History AirVentPassageway / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/{{Syndrome}}'' has air vents you can use to sneak around the ship.
* Twice in ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter2'', first in the Pharcom Expo Center, then in the Agency Biolab.

* Most of the air vents in ''Videogame/TeamFortress2'' 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]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheThing2002'' videogame, at one point Blair acquires access to another room by walking hunched through a four-foot-wide air duct.

* Partially subverted in ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs|1}}'': only Hanpan, the little mouse sprite belonging to one of the main characters, is small enough to navigate the air vents.

** The [[HoldTheLine base-defense mission]] in ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyWithin'' has the aliens using air vents to gain access to part of the XCOM base. {{Justified|Trope}} in that the aliens coming through the air vents are either Sectoids or Thin Men; the former are very small, while the latter are incredibly flexible.
** This is Torque's special breaching ability in ''VideoGame/XCOMChimeraSquad'', as a [[SnakePeople Viper]] she has the agility to pull it off. DownplayedTrope, as it is just an effective way to breach a room and bypass cover bonuses, with any hit she scores during the Breach [[StatusInflictionAttack generating]] a [[TheParalyzer stun]]. The ability can be used by others agents, but they need a specific equipment piece to do it.

* The demon in ''[[VideoGame/{{Reincarnation}} Reincarnation: Riley's Out Again]]'' does this to get around the school without being spotted by humans, but it's so "[[ThatOneLevel tedious and unfun]]" that later versions added an option to skip the sequence altogether. He's seen doing it again in a mini later in the series.

* ''VideoGame/FashionPolice Squad'' features air vents you have to crawl through. The vents are coated with gold.

* ''AntiVillain'' has some in the facility Rory has to escape to prove himself as a villain initiate. A bulletin board notice from management states that employees should stop using them due to safety issues, no matter how fun it is.

* In ''[[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo-Tooie]]'', Grunty Industries contains a few unusually spacious air vents. Banjo, Kazooie, Mumbo and even the level's washing machine transformation can casually pass through them.

* Though technically not an air vent, one mission in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 2'' involves a group of Russian soldiers infiltrating a German-held railway station via a long, damaged fuel pipe. The Germans are quick to catch on, though, and if he player isn't careful he can get caught by gunfire or hand grenades.
** In the final act of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'', you infiltrate Zakhaev's [[YeOldeNuclearSilo missile base]] through the vent system.

* In ''VideoGame/DarkFall: Lights Out'', Parker must crawl through an air duct to reach [[spoiler: the future-era laboratory complex. As he must navigate the high-tech duct system using a 1910s bullseye lantern to illuminate his path, it's a real AnachronismStew of a scene]].

* ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin2'' has Sebastian flee from Stefano's Gruesome Giggling Guardian by doing this, barely avoiding a GroinAttack in the process!

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' in numerous places, most notably in Shinra tower when the player eavesdrops on the evil corporate meeting from a ventilation duct connecting to a bathroom.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'': This version of the air vent section lets you pause and eavesdrop on several offices and meeting rooms to listen in on what the Shinra office people are up to, from Reeves' subordinates making plans for repairs to one where the occupants are worried sick about their families on the recently-fallen Sector 7 plate.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife''

* Used extensively in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel II'' and ''III'' where the party has to go through the vents to proceed through the levels. Various levels of enthusiasm vary with at least one character commenting on using these.

** Very blatant in ''Portable Ops'', which opens up with Snake escaping from a prison by crawling through the air vents.

* ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' has Mario go through air ducts twice in the course of plot in order to eavesdrop. He may also go through a third in order to gain an item.

* In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank'' you never actually climb inside the vents, although Clank would certainly be small enough to have one of his missions in there, but at one point you break into a building by climbing on the outside of external air vents with Magnet Boots.

* Played straight in ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}: Fall of Man'' when Parker uses a vent that pops open to escape from the conversion center, leaving Hale to find his own way out.

%%* ''VideoGame/ShadowComplex'' uses vents where Metroid uses morph ball tunnels.

* In ''VideoGame/SpiderMan2000'', Spider-Man has to escape from an underwater base using the air ducts... ''which are big enough for him to web-swing through''. Talk about shoddy design....

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'': These are on top of the third floor of the Hotel Sirena, which is mainly needed to find a way into locked rooms.

* ''VideoGame/SystemShock''. The second game almost starts with one, and the first game had whole maintenance tunnels in addition to vents.

* ''VideoGame/TheEscapists'' features these. The vents are protected by vent covers, requiring you to break them open or unscrew them.
* ''VideoGame/TheEscapists2'' also features these, except for the fact that they now span multiple floors and take less effort to break open.

* The [[HoldTheLine base-defense mission]] in ''[[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown XCOM: Enemy Within]]'' has the aliens using air vents to gain access to part of the XCOM base. {{Justified|Trope}} in that the aliens coming through the air vents are either Sectoids or Thin Men; the former are very small, while the latter are incredibly flexible.

* VideoGame/HorizonForbiddenWest: Played straight, and very handy for exploring ancient bunkers and other ruins.

** ''VideoGame/UltimateCustomNight'' also contains a couple of vents for animatronics to roam around in - Springtrap returns to crawling through them, as does Ennard, and joined by a whole batch of the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters 50-plus characters]], each with their own mechanics.

* ''VideoGame/FrostyNights'': One of the {{Snowlem}}s, Yellow, will attempt to enter your room through the vents.

