-themed twists. While no gameplay footage is available, narrative director Simon Viklund (formerly of Payday) described the game as an ambitious “mindfuck sci-fi.”.
First of all, this is a much larger production than 10 Chambers' tight and super-difficult co-op shooter GTFO, which was made with about 10 people. The studio decided to apply its design philosophy to a larger project, secured some investment from Tencent, and grew to over 100 employees. Over the past two years, they've been churning out development tools and building a world, and while it's not going to be an open-world game where you roam around a city on foot, they've created a full street map and an overall dystopian fantasy for it.
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Den of Wolves takes place on Midway Atoll, which is famous for its role in World War II and is currently a natural protected center under US control. The gist is that, in the future, AI-assisted cyber-invasion becomes so powerful that it becomes impossible to protect the world’s financial markets. The United States, on a disastrous course, turns Midway into a “business haven with no oversight from authorities and no human rights organizations for peace,” and of course the world’s corporations rush to the islands to violate human rights in the name of capital, inventing human-powered encryption that no AI can beat, constructing the lawlessness of Midway City with “large buildings that rise out of the ocean.”
As part of the world-building, the studio has already created 400 fictional companies, complete with descriptions and logos, approvals from their legal department (to ensure they don't look too much like real companies), even going so far as to differentiate things like airlines and aircraft manufacturers. Their philosophy is "science fiction with a purpose," says Viklund, which means the environment needs to complement or enable the kind of fun they want to design - I'm not sure how so many brands have a role in the game, but I'm certainly curious to find out.
Source of information: https://www.pcgamer.com/uk
