WARDOGS Makes Magic Out of Mediocre

What do you get when you mix 2002 mechanics with 2014 graphics, and the economic system of Counter-Strike? By themselves, none of these things were particularly brilliant, as much as nostalgia may tell your brain otherwise. When combined, what you get is WARDOGS.

The upcoming flagship shooter by Bulkhead Interactive tries something new by skipping the fixation on innovation and instead focusing on mixing mature components that are widely familiar. I spent a good few hours dying in various creative ways and witnessing plenty of cinematic action during the two closed beta periods held ahead of the September 10 release, and now that I can't play WARDOGS, I can't stop thinking about it somehow.

This longing feels illogical because for most of my time with the game, every time I tried to engage with and analyze a single facet of it, WARDOGS felt lackluster. It does not do anything particularly well (with one major exception; more on that later), but it manages to beat out the competition by crossing the competence threshold across the board.

Money for Nothing

Unfair as it may sound, I have to start with what's objectively the weakest feature in WARDOGS, and somewhat puzzlingly, the core of its marketing campaign: the money.

As mercenaries duking it out in a large map inspired by Georgia (the country with the good food, not the Peach State), WARDOGS has you bankrolling your war with the money you make on the field. The lore may sound interesting, but the execution is a mix of a reskinned XP system and the Counter-Strike spawn shop.

To Bulkhead's credit, how you earn money is done fairly well. Every little action, from killing someone to giving someone a ride or building sandbags, counts. This system deliberately downplays killing, which, combined with you losing your kit when you die, means there is more motivation for players to chase supporting roles instead of good old Shift+W headfirst into a 7.62 round.

The best part of the financials by far is your ability to thank your colleagues by tipping them for different things. Got ammunition? Someone healed you? Helo driver dropped you off? Spam F1 to tip them as a thanks. There is also a morbid bidding economy on death, where you can 'bribe' players by offering a reward for picking you up, but I didn't see it used as much because, for the most part, everyone is quite happy to heal a fallen teammate without prompting, as there's a guaranteed cash reward anyway.

Bulkhead Interactive tries something new by skipping the fixation on innovation and instead focusing on mixing mature components that are widely familiar.

If earning money in WARDOGS is smooth, how you spend it is a nightmare. The money is there for you to buy virtually everything: backpacks, a gun, a tank, an attack helicopter, a single bullet. Normal in any shooter with an economy.

The problem is that, on top of paying for the items, your darling employers/suppliers also charge you a small fortune to unlock the items, and that's after making you go through fairly arbitrary level progressions to gain the 'privilege' of doing so.

As you live and die in the shadow of the Caucasus Mountains, you progress in overall WARDOG Level. Specific actions also count for six classes, divided between Assault, Medic, Support, Recon, Driver, and Pilot.

The economy runs on a battle pass system where certain items are tied to WARDOG Level, while others rely on class-specifics. What counts and doesn't for each is a little murky, however, which is quite annoying since things like an AK-74 attachment can be locked behind Medic progression. Once you do get all the requirements squared away, that will be another $10,000 to be able to buy it next time.

The lack of a loadout system in the beta made this more annoying than it had to be, but the feature is confirmed to come later, so you'll spend less time talking to the dodgy arms dealer from the East Midlands.

Drive My Car

Like any self-respecting Battlefield-like game, WARDOGS is all about combined arms, and it does this better than most games. Here is one of the main benefits of the economy system, not because people value vehicles any more than they do, but because having to buy your own means avoiding the gremlins and griefers that like to spawn-camp jets, helicopters, and armored vehicles since the dawn of Battlefield.

In my limited hands-on experience (i.e., I stole a few helicopters from distracted or dead pilots), the helicopter flight models are satisfactory, if a little clumsy when playing on a keyboard. WARDOGS gives you discrete controls for collective, cyclic, and anti-torque pedals, which is great as a whole but makes WASD flying tricky when people are busy trying to kill you.

