| Warzone: Iron Wolf III | |
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| Developer(s) | DECA The Hague |
| Publisher(s) | NINE100 Studios |
| Engine | Wartech 4 Ultra |
| Released | November 5, 2020 |
| Genre(s) | First-Person Shooter |
| Ratings | ESRB: M |
| Series | Warzone |
- "The final installment to award-winning Iron Wolf®-trilogy is back with an immersive campaign focused on narrative storytelling set in a distant and twisted future and a return to pace with the high-octane multiplayer arena shooter experience. Discover what you are made off in the intense modes that Warzone: Iron Wolf III includes and defines the series: Campaign and Arena."
- ―Box description.
Warzone: Iron Wolf III, also referred to as IW3, is the seventh main installment in the Warzone First-Person Shooter series. It is developed by DECA The Hague and published by NINE100 Studios for the Anima. Set in the year 2075, Iron Wolf III marks the furthest the franchise has gone to in the future and is the finale of the Iron Wolf-trilogy of games.
The campaign follows the story of William Black, an enigmatic tier one operator of the Private Military Company ARES Force Recon and his journey in a world filled with military robotics and scientific marvels. As a department from the mostly linear campaigns of the Warzone-series, Iron Wolf III now features 5 Open World hubs that are filled with main story missions and side objectives to complete.
The multiplayer continues the innovations from Iron Wolf II that shook the ground work and took to the next-level, introducing a whole new fluid precision movement system, more weapon and gear customization and a meta-defining pseudo-class system that allows players to discover and strife at their favorite play style. The multiplayer now also properly rewards players' skill with increased time-to-kill and more outplay potential in gunfights.
Campaign
The campaign of Iron Wolf III follows an Open World style of gameplay, with minor Role-Playing elements. Players are allowed to explore the semi-open worlds freely in between missions, travelling to locations to engage in the story missions, which are told in a linear fashion, side objectives that grant bonuses during said story missions or engage in multiplayer co-op missions that grant rewards for the multiplayer component. Certain multiplayer maps are also present in the overworld, allowing players to queue in seamless matchmaking that doesn't require a loading screen and instead throws the players in a pre-match scuffle.
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Players can fully customize their characters, using a stat-based class system faintly remniscent of the multiplayer loadout creator. Items and equipment are unlocked by playing the campaign, while weapons are levelled up with forges unlocked through collecting loot from found or earned Supply Crates or post-mission rewards. Supply Crates can be found within the overworld and mission worlds of the hubs, with each crate possible to being opened once. Unlocked weapon skins from loot drops are carried over from singleplayer to multiplayer, but weapon levelling isn't carried over.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer of Iron Wolf III is called Arena, a nod to the genre that influences the title. The multiplayer has been refined with a multitude of changes, including increasing the health of players, their mobility and duel options and granting a deep customization system that offers players to specialize in certain combat roles. Every map now has an unique side objective that grants the team that secures it an immediate buff or advantage, similar to Uplinks from Shade. These rewards vary from constant passives and Utility abilities to single, sometimes devestating, change to a map's dynamics and scorestreak-like support.
The movement now features a parkour system, that allows players to more effectively traverse the maps and, more importantly, introduces a new skill that can be learned. Momentum now serves as a resource to wall running, mantling and ledge grabbing, forcing players to chain movement together or it makes them extremely immobile compared to other players. The Enhanced Jump of Iron Wolf II has been replaced by a boost-amplified double jump. However, the double jump only extends the jump height marginally and instead is used to help glide in the air when jumping from elevated positions. It also allows players to scale a wall by wall climbing, which allows them to climb onto a flat surface for a certain distance to reach higher advantage points.
The HUD now has minimal information displayed up front. The mini-map is turned off for all players, until there's a SatLink established. Besides that, there is no healthbar present, with certain visual cues indicating re-engaged and breaking armor, as well as low health. The players now have a total of 200 health, 100 standard health and 100 armor, which both have independent recharge rates, with health regaining after a short time while not damaged, but armor only regains when out of combat. Assassinations still function the same, in that they can be performed on low health enemies or while in a surprise attack, guaranteeing an instakill. However, counter-assassinations are removed from the game. A new type of assassinations, called Taunt Attacks, are introduced.
Progression is now restricted for players to level up to a maximum of rank 30, similar to Iron Wolf II. After reaching rank 30, players obtain Ranked Queue and gain a MR (Multiplayer Rank) ranking that increases with wins and decreases with loses when playing official matches. Players also obtain a hidden ELO ranking that determines matchmaking, which is based upon individual score and performance, as well as win-loss ratio. There is also a casual mode, this time called Normal Queue or Normals, that doesn't affect MR score, but ELO is still used for matchmaking. As a replacement to Black Ops, Iron Wolf III now features Legendary Feats, with each completed feat unlocking a Prestige Star, with a maximum of 12 Prestige Stars to obtain.
Players can earn additional experience, loot and other rewards by alligning with a Private Military Company. There are 2 PMC's unlocked from the start, while the other PMC's have to be "unlocked" by achieving certain feats. After that, the player might've to earn their trust and run trials before being accepted by the PMC. Besides rewards, PMC"s also engage in Dominion Wars with other PMC's. During active periods, players need to allign with only one PMC at once. After that, they are tasked with cooperative operations in the Singleplayer hubs, through recreations of singleplayer scenarios, with a player-versus-player element, where 2 teams fight over 1 central objective. Each player contributes points to a global average, with the first win being of increased value. The PMC that wins over a global average gets a specific reward that it distributes over its operators.
Weapons and Loadout
The weapons from Iron Wolf III work similar to Iron Wolf II, in that base weapons can be upgraded through forges. This time however, some forges require variants to be unlocked, which can be done through Campaign missions and easter eggs, cooperative missions, post-match rewards and supply kits. Variants have unique skins to them and have the forges integrated, but can also be upgraded by forges from the base weapon, unless the forge slot is already filled. To unlock the variant's forges for the base, the player has to complete Battleworn challenges with the variant. However, unlike Armor, Variants cannot be Battlescarred.
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File:Agent_Blue
File:Agent_Blue is a secret event featured within Iron Wolf III. After completing all story missions, players can now gather secret logs scattered throughout the hubs.