Iron Lung on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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A short horror game where you pilot a tiny submarine through an ocean of blood on an alien moon.
Iron Lung is a horror, atmospheric and psychological horror game
developed and published by David Szymanski.
Released on March 09th 2022 is available in English only on Windows.
It has received 8,170 reviews of which 7,529 were positive and 641 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.9 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 7.79€ on Steam, but you can find it for less on Eneba.
The Steam community has classified Iron Lung into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Iron Lung through various videos and screenshots.
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows 7/8/9/10
- Processor: Any made within the last decade
- Memory: 1 MB RAM
- Graphics: Any made within the last decade
- Storage: 200 MB available space
- Sound Card: Any
- Additional Notes: You can run this
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Finally got to play the game for myself and ugh it's just as terrifying as watching someone play it! I love it!! Can't wait for the movie to come out :) so cool to see what started as a small game become a movie!
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played this in anticipation of the movie and had a good time super eerie ambience and as someone who hates blood and the ocean this got to me gameplay got kinda repetitive but the game doesn't overstay its welcome 7/10
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Iron Lung is a compact but extraordinarily potent piece of atmospheric horror, a game that strips the genre down to its barest elements and uses confinement, sensory deprivation, and slow-building dread to create an experience far larger than its modest scope suggests. Developed and published by David Szymanski, the creator behind titles like DUSK, the game abandons traditional horror spectacle for an unnerving journey into a dying universe where humanity grasps at any remaining lifeline. You play as a condemned prisoner sent into the “Iron Lung,” a decrepit one-man submarine, to explore an ocean of blood discovered on a barren moon. With no windows, limited instrumentation, and only a flickering camera to survey the outside world, you are forced into blind navigation—an idea that immediately establishes a powerful sense of vulnerability and claustrophobia. The gameplay revolves around monitoring coordinates, adjusting your sub’s heading, and taking photographs at designated locations while the vessel groans under pressure. On paper, it sounds simple—almost too simple—but in execution it becomes agonizingly tense. Every movement is accompanied by metallic creaks, pressure leaks, hisses, and electronic hums. You never truly know what lies beyond the hull, and the darkness—accentuated by the grainy, delayed snapshots you capture—creates an ever-present sense of unseen danger. Because you’re deprived of visual contact with the outside world, every bump or scrape becomes a question: did you hit a rock, or did something brush against your vessel? This ambiguity is the game’s greatest strength, allowing the player’s imagination to fill in the horrors lurking in the liquid void. The sub’s interior, cramped and hardly larger than a walk-in closet, becomes a character in its own right. Its rusted walls, exposed wiring, and dim emergency lighting convey a sense of decay that suggests you're piloting a machine that could fail at any moment. The environment forces you into physical intimacy with your fear; there is nowhere to hide, nowhere to breathe, nowhere to escape the oppressive atmosphere. As the mission progresses, the Iron Lung feels less like a tool and more like a coffin—one you're desperately trying to keep afloat long enough to complete your doomed assignment. Sound design carries much of the emotional weight. There are no orchestral cues or dramatic stingers—only the unsettling symphony of machinery under strain and distant, indistinct noises that suggest something vast and monstrous moves outside. The absence of overt cinematic cues makes every audio anomaly deeply alarming. A single thud or distant roar can send the mind spiraling into panic. Even silence carries tension, as it leaves you alone with the ship’s groans and your own imagination. Despite its minimalist sensory palette, Iron Lung manages to unfold a haunting narrative. Through cryptic messages, logs, and escalating environmental anomalies, the game slowly reveals that something is deeply wrong—not just with the mission, but with the universe itself. Humanity has been scattered and starved after catastrophic cosmic events, and this doomed expedition may represent one of the last attempts to uncover something—anything—that could save what remains. The story’s slow burn feels deliberate, grounding the cosmic horror in despair, desperation, and the lingering dread that some mysteries should never be explored. The pacing is tight and deliberate. The entire experience lasts around an hour, but that hour is dense with tension. The game’s brevity becomes one of its defining strengths—there’s no downtime, no filler, no comfort to be found. The pressure builds steadily until the narrative and psychological threads converge in an ending that is both inevitable and deeply unsettling. It’s the kind of finale that lingers in the mind long after the credits, reinforcing the game’s commitment to leaving more unsaid than revealed. Iron Lung is not designed for players seeking action, variety, or jump scares. Its horror is patient and conceptual, relying on atmosphere and implication rather than spectacle. Its visuals are intentionally grimy and low fidelity, which adds to its oppressive ambiance but may not appeal to players accustomed to high-production horror. Yet for those who appreciate mood-driven, experimental, minimalist horror experiences, it stands among the most memorable releases of its kind. It demonstrates how limitations—no windows, no light, no escape—can inspire some of the most creatively terrifying scenarios in modern indie gaming. In the end, Iron Lung is a masterclass in using absence as horror. It weaponizes what you cannot see, what you cannot know, and what you cannot escape. Its hour-long journey offers more genuine unease than many titles ten times its length, and its execution shows restraint, confidence, and an exceptional understanding of psychological terror. For anyone interested in atmospheric horror stripped down to its purest form, Iron Lung is essential—a suffocating descent into madness powered not by monsters, but by the crushing weight of the unknown. Rating: 9/10
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In rusted steel and crimson hue, A silent tomb beneath the blue, One task alone, to chart the red, Where stars are gone and gods are dead. The hull it groans, the pressure tight, No window grants the gift of sight, Just sonar pings and creeping dread, As whispers stir the liquid bed. A prison deep, a mission cursed, To dive where man was never first And in the dark, something unseen Waits in the depths, cold and obscene.
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just to give some context to those who need it but this game has no correlation with the marvel series ironheart. thanks and goodbye
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Frequently Asked Questions
Iron Lung is currently priced at 7.79€ on Steam.
Iron Lung is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 7.79€ on Steam.
Iron Lung received 7,529 positive votes out of a total of 8,170 achieving a rating of 8.94.
😎
Iron Lung was developed and published by David Szymanski.
Iron Lung is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Iron Lung is not playable on MacOS.
Iron Lung is not playable on Linux.
Iron Lung is a single-player game.
There is a DLC available for Iron Lung. Explore additional content available for Iron Lung on Steam.
Iron Lung does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Iron Lung does not support Steam Remote Play.
Iron Lung is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Iron Lung.
Data sources
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 21 January 2026 04:00 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 20 January 2026 21:45 |
| Steam price | 29 January 2026 04:22 |
| Steam reviews | 28 January 2026 19:57 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Iron Lung, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Iron Lung
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Iron Lung concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Iron Lung compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
61
Developer
David Szymanski
Publisher
David Szymanski
Release
09 Mar 2022
Platforms
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