Iron Lung Review

*This is an expanded review for the video game Iron Lung, published on 02/12/2026. If you would like to see the original mini-review, you can check that out here.

What makes a video game “good” or “bad”? I suppose that is the eternal question for all art, not just video games, but in a medium as vast as this, what sort of thresholds are there to meet, or bars by which to be measured? I always come back to intent (what were the developers trying to do and say), execution (what does the work provide to us), and interpretation (how did the work make me feel). A bit vague, but important touchstones to look back on when genres, controls, and stories are all so wildly different game-to-game.

Iron Lung is a minimalist horror experience in which your goal is to navigate your submersible underwater to photograph increasingly unnerving phenomena. “Minimalist” may be underselling just how little we are given, actually. Confined to a single, small space, with only a few things to interact with, your options are quite limited. A brief introductory message and vague, garbled dialogue hints at your objective, but very little exposition exists to explain the stakes or the story of this world beyond this.

Publisher: David Szymanski

Developer: David Szymanski

Platform: Played on PC

Availability: Released Mar 9, 2022 on Windows PC (Steam). Released Dec 19, 2022 for Nintendo Switch.

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You’re not going to get a tutorial, either, as Iron Lung throws you into the breach with little more than a console and a four-button control key to work with. Thankfully, the controls are shown on screen and are easy enough to get in tune with due to the simplistic nature of the gameplay. Such simplicity is not necessarily a bad thing in games. A single button can be used to great effect when placed in myriad encounters. Think of the jump button in many platforming games — this single button will allow you to defeat enemies, navigate vertical platforms, leap across open spaces, and engage with the environment. 

In this game, nothing interesting is ever done with the simplistic controls to make it feel rewarding or engaging. You just go until you hear the clicks signifying your distance to an obstacle and press your dials until the noise stops. When you do eventually reach your destination (as marked on your map), you’ll go to the viewport and take a picture.

When looking at a game’s visuals, it’s not just about how photo-realistic an image is, but more about what the image is meant to convey. Do the environments tell us a story? What does a character’s design tell us about their personality? There are many avenues to take in communicating via visual language. For its part, Iron Lung does attempt to do so and mostly succeeds in the submersible itself. You can tell that it is run-down, with leaks and rust all visible in the space. Clearly, the people sending you down below do not think you’re coming back, nor do they seem to care if you do.

But so little is actually shown here that it becomes more engaging to simply stare at the console and see your numbers and radar adjust as the game progresses. But what about those pictures I mentioned? Well, they may be even more uninteresting. The photos start mundane — perhaps almost indecipherable — but progressively attempt to settle into a more uncanny or unnerving image set. Frankly, nothing shown here, even by the end, felt interesting enough to evoke a feeling. 

But so little is actually shown here that it becomes more engaging to simply stare at the console and see your numbers and radar adjust as the game progresses.

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On the other hand, the audio does a much more commendable job in that respect. While it is similarly minimalist with no background track, the creaks and groans of the submersible do serve to create tension. You never really know if this moment will be your last, and each event that transpires seems intent on ending your escape. The clarity and realism in these sounds are not particularly high, but I think that brings me back to my point about evoking feeling. It doesn’t need to be true-to-life; it only needs to effectively communicate what is happening at any given moment. Whether it signifies increasing pressure, scraping against an underwater shelf, or proximity to my target, the sound just needs to get me to understand. It needs to make me feel like I'm in danger — and it does that just fine.

Despite the suspense often created by these sounds, I can't help but come away from Iron Lung wishing there was more to do or uncover. While a full playthrough will land somewhere between an hour or two, most of it is spent watching a dial. There’s absolutely nothing engaging or interesting about playing the game itself. It is, quite frankly, tedious.

Without any mechanical complexity, story, or music to fall back on, the game must rely on a few jump scares to keep the audience awake. I suppose there is something admirable about a creator deciding to limit the scope of their work to exactly what they felt was necessary, but in the case of Iron Lung, that minimalism cuts too close to nothing. With no story or real visual component to speak of, your enjoyment may just come down to how interested you are in the unseen.

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Iron Lung Mini-Review (Original)

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Iron Lung is a minimalist horror experience where your goal is to navigate your submersible vehicle underwater in order to take pictures of increasingly unnerving phenomena. Vague, garbled dialogue hints at your objective and the stakes, but you’re not going to get much in the way of exposition. You’re not going to get a tutorial, either, as Iron Lung throws you into the breach with little more than a console and a four button control key to work with. A full playthrough will land somewhere between an hour or two depending on how fast you adjust to the controls, making this one a brief encounter. With no story or real visual component to speak of, your enjoyment may just come down to how interested you are in the unseen.