VR spelunking adventure Cave Crave adds Tham Luang DLC today on Meta Quest. The Thailand cave became infamous in 2018 when a youth football team was trapped in it by rising flood water.
The new location is part of developer 3R Games’ ‘Real Caves in VR’ initiative, following Utah’s Nutty Putty Cave. The 2018 incident was previously covered in National Geographic’s documentary The Rescue, filmmaker Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives, and the Netflix series Thai Cave Rescue.
3R was joined by several real life experts in Tham Luang’s production, including British cave divers John Volanthen and Vern Unsworth, and cave-scanning expert Richard Walters. Volanthen was one of the first divers to locate the missing team and helped execute the rescue operation. As part of his involvement with Cave Crave, Volanthen recorded a voice-over and guides players through the underwater section. Unsworth shared his extensive knowledge of Tham Luang’s topography and also narrates the experience, specifically the non-submerged sections of the cave. Walters helped 3R to interpret the survey data and transfer the real geometry, scale, and layout of Tham Luang into VR.
Being that part of Tham Luang is fully submerged in water, the new update introduces diving and swimming mechanics to Cave Crave. Players explore underwater passages with limited visibility and at times near-total darkness while being led by Volanthen’s aforementioned guidance.
Tham Luang is available now in Cave Crave on Meta Quest. The new cave will release ‘soon’ on PlayStation VR2 and Steam.
