Best game with dangerous cave environments

Important takeaways

• Caves in open-world games can offer tough enemies, puzzles, and environmental hazards to overcome for rewards.
• Terraria's deep, dangerous caverns require tackling monsters, traps, and offer a good balance of risk and reward.
• Deep Rock Galactic's procedurally generated caverns are filled with environmental hazards and hostile creatures.

Not all matches take place above ground, some take place in a completely underground environment. Others simply feature large cave systems as part of an open world map for players to explore. Often caves are used as spawn locations for bosses, or rare loot and resources.

Developers often populate caves with tough enemies, puzzles to solve, and environmental hazards that the player must overcome in order to survive. Some games have integrated the underground aspects of the map so well that they stand out for having the toughest, most dangerous caves to explore, and, of course, the best rewards for overcoming this challenge.

8 Terraria

2D Sandbox Adventure

Since its launch, Terraria has become something of a surprise hit, considering it was created by a small indie developer. Exploration is absolutely essential in this game, and that means venturing into the dangerous cave systems.

Some of the caves in Terraria are very deep, and the further down the cave the player goes, the more dangerous the environment becomes. This includes dangerous monsters to fight and nasty traps to uncover and avoid. The risk-reward balance in these caves is excellent, and why Terraria made this list.

7 Ark: Survival Evolved

Open world survival

Ark: Survival Evolved is one of the most successful open-world survival games to date, with a large following and a fairly large esports scene. IN Ark: Survival Evolvedplayers must learn to survive on an island inhabited by prehistoric creatures.

There are many caves around the map, and many of these are the best places to find the best resources and fight the most dangerous creatures. Good preparation is key before going down into the most dangerous of caves Ark: Survival Evolved.

6 Far Cry: Primal

Stone Age survival

The second game on this list to feature prehistoric creatures, Far Cry: Primaltakes place in the Stone Age. Players must survive while competing against other Stone Age tribes, in a unique survival scenario.

Caves in this game are a big part of the game. They are good for providing cover, and many players make their home in caves. However, the larger cave systems can be very dangerous and are usually used as locations for larger combat encounters. But of course there is a reward for exploring these caves, in the form of valuable resources.

5 Deep Rock Galactic

Play as a space dwarf!

Deep Rock Galactic is quite a unique game in many respects. The premise is simple in this first-person shooter. Players explore procedurally generated cave systems on alien planets and mine the valuable resources found within them.

But of course the reality is a bit more complex. The cave systems in Deep Rock Galactic all have environmental hazards and are populated by hostile aliens. In addition, there is always the risk of a tunnel collapsing, which causes its own problems. The cave systems are exceptionally well done, despite being all procedurally generated.

4 Tomb Raider

Mixes puzzle solving with combat

The Tomb Raider franchises include movies, books and, of course, video games. The first game in the franchise was released back in 1996. However, this list entry is focused on the 2013 reboot of the original game. The player plays as Lara Croft and must explore and overcome the treacherous cave.

The underground cave systems in Tomb Raider requires puzzle-solving skills and combines a platforming style with combat mechanics. Caves are chock full of traps and puzzles that the player must solve. There is a real sense of exploration in Tomb Raider, as the player never knows what is just around the corner in the next cave.

3 Hollow Knight

Underground Action Adventure

Hollow Knight is another successful indie game. It has a unique, dark and ominous aesthetic that takes place completely underground. This is a 2D action-adventure game that combines solid platforming with fiendishly challenging puzzles and tons of hidden secrets to uncover.

The cave system itself has been lovingly handcrafted, and the attention to detail is evident everywhere. The combat is surprisingly complex for a 2D game as well. However, it's the dark, dangerous cave system that steals the show in Hollow Knight. Even gamers who prefer 3D games may want to give Hollow Knight a try, because it is truly exceptional.

2 The forest

Survival horror on a strange island

This survival horror game is known to be tough. The player discovers that they have survived a plane crash and are now stranded on an alien island inhabited by cannibalistic natives and strangely mutated creatures. So begins the quest to unlock the secrets of this island and its strange inhabitants.

The forest has some of the toughest cave systems of any video game. Unfortunately, the player cannot simply avoid entering the caves of The Forest. Much of the game's lore and clues are found in the cave systems, as well as the most powerful weapons and rare resources.

1 Subnautica

Amazing underwater cave systems

Located on a sea planet, almost completely covered in water, Subnautica offers a different take on survival game mechanics. Oxygen is always a consideration, but there are other, different dangers, such as deep pressure, that must be kept in mind to avoid death.

The open world map contains many underwater cave systems, many of which will not be accessible until the player can craft the equipment they need to safely explore them. These caves contain many dangers, including hostile monsters and increased pressure, which can crush the player.