Short horror Psychological horror PS1 horror

Iron Lung

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Pilot a windowless submarine through an ocean of blood, photographing what you cannot see.

Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Switch, Android
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (92% of 11,319 reviews)
Length: under an hour
Players: 1
Made by: David Szymanski
Released: 2022

Get it on Steam PlayStation Store (PS5)Nintendo Switch Google Play

What frightens Sealed in a tiny windowless submarine at the bottom of an ocean of blood on a dead moon, you steer by coordinates and a sketchy map, and the only view outside is a grainy photo that takes seconds to develop. Something large is down there with you.
Content: blood, claustrophobic setting.

A short submarine horror game from David Szymanski, the maker of DUSK. Locked in a rusty one-man sub at the bottom of a blood ocean, you navigate by instruments and a partial map and take photographs of marked sites, while something lives in the dark around you.

About Iron Lung

Iron Lung is a short horror game by David Szymanski, the developer of DUSK, released on Steam in March 2022 and later on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Android. The maker describes it as a dread-driven experience meant to be finished in under an hour. In 2026 it was adapted into a film by Markiplier.

The setting is a universe where every known star and habitable planet vanished decades ago. The few survivors on stations and ships are running out of everything, and on a barren moon they find a Blood Ocean, an ocean of blood with a trench full of strange readings. You are the convict sent to explore it in the Iron Lung, a cramped sub cobbled together from rusty station parts, with its one porthole welded shut against the pressure.

All of the game happens inside that cabin. You steer with simple controls, reading your coordinates off the instruments and plotting a course on a paper map with only some of the trench drawn in. Proximity sensors warn you when you get close to the walls. At each marked point you take a photograph with the external camera, which prints a grainy black-and-white image after a pause. Those photos are the only way you see anything outside.

The horror is in that blindness. The sub is old and fragile, and the photographs start to show things you would rather not have seen. There is no combat and nothing to fight back with; you go on because you have to.

It suits players who like slow, atmospheric horror that can be played in one sitting, and anyone who finds small dark spaces frightening. Players who want action, a long story or a lot of exploration will find it brief and deliberately limited.

How to play Iron Lung

Look at the map pinned in the cabin to find the marked sites and their coordinates.
Use the navigation controls to turn and move the sub, watching your coordinates change on the instruments.
Listen for the proximity warnings and steer away from the trench walls before you hit them.
At each marked point, use the camera to take a photograph and wait for the image to develop.
Photograph every site on the map and follow the instructions you receive to finish the dive.

Screenshots

Iron Lung screenshot: a grainy black-and-white photograph on the sub's screen shows a skull-like shape and curved ribs in the dark

Iron Lung screenshot: the cramped, rusted cabin of the submarine lit by one red lamp, with a depth gauge and a sealed porthole

Iron Lung screenshot: a gridded map of the trench with marked sites to photograph

Iron Lung screenshot: the navigation console with green digital coordinate readouts and a valve wheel

Tips

Move slowly and correct your heading often; bumping the walls damages the sub.
Mark your position on the map as you go so you do not lose track of where you are.
Wear headphones; sound is your best warning of what is near.
Play it in one sitting with the lights off; it is short enough.