* This is how VideoGame/{{Rayman}} escapes the [[SpacePirates pirate's]] [[CoolAirship prison ship]] in ''Rayman 2''. Considering that was an air vent, which is never really explained. Judging by its size, it's more likely to be where the smaller warships are sent from, if not from the deck.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2'' ups the ante on the danger posed by the killer animatronics by including a pair of vents leading right to the security room, which you also have to keep an eye on. At the very least there are cameras in both vents and lights at the bits leading into your office - though why they're even big enough for the massive animatronics to crawl through is another matter entirely.

** ''VideoGame/FreddyFazbearsPizzeriaSimulator'' takes this to its logical conclusion - the ''entirety'' of the map is vents, bar your office at the back and the [[spoiler:fake]] Pizzeria in the middle of it. It is a literal maze that animatronics can freely travel through - and there're no cameras, forcing you to use other forms of detection (specifically audio and motion tracking) to keep them away. The ''VideoGame/UltimateCustomNight'' also contains a couple of vents for animatronics to roam around in - Springtrap returns to crawling through them, as does Ennard, and joined by a whole batch of the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters 50-plus characters]], each with their own mechanics.

* ''VideoGame/AmongUs'': The Impostor can travel through vents to travel to locations far faster, or enter/escape locked rooms. Just be wary of other players seeing you do this, because it's as dead a giveaway as it gets barring killing someone right in front of them.

* ''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/MissionImpossible'' movie.

** ''VideoGame/FreddyFazbearsPizzeriaSimulator'' takes this to its logical conclusion - the ''entirety'' of the map is vents, bar your office at the back and the [[spoiler:fake]] Pizzeria in the middle of it. It is a literal maze that animatronics can freely travel through - and there're no cameras, forcing you to use other forms of detection (specifically audio and motion tracking) to keep them away. The Ultimate Custom Night also contains a couple of vents for animatronics to roam around in - Springtrap returns to crawling through them, as does Ennard, and joined by a whole batch of the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters 50-plus characters]], each with their own mechanics.

* ''VideoGame/AmongUs'': The Imposter can travel through vents to travel to locations far faster, or enter/escape locked rooms. Just be wary of other players seeing you do this, because it's as dead a giveaway as it gets barring killing someone right in front of them.

** This is Torque's special breaching ability in ''VideoGame/XCOMChimeraSquad'', as a [[SnakePeople Viper]] she has the agility to pull it off. DownplayedTrope, as it is just an effective way to breach a room and bypass cover bonuses, with any hit she scores during the Breach generating a [[StatusEffects stun]]. The ability can be used by others agents, but they need a specific equipment piece to do it.

** This is Torque's special breaching ability in ''VideoGame/XCOMChimeraSquad'', as a [[SnakePeople Viper]] she has the agility to pull it off. DownplayedTrope, as it is just an effective way to breach a room and bypass cover bonuses, with any hit she scores during the Breach generating a {{st|andardStatusEffect}}un. The ability can be used by others agents, but they need a specific equipment piece to do it.

* Shows up in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', of all places, when the heroes visit the world of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory''. As they're all transformed into LivingToys, the vents have plenty of room for them and the Heartless they're fighting.

* ''VideoGame/AkaManto'': You can use the vents to move around in the school. Just watch out for the [[BigCreepyCrawlies [=MASSIVE=]]] [[CreepyCentipedes centipede]].

* The ''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}'' games have these from time to time within the series. The first game has a few in the mine's storage cells, and from the textures, they actually look pretty dusty. In the second, Philip has to take the screws off a vent's cover to go in; apparently one of the scientists, Niel Oswald, had gone that way as well and left notes and red marks for someone to follow. And near the end of the second game, a third is hidden behind [[ConcealingCanvas a rather out-of-place landscape painting.]] At one point, Philip also mentions that the air smells rotten even though the air circulation is on.

** A variant on this: At one point, Chell uses the ductwork of old Aperture [[spoiler:to apply conversion gel in otherwise unreachable locations. She also uses access shafts and tunnels at some points.]]

* The demon in ''[[VideoGame/{{Reincarnation}} Reincarnation: Riley's Out Again]]'' does this to get around the school without being spotted by humans, but it's so "[[ScrappyLevel tedious and unfun]]" that later versions added an option to skip the sequence altogether. He's seen doing it again in a mini later in the series.

* Most of the air vents in ''Videogame/TeamFortress2'' 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]].

** This is Torque's special breaching ability in ''VideoGame/XCOMChimeraSquad'', as a [[SnakePeople Viper]] she has the agility to pull it off. DownplayedTrope, as it is just an effective way to breach a room and bypass cover bonuses, with any hit she scores during the Breach generating a [[StandardStatusEffect stun]]. The ability can be used by others agents, but they need a specific equipment piece to do it.

* In ''VideoGame/SpiderMan'', Spider-Man has to escape from an underwater base using the air ducts... ''which are big enough for him to web-swing through''. Talk about shoddy design....

--->'''Cave:''' Attention, test prisoners attempting to escape through the air ducts. [[ThisIsReality I don't know what nonsense you learned on TV, but in real life,]] air ducts [[RealityEnsues just go to the air conditioning unit.]] It's also pretty dusty, so if you've got asthma chances are you're gonna die up there. And we'll be smelling it for weeks, because, again, the air ducts aren't a secret escape hatch; they're how we ventilate the facility.

* Used against the player in ''VideoGame/SCPContainmentBreach''. SCP-173 uses these to get around the entire facility, and most of its spawn points are signified by a broken vent in the room.