There’s a city full of zombies standing between Olivenia and the secret base she’s supposed to reach in Tunnel Escape: Fates Entwined. Thankfully, she has guns, grenades, plenty of skills to learn, and her police partner Noah helping from the safety of a computer room.
He gets the better end of that deal.
Developed by Elzee and published by Saikey Studios, this roguelite RPG is available now on Steam, sending Olivenia on an escort mission that quickly turns into something much bigger as she searches for another survivor, Beatrice, and starts uncovering information about a mysterious biological weapon. Getting there means fighting through zombies, mutated animals, living plants, machines, and whatever else the outbreak has managed to make a whole lot worse.
You’ll need to think about every move you make along the way.
Every Bullet Counts
Combat in Tunnel Escape mixes gunplay with turn-based battles, where shooting, throwing a grenade, or even taking another step can make the difference between getting through a fight and ending the run.
There are plenty of ways to deal with whatever is trying to eat you. Different guns come with their own strengths and weaknesses, while throwables can blow enemies apart, blind them, stun them, or set them on fire. Each weapon also has its own active skills to unlock. A pistol can pick up rapid fire, for example, while birdshot lets a shotgun hit every enemy at once.
Olivenia has hundreds of active and passive skills available across a run, so there’s a lot of room to decide exactly how you want to handle the next group of infected, preferably before they handle you.
The Zombies Aren’t the Only Problem
It doesn’t take long for the outbreak to start producing things worse than a regular zombie. Stages bring their own selection of enemies, ranging from mutated creatures and infected animals to living plants and weaponised machinery, with a boss waiting at the end. Getting past them means working out weaknesses and making sure you have the right skills ready when you need them.
There’s crafting to help with that too. Items can be combined outside active battles to create stronger supplies, including recovery items and ammunition for a secret weapon. If you know a difficult fight is coming, it pays to do some preparation rather than wandering in with whatever happens to be left in Olivenia’s pockets.
Runs can throw a few less predictable problems at you as well. Random events include other survivors, chests filled with loot, drinks that alter your stats, and little rodents that steal from you.
Dying Doesn’t Send You Back Empty-Handed
A failed mission isn’t the end of Olivenia’s progress. New skills can be unlocked between attempts, while new guns, upgrades, and useful items give you more options the next time you head into the city. That roguelite progression means another run isn’t simply a repeat of the last one, especially once random events start changing what you find along the way.
There’s also the actual reason Olivenia is out there in the first place. She and Noah were originally sent to escort a Special Agent to a secret base, but the search for Beatrice and the biological weapon running through the story gives her another reason to keep pushing further into the outbreak. Noah will continue guiding her remotely while she deals with the much messier half of the job.
Tunnel Escape: Fates Entwined is available now on Steam for PC, with a 20% launch discount running until October 16th. Olivenia has guns, grenades, hundreds of skills, and a partner helping her from a nice safe computer room. She also has an entire city of zombies between her and where she needs to be. Probably best not to waste any bullets.