History AirVentPassageway / VideoGames

** Subverted in ''VideoGame/HalfLife1''. At one point, the character is forced to crawl through an airvent. In a scripted scene, soldiers below hear the player, yell "Sir, I hear something!" and shoot into the air duct, causing it to collapse. Whether or not you're in it is a matter of timing. If you have the sense to immediately stop when they yell that line, you'll have a consummate OhCrap moment as you see the vent in front of you getting perforated.
** In another instance, the guards hear you and toss a satchel charge in for an OutrunTheFireball sequence. Some of ''Half-Life'''s vents have ladders in them, suggesting that they may have been designed to allow people to go through them. Mr. Freeman crawls through the vents wearing what is a [[PoweredArmor high-tech suit of platemail]]. But considering how [[ElaborateUndergroundBase deep]] the Black Mesa facility stretches, perhaps it is not quite unrealistic that it would use people-sized vents.
** ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 1'' mentions that Freeman used to participate in races to break into Dr. Kleiner's office when he locked his keys inside. Naturally, the air vents are now full of headcrabs. And subverted in the same game, where one vent you crawl through collapses, landing in a room filled with ExplodingBarrels and laser-tripwire mines.

** ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'': Due to being a child, Gregory is small enough to crawl through the larger air vents throughout the [=PizzaPlex=]. This proves essential for getting around several of the locked doors and evading the animatronics. But don't get too comfortable though, Wind-up Music Man Toys can spawn inside the air ducts to kill Gregory if you don't get out of them quickly enough. In the ''Ruin'' DLC, Cassie is likewise young and small enough to use the vents to get around the now-derelict Pizzaplex. Not only does she also have to deal with the occasional Music Man chase, but the vents end up collapsing under her weight at a couple of points.

** ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'': Due to being a child, Gregory is small enough to crawl through the larger air vents throughout the [=PizzaPlex=]. This proves essential for getting around several of the locked doors and evading the animatronics. But don't get too comfortable though, Wind-up Music Man Toys can spawn inside the air ducts to kill Gregory if you don't get out of them quickly enough.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'':

* ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'' requires you to travel through air ducts several times per level in order to advance deeper into the facilities you're penetrating, whose covers are quite easily bashed in. Strangely, despite the game's horror atmosphere and the obvious darkness and claustrophobia factors, you are never once subjected to any sort of scare sequence within one. ''Except'' one. During one particular part, you turn the corner, and Alma does the spider-crawl towards you -- before vanishing a foot away from you. Alma seems to use this, popping out of an air vent right in front of you on one occasion. While you're utterly defenseless. On a ladder.

* ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}''

* ''VideoGame/SpiderMan'':

%%* ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter2'': Twice, first in the Pharcom Expo Center and then in the Agency Biolab.
* ''VideoGame/SystemShock'': The second game almost starts with one, and the first game had whole maintenance tunnels in addition to vents.
* ''Videogame/TeamFortress2'': Most of the air vents are inaccessible and just for decoration, but there are a few in Hydro that are big enough for players (even the Heavy Weapons Guy) to stand up in. Custom-map-made-official Turbine has a system of these that's more of a cramped hallway than a vent. One sadistic mapmaker made a version of Turbine [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1UgiFPgLyE where the vents are literally a maze leading from one spawn to the other]].

* ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' did this so often that there is a small monster almost designed to be placed in the vents. In the expansion pack, the game has a nod to the famous air vent scene in the first ''[[Film/MissionImpossible1996 Mission: Impossible]]'' movie]].

* ''Franchise/{{Hitman}}'': Vents are all over the place in ''[[VideoGame/HitmanAbsolution Absolution]]. 47 will automatically take out his lighter and hold it in front of the camera. In ''[[VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin Silent Assassin]]'', he can use the hospital vents to scope out which O.R. the cult leader is staying in, but the game engine wasn't ready for this yet, so the "vent" is accessible by ladder.

* ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' has Frank West use air vents as passages to and from the safe rooms, as Otis welds the actual door shut to keep the zombies out. As ''Dead Rising'' takes place in a mall as well, it's likely a homage to ''Film/DawnOfTheDead''.

* ''VideoGame/JonathanKaneTheProtector'' have Jennifer using an air vent to escape from terrorists during her DamselOutOfDistress moment. She managed to reach a maintenance room using said vent and obtain her first weapon from a closet, a taser.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' began one level with the player infiltrating a Russian base via the air vents.