Iron Lung is a horror game from David Szymanski ,the developer of “boomer shooter” Dusk. Much like Dusk, Iron Lung takes inspiration from early 3D games in terms of its visuals and soundscape. Rather than high octane first person shooting, Iron Lung brings you into a world of slow building dread and horror.

Iron Lung’s gameplay is very simple but it works and lends itself to the theme of dread and horror quite well. It’s often said the scariest part of any horror story is the stuff you imagine in your head rather than what you actually see and Iron Lung capitalises on that by making sure you can’t see anything.

You’re piloting a rusty old submarine in a sea of blood, searching for anomalies or sites of interest but you have no windows. The only way you can see the outside world is by taking photos, which of course are black and white and grainy. Much of the time it’s hard to tell what you’re looking at but the mystery only makes the alien sights all the more creepy.

All you’re given is a paper map with coordinates of interesting areas you need to photograph. Since you can’t see you need to use the paper map along with your coordinate readout and compass. Said compass also alerts you to nearby obstacles by showing a flashing dot accompanied by a beeping noise which speeds up the closer you get to hitting something.

Naturally you use it to avoid underwater walls and whatever but sometimes there’ll be a beep for a second and then it’s gone. You pair that with the creepy ambient music and the occasional sound of underwater creatures and you’re left wondering, “did I just narrowly miss a rock, or is there something out there that narrowly missed me? Is it coming back?”

Though Iron Lung is a small game, it has a singular focus and that is to make sure everything works to make you feel dread. At the beginning you’re given a warning that you might see some sparks on your instruments and maybe a fire will start somewhere at some time in the future. There’s a note from someone else warning you all is not as it seems.

Some elements are more subtle, like how the camera is never straight when you’re using the navigation buttons. You just point and click at them but you kind of look at them at an angle, so that the console in front of you is always tilted when you’re moving the sub. It all just comes together to make you wonder what’s coming next, and having you question if you really want to see it.

Iron Lung is an excellent game and a short one, taking only about an hour to finish. I regard that as a point in its favor though.

It’s out now on Steam and I highly recommend it if you’re a fan of the horror genre and slow building tension and fear. Here is a sample of the soundtrack, definitely worth listening to if you want chills up and down your spine.