I think the problem was lack of direction. Take for example open world games like Skyrim. You have a map, you choose to do something, a place/direction to follow and go. Here? We only have the cave. It's like we were stuck in an unskippable cut scene. You could say for example:"Before you lies the tunnel, behind you is the rubble and above is the opening from which you fell. If you proceed to head outside you can choose to go to blablabla, follow the road to the city of blabla or go up the mountain to the abandoned cabin...everyone avoids the cabin, something is off about it."

And BAM you got options and a possible quest/event line.
Just my humble thoughts. Hnd.