It’s not often that a new multiplayer first-person shooter releases to compete against the heavy hitters of the industry, so any team making the attempt is immediately an underdog. Amid all the battle passes and live-service games in the industry, some players want a single-purchase game to squad up in, and BULKHEAD has delivered.
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WARDOGS Makes Magic Out of Mediocre
Never the best FPS made, but the best you’ll play this month.
WARDOGS has been an incredibly anticipated drop from studio BULKHEAD, the team behind The Turing Test and a number of multiplayer shooters. WARDOGS is their spin on Battlefield, with boots-on-the-ground clashes and vehicle combat happening all on the same battlefield between 3 active teams. The game has shown mountains of promise, and just recently fought through a number of issues.
Directed Attacks and Server Congestion
After massive support during their free beta weekends, BULKHEAD seemed ready for anything, until launch day finally came. Despite the warm reception, BULKHEAD claims they were the victims of a repeated series of DDOS attacks, stopping players from actually engaging with the game and crippling their opening day.
Once these DDOS attempts finally dried up, players found the servers themselves incredibly congested, causing frequent disconnects on top of slow-to-join matches. Two days out from spawn, BULKHEAD has stepped up and seemingly resolved these issues, simply caught off guard by the sheer number of players eager to join.
The game has shown mountains of promise, and just recently fought through a number of issues.
On paper, this is a great issue to have, but if Marvel Tokon taught us anything, it’s that fumbling your first impression can severely limit your overall outreach. BULKHEAD has shown itself to be quick to answer community complaints, leading to the massive rebound in public reception surrounding WARDOGS.
On launch, WARDOGS suffered from a Mixed score on Steam, citing the server instability and inconsistent lobbies as the major pain points. With some swift fixes, the game’s score has spiked all the way back to a Very Positive, with most of the recent reviews praising BULKHEAD for their fast response.
Players have also been praising the game’s lack of reliance on live service elements, with no microtransactions in sight. Muscling in on Battlefield’s territory, WARDOGS aims to fuse Battlefield and Arma into a real mixed military sandbox focused on massive objectives for three separate teams to battle for. The game seems primed for a strong launch, and after a solid start, it’s up to Bulkhead to maintain this momentum through their early access launch.
Fresh Faces
WARDOGS itself is a game that’s refreshingly simple to understand, offering a large-scale shooter without many of the bells and whistles that are found in modern shooters. The folks at Bulkhead clearly wanted to aim for a more boots-on-the-ground, grunt combat experience, and that simplicity is exactly what’s led to the game’s success.
More and more smaller studios are stepping up to the plate, either contracted directly by bigger studios or just throwing their hats in the ring. The industry needs fresh blood more than anything else, and Bulkhead’s push into the mainstream shooter sphere is a great swing in the right direction, even if they have been around the block.
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WARDOGS
Systems
Released
August 10, 2026
Number of Players
Single-player
Steam Deck Compatibility
Unknown