Fears to Fathom - Ironbark Lookout

About Fears to Fathom - Ironbark Lookout

Fears to Fathom is an episodic horror series by Rayll Studios, a studio based in Delhi, in which each episode tells a short story narrated by the person who survived it. The stories are sent to the developers by email, and they build an episode around each one. Ironbark Lookout is the fourth, released on Steam and itch.io in October 2023 and on PS5 in October 2024. Each episode stands on its own, so you can start here.

You are Jack Nelson, a 24-year-old fire lookout who has just been transferred to a new outpost in Ironbark State Park. On the way there and from his coworkers he hears rumours of disappearances in the area, and that the last lookout left because of strange things in his section. The game is a first-person narrative walking simulator: you drive the forest roads, stop at a roadside diner, settle into the tower, keep watch over the forest with binoculars, check the wind and temperature, keep in touch with a friend from work over the radio and answer texts from the people in your life. Your replies in conversations are chosen from short options.

There is no inventory. Each of Jack's hands has its own button, so you carry at most two things at a time, and you can throw what you hold. Much of the day is small chores: cooking and eating, lighting a fire, using the tower's old computer, which has a trail map, a training video and a shooter game to pass the time. There are funny moments among them, and the voice acting is in English.

What frightens is how ordinary it all is. The routine of a quiet job in the woods is shown in a grainy VHS look, and the dread comes from small things you notice and from the nights alone in the tower, when someone may be outside the door. It builds slowly to a few sharp jumpscares rather than fights.

It is short: the maker's itch.io page gives an average session of about an hour, and finding everything takes longer. It suits players who liked the other Fears to Fathom episodes, or who want slow, grounded horror about being alone and watched rather than monsters and combat.

How to play Fears to Fathom - Ironbark Lookout

1. Buy and install the game from Steam or itch.io (Windows) or the PlayStation Store (PS5).
2. Move with WASD and look with the mouse; on-screen prompts show the keys for actions such as crouching, using and throwing items.
3. Pick things up with one hand or the other; you can hold only two items at once, so put one down before you take something new.
4. Follow the tasks Jack narrates each day: drive where you are sent, settle into the lookout tower, keep watch and do the chores of the job.
5. Talk to the people you meet and pick your replies from the options shown; read and answer the texts on Jack's phone.
6. Use the binoculars to keep watch over the park, and pay attention to anything that seems out of place.

Tips

• Play at night with headphones; much of the unease is in the sounds of the forest and the silence around the tower.
• Take your time with the routine tasks. The story builds through them, and rushing flattens it.
• Try the tower's computer between tasks; it holds more than work files.
• Look closely through the binoculars when you are asked to keep watch; small details matter.
• Think about your replies to strangers. The game is told by someone who survived because of the choices he made.
• You do not need to have played the earlier episodes; each story stands alone.

Questions