Prequels are usually a tough pill to swallow, and a lot of gamers, us included, are extremely wary of them. Z-Software gave us a really solid, Fallout Tactics-inspired ride with the base game, Dustwind: Resistance, back in 2025. We loved it so much that we literally begged Dimitri Zaitsev, the creative director behind most of the Dustwind titles, for an interview—which you can read here! After a very good DLC, we were hoping for the next great thing. When we heard Tunnels of Death was dropping us twenty years into the past, we expected a basic but powerful nostalgia trip. We got that, and a lot more. The situation rotted into a claustrophobic nightmare in minutes. Join us after the trailer jump as we try to wipe off all the mutated guts.
Heavy Metal
As we mentioned in the intro, we talked about the Dustwind titles on several occasions, so we don’t really want to divulge what the core gameplay is about. Instead, we’d like to share what’s new with this DLC. For starters, there’s a new campaign that spans four distinct missions over roughly four hours. The missions are designed in such a way to strongly encourage us to keep moving. In the base game, we liked to take things slow and spend time setting up overwatch cones and drawing aggro. Picking off raiders one by one was something that we really liked. Liked being the past tense here. The opening city section introduces a creeping wall of radioactive gas. Playing it safe is a big no-no, so the only way is to push forward and shove the squad straight down into the abandoned underground metro.
Welcome to the tunnels!
Down in the dark, situational awareness is another commodity that’s no more. Cover in these tunnels barely exists, and what does exist is masochistically placed at awkward angles. Navigating tight corridors can also be very difficult, and unwelcome surprises, such as traps and landmines, seem to be everywhere. Best of luck if your mechanic’s skill is just like ours — very low. It would have been funny if it hadn’t been so tragic how many times we stepped on mines and how many times we had to reload saves.
Old Gripes, New Horrors
Gunfights felt deep but also incredibly stressful. You need to be very careful how you position your team as friendly fire is always on. Also, Dustwind continues using a rigid, old-school grid system for gear. As big fans, we didn’t mind it; we were actually well accustomed to it. But we can see how some less patient gamers might scream at the screen, especially mid-firefights when they have to pause the game, drag the ammo from the backpack down to the active slot, and wait out a painfully slow reload animation. All that while a mutant is charging at us like there’s no tomorrow. Healing works the same way and applying a medkit means physically locking our character in place.
And we just realized we’re talking about the same old aches again. We feel it’s important to point them out as they seem to be deeply rooted in the core systems and there’s no escaping them with this DLC. Ok, back to the new things.
Meet the Mutties!
Four new mutant types will make your run even harder. It’s beyond awesome to see how fast mutants close the gap before our rifles could cycle their actions. It effectively negated long-range advantages. Then there are our fave — sneaky mutants that exploit the line-of-sight mechanics just because they have this insatiable desire for hugging. You know what’s their favorite target? It’s our medics; those bastards almost always went for our medics. Oh yeah, and blinded units can’t do sneak detection anymore. Let’s not talk about how much it terrified us every time a flashbang went off. Exploding and poisonous variants turned narrow tunnel chokepoints into suicide traps. You can try and kick and push the bombers away before detonation. You can also suck at the timing. If we had a nickel every time we lost a leg… well, suffice it to say, we’d be very rich. The new weapon help and is a joy to use. We honestly can’t wait for you to see Double-Fifty in action, that’s all we’re going to say.
Gasping for Air on the Surface
Prequel DLCs usually phone it in. Not this one. The four-hour runtime might seem short, but there’s never a dull or unsatisfying moment in that time. Hitting a charging explosive mutant with the Double-Fifty right before it breached our perimeter was such a joy. Casual strategy players will likely bounce off the steep difficulty curve within twenty minutes. We crawled out of the sadistic labyrinth alive. Barely. And, for the record, we’d gladly do everything all over again!
Developer: Dustwind Studios & Z-Software
Publisher: Z-Software GmbH
Platforms: PC (Steam), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: June 23, 2026
Genre: Tactical Action / Real-Time Strategy
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