Every few months a shooter turns up promising it’ll be the one that finally lets you stop playing the same three games. Usually it’s a battle royale, or an extraction shooter, or a battle royale in an extraction shooter’s hat. Wardogs is neither, and Bulkhead and Team17 have been very keen to say so.
The setup is simple. A hundred players split into three teams (Valkyra, Lonestar and Manticore) and scrap over a randomly placed 2x2km control zone on a 256km² map of derelict, industrial Eastern Europe. Most players inside the zone earns points, and first to 100 wins. It grew out of a King of the Hill mod for Arma 3, and you can feel that lineage: it’s big, it’s loose, and nobody tells you how to play. It’s a sprint-to-a-two-kilometre-circle-and-argue-about-it-em-up (it’ll catch on).
So where do Call of Duty, Battlefield and Counter-Strike come in? Neatly, actually. Battlefield supplies the scale: 100 players, vehicles, helicopters, artillery and a destructible battlefield you can build on, right down to your own forward operating bases. Counter-Strike supplies the money. Everyone starts with $10,000, cash is earned through kills, objectives and teamwork, and each life begins with a trip to the shop. Call of Duty supplies the loadout itch: pick your weapons, gear and vehicles, level up, unlock more toys, go again.
Because teamwork pays, squads that coordinate outspend lone wolves, and that gives matches a lovely rhythm. You can chase the Hot Zone for double cash, buy a ghillie suit and snipe from a distance, or ferry supplies to teammates by helicopter. Local voice chat lets you talk tactics or, as the developers cheerfully admit, troll the enemy. A hardcore mode strips out the killcam and most of the HUD for the masochists.
It’s early access, so this is a story so far. Wardogs landed on Steam on 10 September and sold 1.25 million copies, then promptly met its own popularity. Servers buckled, queues stretched for hours, and the Steam user score dipped to 57% before recovering to a Mostly Positive 78%. Bulkhead then got its head down. Patch 0.11 split the server browser into Community and Official listings. Patch 0.1.2 on 30 September fixed the WD-L020 crash, capped a vehicle fly-through exploit and beefed up server security. Reports are now weighted, so serial or malicious reporters carry less influence.
Season 2 arrived on 15 October with four new weapons, four vehicles, rain, and a faction balance experiment after one team was found to be winning far less than the others. Player numbers have cooled from the launch frenzy (Steam is averaging roughly 142,000 in October, down about 40% on September), but that is still a very healthy crowd.
There are grumbles. Vehicle handling drew criticism before launch, balance is a work in progress, and cheating is the big question as the game grows. Bulkhead says it’ll stay in early access for 12 to 24 months, so it’s all still moving, but it’s something to keep in mind.
What I like is that it’s a properly different diversion from the usual FPS menu. There’s no battle pass, no pay-to-win, cash can’t be bought with real money, and cosmetics are earned through play. It’s not for everyone, and the rough edges are real, but if you fancy big, messy, three-way warfare with a shopping habit, this is a very enjoyable place to spend an evening.
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