$19.99IronWolf VR Run the Boat by Hand
You crew a World War 2 submarine in VR, from the torpedo tubes to the engine room, alone or with friends.
Is IronWolf VR worth it?
IronWolf VR is worth it if…
- you want a submarine game where you physically work every control, not press a key
- you have friends who want to crew a boat together, one on the planes, one on the tubes
- you like the slow part of the hunt as much as the firing: going quiet and waiting
- you enjoy tuning a simulation to your taste with assists you can switch on or off
Screenshots
A Sub That Needs a Crew
This is a game built for splitting up work. One of you takes the helm and the engines, another loads and fires torpedoes, someone climbs to the flak gun when planes come over. Online co-op means you can join a lobby and jump straight into a patrol together, and the game works without issue there.
Solo is a different kind of fun: you enable the assists you want, so the game can handle engines or torpedo reloading or pumping while you focus on the hunt. Turn them all off and you are juggling motors, electricity, welding leaks, navigation and the gun at once, which is exactly as chaotic as it sounds.
Every Switch Is a Real Switch
Nothing here is a menu. Ballast tanks, depth rudders, the steering, the periscope, the torpedo racks: all of it runs on physical wheels, levers and switches modelled on the real thing. You pull open a hatch to move between compartments, or work a door, instead of teleporting through the boat. The whole submarine fits and works in a 2 by 1.5 metre roomscale space, with every control in each compartment reachable without breaking the illusion.
Haptics and 3D audio give you feedback for fine control, and the dials and gauges are designed to be readable on current VR headsets. Reload a torpedo by hand once and menus in other games start to feel like reading about it instead.
The Hunt, and Being Hunted
Out on the open world map you look for enemy convoys, and it pays to come at them from surprise rather than head on. Line up the bow, set your torpedo depth for the target's hull, fire, and dive. Then the destroyers come for you: you creep down below 75 metres where their ears can't find you, cut your engines, and listen to the charges getting closer.
When they find you anyway, the hull takes hits, water sprays in, and you weld the leaks shut while the next salvo is already on the way. Survivors of a patrol limp back to dock to repair and refit, and credits from sunk ships buy upgrades for the next run. The tension is the point, and it lands.
