Iron Lung is Absolutely Terrifying

this is iron lung it's a recently released horror game that's set on a rusty submarine and it was developed by david zamanski if that name means anything to you you most likely know him as the developer of dusk [Music] yeah this is a bit different to that before zamanski helped blow up the retro shooter revival however he had quite a history of making small horror walking sim titles i haven't played all of them i've only played finger bones and the moon sliver not including squirrel stapler the game where you hunt squirrels and staple them to your wife's decaying corpse to resurrect her and to see the face of god don't ask i do quite like these though finger bones is more of a proof of concept and its story isn't quite there probably why it's free but the moon sliver really shows off what these games are all about they're short experiences that use interesting low poly aesthetics with more modern lighting as well as some terrifyingly good sound design in order to tell a story and create a thick oppressive atmosphere and what could have more atmosphere around it than a submarine iron lung is set in the far far future it's not earth sea you're diving down it's an ocean of blood on an alien moon alright humanity apparently spread across the furthest stars but those stars have been going out and an almighty mass extinction is occurring across the universe called the quiet rapture stars blinking out colonies dying off humanity becoming separated and most worryingly we don't know why it's happening then the ocean of blood is discovered and exploring it is made a priority you are a convict and you have been told you can earn your freedom by completing this mission sadly we're lacking equipment so the submarine you're in isn't actually designed for these depths to compensate you are welded shut inside even the front window is closed off your only method of seeing outside is with a camera system mounted to the front of the machine several key areas of the trench need photographing off you go training what's that piloting a submarine is easy you'll pick it up right what's the worst that can happen i should point out right now that doing a video on iron lung is kind of difficult not just because you spend the entire game in the same claustrophobic location so a lot of this video honestly is going to look the same but also because it is a very very short experience it says right on the store page that it's designed to take less than an hour and i can confirm that as my first playthrough took me exactly 59 minutes what kind of mathematical genius is this man i was surprised this game also carried a save system because zamanski's other short horror titles don't bother because why you can beat it easily in one session now this might be a deal breaker for you but the game is less than five pounds on steam which i think is more than fair where i live that's less than a fried chicken and chips takeaway and that chicken certainly doesn't last 59 minutes oh no sadly both of these are just as bad for my heart so for those of you interested in the game bear in mind the length of this video makes up a pretty substantial portion of my playtime alone and you may just want to dive in spoiler chat isn't going to come until way way later but even so if you think a less than one hour adventure is worth the price of admission then go for it plus you could always play it again who knows what's out there but to make it easy for you how about i put my conclusions up front and we'll work backwards from them iron lung is a wonderful horror experience it makes good use of the mechanics of operating a small rusty submarine without padding things out it is the perfect length for what it sets out to do it has like zomanski's other games an excellent atmosphere that manages to keep you enthralled finally though it's light on story it manages to make you personally invested i recommend it if any of this sounds like your jam if any of you need further convincing let's go through these points number one great mechanics so this isn't a walking sim this is a submarine sim sort of your main cockpit has everything you need to know the coordinates of your current position the current bearing of your submarine your oxygen inside the submarine and this measures how in your depth you are it's looking pretty low right now and behind you is the deep sea picture station which takes photos of whatever is currently in front of your submarine and there's even a trusty fire extinguisher for mental well-being everything you need to operate a submarine you're given a paper map to help you navigate and by help i mean it's your only method of navigation you're welded in here remember you need to look at those coordinates in front of you pull out the map and then work out where you are in these caverns and you know this map isn't exactly high resolution you're basically operating on a 2d grid and thank god for that navigating a 3d cave would probably drive you insane so you adjust your bearing and move forwards or backwards then check your map for where you are and what adjustments you need to make and carry on you need to get to these specific areas and point your submarine in the right direction then take a photograph you don't have to be exactly in the right spot to complete the objectives but honestly i was certainly trying to be it's satisfying you know it's like putting the exact amount of fuel in your car without the horrors of fuel prices and then you get a lovely grainy photograph of something well it's objective complete anyway on to the next one i like that the map doesn't actually have an indicator of where you are you actually have to orient yourself and that keeps things super engaging but there is actually more that can be done when navigating say the proximity sensor is going off while going through a tight space you