The hallmark of a great simulator game is its ability to take the mundane and boring parts of a job and turn them into something fun and engaging. In the context of IRON NEST, it is your ability to read the right information off a piece of paper, calculate the right firing angles, and then hit the right target with pinpoint accuracy. And there’s no better way to illustrate this fact than looking at field reports flooding in after a few tense seconds of restless waiting.
IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator is described as a brutal dieselpunk heavy-artillery game where players single-handedly operate a colossal war machine in a series of operations with an ever-changing set of objectives. The game is essentially a mix of deductive and spatial problem-solving, all set within the confines of a gigantic war machine. Players take control of an artilleryman living inside a giant mobile turret set in an alternative-history Spain on the brink of a civil war during the 1920s.
The game’s demo includes the first few levels of the game. Your time will be spent learning proper procedure and making judgment calls with information that is provided to you by field spotters. Players are encouraged to properly learn mechanics as quickly as possible, as the challenge quickly ramps up in the latter part of the demo. However, some fail-safes will ensure that you make progress no matter what. For players who desire a greater challenge, the global leaderboard rankings are the ultimate test of your abilities.
The entirety of IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator takes place inside the bowels of a 5,000-ton turret with spider legs the size of apartment buildings. As the sole gunner on board, it is your job to control the colossal machine and feed it information so that you can come up with a firing solution that will, hopefully, erase the right targets off the face of the Earth.
The start of each level sees our character waking up from bed on the lower levels and going up a central staircase to the command nest. By the time you reach the message board in the back, command has already laid out your mission parameters and provided you with the information necessary to complete your mission. Missions can range from blasting an entire area with HIGH EXPLOSIVES, illuminating a wide area with a STAR BURST FLARE, or piecing hard targets with an ARMOR PIECING ROUND.
Once you know the nature of your mission, you then proceed to the tactic map where you formulate a firing solution based on information given to you via field spotters. This is the one point in the game where you don’t have to do the heavy lifting, as the game gives you a turret angle based on the Iron Nest’s position relative to the target. Using the information you have on hand, you then take that information and feed it to a machine that will calculate the barrel depression angle. It all sounds like a bunch of numbers being thrown in your face, but once you have it all down pat, everything just clicks into place without a hitch.
The next step is choosing the shell type and amount of powder charges. I do not know what might happen if you overstuff your barrel, but at best I assume that the shell lands further away from the target, or at worst, blows up the entire barrel. I was in no rush to find out.
The final steps involve applying all the information to manually rotate the massive machine. This part is always a treat to watch, as someone who’s lived through classic PC simulation games. The final step is locking into the firing position and then pulling the trigger. The entire apparatus shakes violently after every earth-shattering shot, and there’s this satisfying feeling that comes from experiencing this kind of raw power. The moment doesn’t last long, as you will inevitably be racing towards the plotting table to see if your calculations are correct as reports come in.
The thing I love about this game is the sheer amount of satisfaction I got after getting every step right during the entire process. If even one step is incorrect at the earliest part of calculations, the target is likely missed entirely. At worst, the resulting strike could result in civilian casualties. That is something that will reflect poorly on your overall score in the game’s leaderboards.
As simulator games go, IRON NEST goes hard on the immersion. Every level up you pull has weight to it as steam is pumped into nearby vents. Gears and screws turn at the same pace the various gauges turn as you are literally rotating the turret as if it is the dome of an observatory. The immersion even extends to the little things like the coffee, where you play a little mini-game to see if you can build up heat and pressure at the same pace to create the perfect cup of coffee. The same goes for the newspaper stories that you see at the end of a level. That kind of handcrafted storytelling is very much appreciated.
The thing that excites me the most, however, is the impact of the game’s procedurally generated objectives. During my tests, I can tell that the demo changes a few of the parameters, but the overarching objectives remain relatively the same. There is potential for endless replayability here. It will boil down to whether or not each “new” loop is as exciting as the last loop before it.
IRON NEST has impressed me so much that I couldn’t think of very many concerns besides typical ones like difficulty spikes and how the story will affect conditions inside the turret. The former is simple enough to explain. The latter will require some measure of creative problem solving on par with some of the most difficult shots in the game.
So far, my biggest concern with the game is the potential for complexity of the missions to spike at some point. What do I mean by that? Objectives in the demo are relatively straightforward. You are given hints in the form of distance and angle relative to a spotter. You are given just enough information that you don’t need to make calls based on gut instinct. While there are hints like the target could be inside friendly cities, I’m afraid that the targets will become more and more vague as lines of communication weaken. I suppose that works in the game’s setting, but I don’t think many would stick around for something many would consider “Impossible” mode.
My second concern comes from a line that says, “Will you obey High Command, Operator?” Whenever I see something like that, it usually means a left or right decision near the end of the game. I don’t know how to feel about it just yet. I don’t know how it involves hitting, pulling a hat trick, and hitting the right targets in a sea of supposed “allies”. Things like that are what make or break games in terms of story enjoyment. If it comes to it, I hope the developers do something similar to “Papers, please” where it takes multiple deliberate choices to change the direction of the story.
If it’s not clear yet, but I really do adore the game’s visual design, almost as much as I adore the gameplay. It reminded me of the best parts of Myst back in the day, where Full Motion Video was the go-to option for cinematic experiences. I hope we get to see more of the game’s dieselpunk setting beyond the feature images on the front page of newspapers. In terms of audio, there’s no BGM other than the vinyl record player on your workstation. I really like that touch as it forces you to put all your focus on getting the right coordinates.
IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator has a clear path towards making something truly unique in the crowded simulation games genre. But it’s not going to appeal to everyone, and it’s certainly not going to be the next ‘Indie darling’. Instead, the players who do enjoy the gameplay and setting will absolutely adore this game for what it’s trying to achieve. And with 30 ammo types, 20 abilities, and 15 regions to unlock, there are plenty of reasons to start liking this game before its release on August 7, 2026. You can bet that I will be there to cover this game when it launches! So, stay tuned for more.
