Claustrophobic Cave Crawler Tunnels Gets Full Release On Quest

I staved off creepy monsters, crawled through tight tunnels, climbed rocky walls, all while constantly looking over my shoulder during a tight hands-on demo with Tunnels, an upcoming horror game from Nomad Monkey at PAX East. It's certainly not for everyone, especially claustrophobic people, but it's always a treat to see games push the limits of VR the way it looks like Tunnels will.

Tunnels is all about putting you in tight, winding corridors and dialing up the tension. Best played standing while still being playable seated, you start out by getting the lay of the land, moving around via control stick as you lower yourself into a cave by climbing down a rock wall à la Horizon Call of the Mountain or The Climb.

That's when you hit the meat and potatoes: the namesake tunnels. Here, you'll crouch with the A button and start pulling yourself along the ground by reaching in front of yourself with the grip buttons, grabbing the ground and pulling yourself forward. You can also use the left analog stick to move, but crawling is preferable both for comfort and immersion. Nomad Monkey also teased underwater sections with its own movement system, though that wasn't in the demo.

Once you enter the tunnel's gaping maw, things start to get dark and weird. Thankfully, you have a flashlight. Snapped to your right shoulder, it's easy to grab and shine down a dark tunnel when needing some extra visibility in case you take a wrong turn in the labyrinthine stone corridors.

Crawling along in the tight stone crawlspace is oddly tense on its own. Even just simple environmental noise is enough to get you on edge. But suddenly, a dark shape darts across your path. Covered in goose bumps as you continue on, strange sounds echo behind you or down a path. The abject, understated horror of being trapped in a deep, winding cave suddenly intensifies: you are not alone. The scurrying gets closer; the tension's reached a fever pitch. You have to turn around.

The milkshake-thick tension gets the better of you, briefly revealing Tunnels' unsettling monster; a grotesque, four-legged creature with a face covered in finger-like tendrils. You need to shine your flashlight in its face to save yourself from its clutches.​

Tunnels keeps you from relying on that flashlight too much by limiting its battery. It's a pretty short charge, though the demo charitably peppers 9-Volt-shaped pickups for some extra juice. This cleverly underpowered option keeps you afraid and on-edge, forcing you to conserve battery power, even when you might need a little light to help find the right path. Thankfully, sparsely placed glowing green crystals will light your way from time to time, so you can save the flashlight for when you're face-to-fingers with Tunnels' creature.

Whether it's squirm-inducingly gory, dreadfully cerebral, or chillingly jumpy, I'm usually a total baby with horror. I'm also a sucker for a cool monster design, even more so with restrained use therein. Think the Xenomorph in Alien, for example; you mostly see it in flashes and low glows until the third act of the film, when the filmmakers slap all their cards down on the table. You only see Tunnels' monster in quick flashes, as your flashlight starts flashing when you catch the creepy crawler nipping at your heels. This points to signs of a similar slow payoff, leveraging this cool monster design.

From what I gathered from brief dialogue segments narrated by your character, you're a spelunker of some kind sent down into these caves to detonate them, probably burying the monsters within. Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but that feels like it's teasing an escape sequence - maybe another little flash of Alien inspiration.

The protagonist keeps quiet during the most tense moments, which allows the scary stuff to breathe a little, and I really appreciate this. Still, I wish I had more time to grasp the premise of this story, which sprinkled just enough exposition to hook me in with a sense of Eldritch intrigue. I have a feeling there's more to these guys than just looking nasty.

That sense of claustrophobic dread is Tunnels' greatest strength. I'm sure that will become its Waterloo for some, too, as that chilling feeling that the only way out is forward isn't for everyone. I've not tried the free-to-play multiplayer mode yet, which Nomad Monkey states has been overhauled for the full release, but what I've seen nails that spooky sensibility in stride.

If you're looking forward to getting lost (and maybe jump scared) in Tunnels' winding caves, the single player campaign reaches the Meta Quest platform today for $14.99.