know what's happening but it's not exactly a crystal clear picture of what's going on you can take a photograph of what's in front of you and then work out how you need to navigate from there these photos are of an actual environment outside of your submarine the game is not lying to you and there's no limits to the amount of photographs you can take so you can just go nuts with it it's genuinely fun and engaging piloting this thing you know when it's not oh it's that bad don't worry you don't have to manage maintaining the submarine too much it's a rusty hunk of junk and it's barely holding itself together but it should last until we're done maybe god why is that noise oh god the game's length also works in its favor here there's just enough mechanical intrigue to stay fresh throughout without it feeling stale or samey honestly it did make me wish for another game like it but bigger and more in depth but that is not what this game is trying to be i guess i'll just have to be content with subnautica if i want more submarining adventures number two excellent atmosphere you are deep below an ocean of blood on an alien moon i think that bears repeating because the game really wants you to feel like that's exactly where you are the noise of the submarine moving through the water uh or the hema whatever is fantastic when you think about it for all intents and purposes it should feel like you're not moving you're just in a box but the sound really makes it feel like you are and the noise of the machinery around you really layers on the atmosphere look at these photos too you know that the developer has spent a long time looking at deep sea videos oh why did i play this and it's not just the noises of you piloting the decaying metal death trap that'll wrap you up it's also the sound of the ocean cascading around you and maybe what else is there [Music] i don't like hearing that that makes me really uncomfortable sadly i'm trapped down here with it and you know it's not always the same noise [Music] [Music] what the hell is out there i would also be remiss not to mention the music also composed by david zamanski it's not exactly melodic but its droney ambience very much fits the mood which is just that extra wonderful bit that wraps everything up it says on the store page that was inspired by the soundtrack aubry hodges made for the doom ps1 and n64 soundtrack and i believe it [Music] [Music] [Music] lastly we have the fact the game feels personally investing and this is a tricky thing to talk about but i'll try my best in this game you don't control a submarine you control a person who controls a submarine i mentioned before that you're a convict and that completing this mission will get you your freedom well in a letter you can find in the submarine you have some choice words about that arrangement not exactly an optimistic outlook here you're always reminded that you are a human being when playing this game see you could have just positioned yourself sitting in one spot and had all the controls here for you you just click on them with a mouse cursor or even you use your keyboard for hotkeys and stuff like that and off you sailed or swam whatever a submarine does but you don't you have to look and press these buttons manually to control your vessel you even have to turn around go to the back of the vessel in order to press the button to take photographs this is explicitly trying to remind you that you are not just controlling a person but also that you are alone it's just you here think back to the story summary beforehand how it talked about humanity dying off and vanishing leaving only those who were off-world to survive however they could you're not just alone in this submarine in the darkness you're also alone in the universe you're trying to collect yourself and survive something that you cannot even comprehend hope is as illusory as the starlight yeah it kinda feels like it and moving through the ocean of blood and taking photographs of things you can't even wrap your head around somehow makes you understand this situation more and more as you go on even though the backstory and the gameplay don't necessarily meet they feel like they complement each other wonderfully they reflect one another but as i said there's not actually much of a narrative going on there's a reason i keep using the word experience when talking about this the game wants to convey feelings of dread it doesn't have characters acting out their struggles and it feels like it doesn't need to and that'd be out of place in a time when you're a convict sealed in a submarine believing yourself to be sent to die for the sake of a humanity that is desperately trying to survive somewhere that is beginning to feel both unfathomable and hostile right i hope this has managed to convince you that this game is worth picking up it's not long but as you can probably tell i got a lot out of it but honestly there's still even more i want to talk about i'm not satisfied simply talking around the spooks here a horror game is only as tense as the tricks it can pull and iron lung has a few the beats of this game lead you on a journey and i want to detail for you the emotional trip that i took under the blood sea this is literally me detailing what is basically the whole game and how each moment makes you the player feel so you know spoilers uh this will be almost like a let's play honestly there's not really going to be much analysis here but i think it's worth pointing out what the game does and does well if this has tickled your fancy even slightly pause the video download the game and then come back and we can talk about the strange stuff in these waters or maybe you realize the game isn't for you either because it's too intense or maybe horror is just not your bag but you want to hear more about it regardless either way this is your last chance to leave