Battlefield 6 has finally introduced naval combat, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 may offer a worthwhile campaign, but neither is really garnering much hype. Instead, it’s Bulkhead Studios’ WARDOGS, a competitive multiplayer military sim shooter that only really received its fair share of attention last June. Which is commendable given all the other titles vying for attention.
After two successful beta periods (one that pretty much overshadowed Modern Warfare 4’s beta) and over one million wishlists, it launched on Steam last week and has sold two million copies in just five days. Furthermore, it peaked at nearly 430,000 concurrent players on the platform. Even now, it’s the third-most-played game on Steam, just behind Dota 2. And if all this wasn’t impressive enough, WARDOGS is in early access.
So what is it about the game? We’ve already seen other competitive multiplayer titles crash and burn this year, whether it’s the attempt at mashing every single genre together in Highguard or the much-hyped extraction shooter Marathon. Yet, Bulkhead has gone further beyond either of them, separately and combined.
First, it would probably help to explain what WARDOGS even is. Yes, it’s a first-person shooter with military sim aspects, which means it aims for a realistic, grounded experience. Weapons have realistic ballistics and bullet drop-off. You have limited inventory space, and besides ammo, you also need magazines to load them in, which must be done manually when they’re empty. While it’s not as realistic in terms of injuries as Tarkov, treating injuries still requires swapping to a separate item and waiting a few seconds to regain health. Suppression can affect your aim, and there’s no fancy sliding or jumping around, though going prone is very much an option.
Sounds like a cross between Battlefield and Hell Let Loose? Well, that’s one reason for the popularity – a comfortable middle ground that carries the pace of the former with the realism of the latter. But what really stands out is the sheer freedom.
WARDOGS, at its heart, is a multiplayer sandbox. Yes, it supports up to 100 players, and they’re divided into three PMCs, who fight over Control Zones that randomly appear on the map. While you score points by having the most players within the zone, its placement is random. Furthermore, there’s a Hot Zone which offers even more money if you happen to be within it.
So right away, there’s a recipe for out-and-out chaos, but that’s only the beginning. Owing to their status as PMCs, each player starts out with some spending money and can outfit themselves as necessary. Buy different weapons – no restrictions based on class and whatnot – or invest in vehicles. Load up on armor, helmets, healing and whatnot. Then set out to earn those points, hopefully netting more cash in the process.
And then we get to the real appeal of WARDOGS, which is: Do whatever you feel like. Which might inspire some confusion, because aren’t you supposed to run out and get a bunch of kills? Or even stick close to allies to heal and revive them? Well, yes, you can do that, and even get into a rocket helicopter and rain death down on enemies. You can pick up a sniper rifle and gun down enemies from afar, drive armored vehicles with machine gun turrets, and so on. But you can also not do any of that and still earn plenty of cash. You’re still likely confused, and really, it’s understandable. So here are a few more examples.
In WARDOGS, you don’t have to be good at dogfighting and whatnot. In fact, you could use a helicopter to just ferry teammates to the battlefield. The act itself earns money and XP towards one of six categories, and that’s only really scratching the surface. You could also transport supplies to help build a Forward Operating Base or F.O.B.
Let’s say you’re not particularly skilled at aiming, or need to drop a ton of explosive artillery on the opposing side when not building a SAM turret to take out their aerial units. You can purchase a hammer and build a F.O.B., creating walls and other fortifications, including doors and whatnot, for teams to hunker down in. There’s even a drill that you can build that pulls the Hot Zone to its location, so if your F.O.B. is particularly well-fortified (and maybe situated in one of the key points of interest on the map), it can be very difficult for the other sides to fight back. That is, unless they decide to attack with mortars of their own, or assault it with those previously mentioned rocket helicopters, or simply hot-drop a bunch of troops in from the air.
Feel like a more solo-heavy playstyle? Become a spotter. No, seriously. Just pick up a scope and mark enemy targets, whether it’s vehicles, other players or installations. You’ll receive cash and XP for each successfully marked target, and it requires nothing more than zooming in and hovering your mouse over them for a few seconds. Furthermore, this contributes to the Recon role. Progress enough through each of the six categories, and you’ll gain access to better weapons, armor, tools and whatnot.
And when you do, well, why not perform a little war profiteering? Buy a bunch of guns and sell them back at home base for a small markup, earning cash and Support XP in the process. Maybe you want to engage in multiple different activities, driving a respawn vehicle into the Control Zone and offering allies a way to redeploy faster without taking the long road back. Meanwhile, you’re carrying a backpack with an assault rifle for mid-range gun fights and a marksman rifle for long-range encounters. Note every dollar earned goes towards your overall bank, which carries forward into future matches.
Of course, that’s far from everything that you can do, and the sandbox nature of it all – right down to stealing an ally’s stuff before reviving them – makes it so that each match feels dynamic. There’s enough chaos due to the push and pull of clearing zones and earning points, not to mention those bunkering down in F.O.B.s and either attacking from afar with relative safety or defending their drills (or sniping perches, because why not). But when you factor in the interactions with other players, whether you’re assisting them or simply informing them to jump out of a helicopter because you don’t know how to land, it’s a feeling that mirrors some of the precious old-school multiplayer shooters. And best of all, it does this while offering a proper server browser.
Most modern games fail to truly replicate this level of enjoyment, though this isn’t to say that WARDOGS is perfect. Balance remains an ever-frail subject, but it’s clear that some weapons are far outperforming others. Hit registration is also problematic at times, and this is still a military shooter at heart. If you’re not used to that methodical style of play, then it can feel like little more than live, die, repeat (with the bonus of going further into debt).
Nevertheless, it’s something that’s clearly resonated with a large subsection of players – those who sought more from the likes of Battlefield or wanted a break from Hell Let Loose. That this is still just the beginning, with even more to come, is as exciting as it is concerning – there’s always room for unpopular changes to bring the whole thing down, as has often happened with some of the best shooters in the past. For now, however, WARDOGS stands out among its bigger-budget, triple-A competition and, in some areas, shows them how it should be done.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
