Iron Lung (2022)

Iron Lung plunges players into a terrifyingly confined dread-fueled experience. Developed by David Szymanski, known for his work on titles like DUSK, this short horror game challenges your very senses. You're trapped in a one-man submarine, the "Iron Lung," navigating an ocean of blood with severely limited visibility. Your only tools are a primitive external camera, an incomplete satellite map, and proximity sensors, forcing you to rely on sound and your imagination to piece together the horrifying reality outside. The gameplay emphasizes building paranoia and dread through its experimental minimalist design, where every creak and shadow could signal impending doom. The narrative unfolds in a desolate future where humanity clings to survival after a cosmic vanishing event. With habitable planets gone, scattered survivors scrounge for resources amidst the emptiness of space. Their desperate search leads them to a Blood Ocean on a barren moon, a phenomenon that, while not entirely new, hides anomalous locations requiring investigation. You, the player, are thrust into this desperate undertaking, piloting a rickety submarine through the alien, blood-red depths. Your mission: photograph key undersea locations and evade the unknown horrors that inhabit this viscous abyss, all while the aging vessel threatens to succumb to the crushing pressure. This commitment to visceral horror and unique gameplay mechanics solidifies Iron Lung's place among David Szymanski's best.