The Killer Egg is a joy to throw about, and a combination of ease of flight plus lower cost made it the backbone of all game sessions I got to partake in. Pilots used it as an attack helicopter, for supply drops, troop insertions, and even reconnaissance.

At times, you could see enough of the little flying greenhouses about that it felt like you were in Gray Zone Warfare, to the detriment of other vehicles. Larger utility helicopters are far less common, and I feel a part of that is that they suck to fly. The control inertia is manageable once you get used to it, but it takes all the fun away, especially when two-thirds of the server are shooting at you.

I wish players felt more inclined to use other vehicles because the ground handling was quite pleasant, and there was some decent variety in there. Bulkhead has the full data and will reach its own conclusions, but my anecdotal take is that the time it takes to bring a tank from the main base to the fight, only to get destroyed in a few minutes, makes it less appealing than a cheaper, faster, disposable flying asset.

The few times I got tangled up with tanks, it was terrifying in the best way possible. They feel like Laestrygonians, eating scared mercs for breakfast with impunity until rockets finally end the misery. I don't think I survived any time a tank came within 100 meters of my position.

Guns, Guns, Guns

Gunplay in WARDOGS is an acceptable compromise, which is to say it trends towards 'bad' but in a way that makes the gameplay viable.

There are relatively few weapons to pick from, and while customization options improve stats, it's nothing that will save a bad shot given the size of the map. Hitboxes are large, so even shooting at 200 meters away with irons will connect, but armor (helmets in particular) is extremely effective against intermediate calibers. That protection evaporates in close quarters since you are almost certain to get mag-dumped on, so there's no toxic 'tanks' like Tarkov sweats with level 6 armor and face shields in CQB.

It brought me great joy to see that lone wolf snipers fare terribly, as tracers give their position out right away; even the cheapest helmet and armor greatly reduce the damage received, and most of the time your teammates can pick you back up. That's karma for sitting in a bush 400 meters away instead of playing the objective, big dog.

[Tanks] feel like Laestrygonians, eating scared mercs for breakfast with impunity until rockets finally end the misery.

The 3D models for weapons, vehicles (including internal compartments), and mercs are great, with appropriate levels of detail without setting your GPU on fire for things nobody will notice. Sounds could be better but are workable, though I don't think I'll ever quite get used to the slapstick comedy of hit noises and the little pink mist bubble that comes with them.

Environmental determinism makes everyone talk like they are from the East Midlands. A lore-accurate choice, as Derby is the root of all the chaos that begets war, as proven by Derby County FC's Premier League record.

The biggest achievement in WARDOGS, and one that the devs and marketing campaigns spent nearly zero time advertising, is the fact that they pulled a miracle: a game with few active coordination tools where the design naturally funnels players into the objective.

Even hardcore shooters like ARMA or Squad struggle with teamplay being akin to herding kittens. Bellum gets the job done, but it requires a level of attention and tactical acumen that burns you out after a round or two. Battlefield these days only gets objectives played by making the maps so tiny it's impossible not to be fighting near the point, but little Bulkhead got it done with a mix of Gregg's sausage rolls, corny voicelines, and a clearly-designed dream.

WARDOGS is not the best shooter; it's not the best tactical shooter, and it doesn't do anything exceptionally well for the most part, but it is an excellent entry that is more than the sum of its parts because it is refreshingly focused on just making a good game, rather than trying to be modern or complex for the sake of it.

If you are looking for a game that's pushing the medium's boundaries, look elsewhere. However, if you crave a good time, then help me with these HESCO blocks.

WARDOGS

First-Person Shooter Tactical Action War & Military Multiplayer Systems Released August 10, 2026 Developer(s) Bulkhead Publisher(s) Team17 Multiplayer Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op Number of Players Single-player 14 Images

Genre(s) First-Person Shooter, Tactical, Action, War & Military, Multiplayer