Iron Lung (2022 video game; PC version played for review)

A lot of people forget that Poe’s most famous works are short. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is 11,165 words, while “The Tell-Tale Heart” contains a little over 2,000. Efficiency, I feel, has been and should continue to be celebrated, and “Iron Lung”, at a little over an hour long, is as efficient a work of interactive horror as any I can recall. The scripted scares have been praised to high heaven for good reason, but there’s also something to navigate its tight tunnels, trying to play nice with the unrepentant proximity detectors. Just a wonderful, horrible work.

10