When Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios brought us three-team squad shooter The Finals, I couldn’t help but wonder what that dynamic would look like at the large scale of Battlefield 6. To find an answer, you could look to Arma 3’s King of the Hill mod, which has now been turned into a full, standalone game in collaboration with its creators. Wardogs is a 100-player “tactical all-out warfare FPS” that pits three rival armies against one another in a breakaway from the battle royales and extraction shooters of the world.
Wardogs comes from developer Bulkhead, back as an independent studio following its separation from Tencent. It’s building the new shooter in collaboration with ‘Sa-Matra,’ the creators of the Arma 3 King of the Hill mod that inspired it, and publisher Team 17. KOTH will always be synonymous with the ‘good old days’ of online multiplayer games to me, and hours poured into The Finals demonstrated how adding a third faction into the mix could really force you to change your approach.
The action in Wardogs takes place on a giant 256km2 map, located in “the derelict industrial mountains of Eastern Europe.” A random 2x2km location is chosen as the designated ‘control zone,’ and points are gradually doled out to whichever team has the most players present in that region. Like the mod that inspired it, the first side to hit 100 points claims victory. You’ll therefore need to work closely with your teammates to force enemy troops out of the area while ensuring others on your side can rally to the cause.
Much like The Finals and in true Battlefield style, the environments of Wardogs will be reshaped as matches play out. Structures can suffer damage and be destroyed, or may be fortified and repurposed, letting each team set up key strongholds. It strikes a balance between the ability to blow things up and not simply flattening the entire environment to dust. Vehicles on the ground and in the air help players get around quickly, or deliver some devastating payloads at speed.
Wardogs also adopts a Counter-Strike-style persistent cash count. Each time you spawn, you buy a custom loadout that offers a selection of weapons, gear, utility items, and even vehicles. Money is earned through your actions, and the big rewards come from teamwork in and around the control zone. Help turn the tide in your favor, transport troops to the hotspot, or revive fallen allies, and you’ll rack up funds for more powerful equipment.
Bulkhead says it wants to make sure players have plenty of ways to choose how they approach the action. Perhaps you’ll be a hot-zone chaser, always getting right into the thick of things to rack up profits fast. Maybe you’d rather don a ghillie suit and snipe from a distance, or help fortify strategic chokepoints that can secure key routes of ingress. You could don the mantle of a troop-transport specialist, or jump in an artillery tank and rain down hellfire.
Wardogs is planned to come to Steam Early Access in 2026. Initially, the focus will be on “refining the game’s core systems, expanding features and content, and responding directly to player feedback.” You can wishlist it now, or head over to the official website to sign up for playtests.
“Slots are extremely limited as we scale up testing,” Bulkhead warns. “We aren’t running a typical triple-A marketing ‘beta’ – we genuinely want players to get involved and share their feedback and bug reports.” If that sounds like you, then you might be a perfect fit for the closed playtests; if not, you can always wait for the Steam launch instead.
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