Payday co-creator's new cyberpunk heist FPS is "more Payday 2," less hardcore than co-op hit GTFO, and deliberately different from Cyberpunk 2077

gamesradar.com:

10 Chambers, the studio founded by Payday and Payday 2 lead Ulf Andersson, is now working on a heist shooter of its own. After finding success with hit co-op horror shooter GTFO, the studio's going back to the roots of much of its staff with Den of Wolves, a cyberpunk heist shooter coming to PC and consoles.

Den of Wolves was unveiled as part of tonight's Game Awards live coverage, and 10 Chambers shared more about the game at an event attended by GamesRadar+. Now two years into pre-production and finally becoming playable internally – but still so unfinished it doesn't have a release date yet – Den of Wolves is billed as an "FPS co-op heist game in a techno-thriller setting." 

That setting necessitated a lot of world-building, 10 Chambers said. The game picks up in 2097 after over-advanced AI brings the world's financial system to its knees. In a desperate bid to fend off AI-powered hacks, global powers give mega corporations their own private, regulation-free island – always a good idea – in exchange for the development of a peerless defensive AI based on the architecture of the human brain. The AI fends off the hackings, and Midway City – built on the Midway Atoll, a real island home to a real wildlife sanctuary here in 2023 – becomes a hotbed of cutting-edge tech and quickly spirals into a web of crime. 

If this is starting to sound like some Night City-grade excess, you're in good company. I had the same thought, but 10 Chambers has a different vision for the cyberpunk near-future compared to CDPR's Cyberpunk 2077 and the TTRPG that it's based on. 

"While we love games such as [Cyberpunk 2077,] a fantastic game, with that type of sci-fi, I would call it more like fantasy sci-fi, if you get what I mean. It is cool,