i really recommend experiencing it fresh but you're the one in charge if you want to hear any more words out of my mouth go to here if you want to skip past all the spoilers okay all right down the hatch so our first few objectives go quite swimmingly i mean mostly bunch of strange things that i can't make heads or tails of that's fine i'm here to take photos not analyze them so after some tricky navigation over here i just get to cruise on down to this objective here no problem what was that huh well we've made it to our objective okay so let's just go and take our photo and um hello what on earth are you also what's this it might be nothing but doesn't it kind of look like something i take a second picture in the exact same spot i don't like this i continue onward trying to put the whole incident out of my mind but it's difficult [Music] it's really difficult i get to my next objective i take the photo i try not to let it phase me it's the cover image for the game on the steam page after all it shouldn't unnerve me and yet my mind is not listening to rational advice right now things are tense the path to the next objective is also a bit of a squeeze so i'm maybe in a bit of a sweat eventually i make it through i go to the next spot i take my photo and now it might be my brain here but doesn't this look quite unnatural like constructed almost like a house or a building of some kind but wait a minute those pillars didn't i take a photo of them earlier they were curvy then are they pipes or wires or something what are they i realize now they look different but i don't remember it then i try unsuccessfully to get a better look at it no dice ah time to go out the way i came uh i wish this was the least of my problems what i guess it must have been a blood clot or something i returned to my console and something's wrong i'm not at the same coordinates i was before that noise i sit here looking at my map and my current location for several minutes genuinely questioning if i'd somehow miss myself moving such a distance so fast how long was i holding that button for next objective more bones maybe some strange things in the background too i take a second photo but there's no change so there's nothing there right i'm fine there's nothing to worry about regardless the music scares me into checking what's out there i've maybe become a little bit paranoid the path forward on the map is unclear but i think there's a tunnel here it's a little low resolution but i've passed through fuzzy bits before so i start making my way up the path seems a little precarious so i take a photo to get my bearings i am extremely uncomfortable i make it through the tunnel or hall way and begin making my way to the next objective whose route is stressful to say the least but i can hear something i don't think it's the game's music this time though the audio shifts as i change my submarine's bearings like it's coming from a specific location the path down is treacherous i am navigating by my camera going down suddenly things start getting weird that's not the submarine that's moving and the noise is so loud now i take the picture i think i need to leave things begin to stabilize as i begin to move away from the anomaly [Music] i am certain this is not where i was before resisting the urge to panic i move to the next objective this photo does nothing to calm me i take more regardless i continue onwards the path through this tunnel should be clear oh is it that thing again [ __ ] i am beginning to lose myself i am not well and panic is setting in the lights begin to flicker and as i'm approaching the final objective i suddenly realize we're taking on blood i try to calm myself i end up playing a little game to soothe my nerves it's the last objective so why not get the coordinates exactly right just as they need to be perfect this is the name of a demon i'm convinced of it we get more story saying that what's left of humanity could never ever gain the knowledge that we acquired the species moves on and clings further to a hope that they're not even convinced they can see so what was all this under here was this thing really just a big dumb fish what was with all these things under here that almost looked like they were constructed and what is that anomaly is the ocean of blood a former colony of humanity where all the people just burst and flooded the place with their own juices i don't know and i'm not going to be a youtube theorist channel analyzing all the details here it feels like the kind of thing that's meant to be a mystery forever it's not meant to be answered which ties into the overall hopelessness of the setting but if you think that's a cop-out maybe you'd like to hear that there are things in this ocean that aren't marked on the map that are being discovered maybe your answers lie elsewhere who knows what's out there and that is iron lung i enjoyed it thoroughly not every idea needs to be padded out into a 10 hour campaign and since flash is dead small projects like this and ones made by others are the perfect way for me to get my fix absolutely worth the price of admission that's um enough horror for now though uh i don't think my heart can take much more or much more fried chicken yeah sure that's a good enough joke to went down why not video over [Music] see if you just work with your mp3 player it's not too bad

Channel: Power Pak

Views: 4,884,630

Keywords: Iron Lung, Iron Lung Game, Iron Lung Game Review, Iron Lung Review, Iron Lung Gameplay, Iron Lung PC, Iron lung PC Gameplay, Iron Lung PC Review, David Szymanski, David Szymanski Iron Lung, Iron Lung Dusk, Power Pak, Power Pak Review, Iron Lung Horror, Iron lung Horror Game, Iron Lung 2022, Iron Lung Lets Play

Id: A42fANqQ0Pc

Length: 22min 32sec (1352 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 27 2022

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