09/09/2026 Besu's Best Games

Candace Nola

22 hours ago

3 min read

Besu Tadesse is back with another horror game review! This week, he brings us his thoughts on Iron Lung, a game from David Szymanski.

Spoilers ahead-proceed with caution!

IRON LUNG

reviewed by Besu Tadesse

Note: Spoilers ahead.

Released in March 2022, Iron Lung is a first-person psychological horror game developed and published by David Szymanski. You play as an unnamed silent protagonist charged with entering the aforementioned Iron Lung, an observation and reconnaissance vessel that takes pictures of different anomalies sunken underneath an ocean of blood after most habitable planet and existing life in the universe have been mysteriously and suddenly wiped out.

While other modern horror games rely on endless threats or puzzle solving followed by set pieces and jump scares, Iron Lung is quieter. The job is simple; you go to certain coordinates on a map where anomalies exist and take pictures using your vessels camera. The story is told in both the environment and the task itself. With each picture, you learn more about what the possible threats could be, as well as the potential for salvation. The people that have sent you down to the moon are looking for some form of life, and the different anomalies bring their own mysteries. What type of skeleton am I looking at? Why is there a bright light with no discernable source? The game doesn’t say exactly; rather, you are left to ponder what could have been there and what is still lurking.

In addition, you are left with a couple of items to use – a fire extinguisher, a letter from a previous operator of the Iron Lung, and a console that (with the right prompts) provide more information about the event that doomed all life in the universe, the subsequent war, and the institutions in place that brought you to that very place. It provides a lingering sense of foreboding, that whatever you hoped would happen will not give you the answers that you want. The mundane nature of the task is contrasted with the seriousness of the task at hand, and that tension makes for something memorable.

Iron Lung is available on PC via Steam. It’s a quick experience, so be sure to get it. I also recommend watching the film Iron Lung on YouTube, based on the game. It’s also a good time and really ties everything together as a complete package. Enjoy!

Check it out here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1846170/Iron_Lung/

MORE ABOUT BESU TADESSE

An author based in Maryland, Besu Tadesse loves to write horror and speculative fiction. He has published two books – The Ghosts of Poplar Valley, a paranormal horror novella about our history’s echoes into the present, and Broken Persons, a short story collection that deals with broad themes of grief, trauma, and speculation on the future.

His short stories have been included in several works, including Devour the Rich!, Arsenic and Grandma’s Refrigerator: Horror Told in Colours, Dark and Dreary: A Basement Horror Anthology, A Chronicle of Horrors: An Anthology, Recipes for Newlyweds: Stories of Marital Bliss, With Teeth: A Dark Fiction Anthology, and several upcoming projects. He also works as a gaming writer and reviewer for Calcopia and Uncomfortably Dark.