->'''Francis''': Hey, watch out for that steam pipe.\\
'''Zoey''': Man, I love {{steam}}.\\
'''Francis''': Yeah, steam's alright, I guess. I just hate the pipes.
-->-- ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'', Crash Course DLC

Steam vents are somewhat common as obstacles in video games. Typically, they produce a cloud of hot steam right in front of themselves; this is the actual obstacle.

Such obstacles range from being minor inconveniences to being damaging. They are typically static or intermittent obstacles, but seldom move around, since the pipes attached to them don't. They may become GoddamnedBats if their hit detection is badly programmed. If they are minor inconveniences, they act as such by causing InterfaceScrew.

If the vents are being pushy rather than harmful, see VentPhysics.
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!!Examples:
* A number of these occur in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity''.
* In ''BraveFencerMusashi'', there is an area outside Grillin Village known as Steamwood Forest, where random steam pipes spew high-pressure streams of hot air. Some shoot out steam at regular intervals to provide temporary obstacles, and others continuously fire to create impenetrable barricades. After you repair the system that regulates the steam vents, Steamwood (you have to do this twice during the story), the vents cease to be a problem.
* ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth'' has several. They are damaging and can cause interface screw if they are releasing toxic gas; they are part of a puzzle in one location where they need to be turned on in the correct order.
* They appear in both ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life}}'' games. You have to time your passage through some, but others are static and you have to find a valve to shut them off with.
* There are a few of these in the construction zone level of ''KendoRage''.
* Sporadically used in ''Zelda'' games. ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' not only has a few around Death Mountain, but while it's enveloped in twilight, a Goron even laments that the appearance of one particular fumarole makes the path "impassable".
* ''Videogame/MegaMan5'': Damaging puffs of steam appear in Wave Man's stage.
** As well as Neptune's stage in ''Mega Man V''.
* ''MetroidPrime'': Steam vents produce steam that can clog up Samus's visor temporarily.
** In the intro level for ''Super VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'', Samus needs to escape a space station, while avoiding gushes of steam coming out from practically everywhere. If you get hit by the steam, you lose precious time to escape.
** Happens again during the escape from planet Zebes, only the steam's escaping ''from the ground'' itself.
* ''ODT: Escape, or Die Trying'' had a level where pipes constantly leaked steam. And you had to use the pipes for moving.
* In the third level of ''ViewtifulJoe 2'', an air vent serves as an obstacle in a puzzle. There are two settings you can activate. Either can block the path below, or let you ride the wind inside it, depending on which side you come from.
* Variation: ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}'' has vents producing small puffs of poisonous gas that travel a short distance before dispersing harmlessly.
* There are a few steam vents in the Inferno Cavern of ''VideoGame/{{La-Mulana}}'', especially along one vertical shaft that hides a way to the chain whip upgrade.
* ''MazeOfGalious'' has spots on various platforms that produce periodic bursts of steam.
* There is a steam vent puzzle in ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' that doubles as a TakeThat at Creator/ValveSoftware.
* Steam vents are particularly irritating obstacles in ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'' because they require you to stop and rotate the nearby valves for a couple of seconds. This is a game where even ''braking down'' reduces your success chances.
** In the [[IOSGames iOS]] version of ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'', these kill you faster than getting shot, and appear fairly often in levels that take place indoors.
* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', there's a blast furnace full of leaky pipes where you can pick up the optional body armor.
* ''VideoGame/AnotherWorld'' had deadly steam vents in the area where you're rolling your way through pipes.
* ''VideoGame/{{Odium}}'' has you activate a steam vent to remove some slime off a walkway. The steam then becomes an obstacle itself, to be deactivated by a different switch.
* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}} II'''s [[DownTheDrain obligatory sewer level]] consists near-entirely of finding switches to turn off a series of steam vents blocking you from crossing a bridge to the exit.
* Played around with in ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'' - steam itself is rarely directly harmful to you, but half the time when you do see it something invariably explodes near it and replaces it with ''fire'', which is the real obstacle you need to get around.
* ''VideoGame/ThunderCross II'' has them in the fourth level. Unlike most of the examples on this page, you can destroy them.
* Some in ''LegoStarWars'', at least the ones that release very cold air.
* In the World Adventures EP for {{The Sims}} 3, this is one of the traps in the tombs.
* ''VideoGame/RemnantsOfSkystone'' has steam vents as obstacles, despite their supposedly having been untended for [[EternalEngine nearly two hundred years]], often acting just to make you schlep all the way around to try a particularly tricky threading-the-needle series of spikes and nasties.
* This is often used in the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games.
* One springs up in ''MartianDreams'' once you've gotten the steam power working. It prevents you from shortcutting to the exit, and that's all.
* ''Batman Returns'' for the SegaGenesis has annoying steam vents throughout the collapsed building level.
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