Post your favourite "insurmountable waist-high fence"!

[SquidSponge]

So I was playing Carrier Command the other day (not a great game, but only paid £5 for it). I have a few issues with this game, but I'm only going to discuss the one here.

In the intro section where the player character is on foot, there comes a point where the (thus far utterly unlikeable) protagonist pipes up and says, and I paraphrase, "oh no, we need to find a way to pass this vehicle wreckage".

The problem is, my immediate thought was "But you could fit through that huge gap right there! You wouldn't even need to turn sideways!", besides which I had mere seconds before been on a higher path and attempted to slide down what looked like a safe slope to the other side of this wreckage, only to be met with an invisible wall. This phenomenon, and ones like it, are known sometimes as an "insurmountable waist-high fence", a detailed definition of which (with more examples) can be found here:

WARNING! TVTropes link! Engage a "no new tabs" policy unless you have 2 days to spare! [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InsurmountableWaistHeightFence]

So this trope is, in essence, where a game dev utilises a lazy and/or BS method, mechanic or technical limitation to force the player onto a given path despite one or more easy, obvious solutions. Think about the "Sleeping Snorlax" problem (well why don't I just climb over?). In my story detailed above it takes but a few seconds to circumvent the obstacle, but other times it may involve an epic quest:

Spoiler: Visual aid

(Legal disclaimer: I do not own this image, it was submitted to Cracked [http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_85_if-video-games-were-realistic_p27/#19/] credited to "Bronzulton Q")

TL;DR:
I couldn't possibly climb over this 3-foot-high wall, the player controlling me doesn't have a jump button!

So give us your stories, post your favourite (or most hated) examples!

 

[Soviet Heavy]

The concrete barrier with loose barbed wire that only a horse can jump in The Last of Us.

 

[sextus the crazy]

OT: The Pokemon ones are always great just by virtue of lameness. Some asshole won't let you pass. For reasons. The one with the contact lens in Paper Mario: the thousand year door is good, too.

 

[TheIceQueen]

Well, why would you climb over a snorlax? He'd probably wake up and eat you! D: And that'd be bad.

Now, those small-ass trees that you need to 'Cut'...

 

[wintercoat]

OH HOW EVER WILL WE GE THROUGH THIS MASTER LOCKED DOOR!!!!! D:

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Spoiler

OH HOW EVER WILL WE GE THROUGH THIS MASTER LOCKED DOOR!!!!! D:

Great example, made even worse by the fact the door is ajar, meaning it's actually already open. I mean, look at the lock. You can't seriously tell me it's in any condition to keep the door locked.

OT: I've seen so many of those in RPGs where you can't jump. Last offender was in Dragon Age Origins, while in the Deep Roads, where there are plenty of gentle slopes that are apparently too hard to climb, even when anyone with working legs and arms should be able to go over.

 

[Panthera]

I like the Pokemon ones the best just because of how mundane and silly they tend to be. A tiny fence is one thing (or the ledges that are short enough to bike off safely but too tall to climb, ever, even with a Pokemon's help from Pokemon itself), but when you get into guards being thirsty and fat guys standing around whose dialogue is "We're here for no reason and some day we'll be gone for no reason" and all manner of other arbitrary nonsense, it's impossible to even be frustrated, it's too amusing.

 

[Terraniux]

Can I just say "Medal of Honor: Warfighter" and leave it at that? No? Okay...

The original Killzone had some pretty hilariously bad ones, mainly because you can't jump. At all. Almost everything was one. The closest thing to a jump button you have is a context sensitive mantle over fallen pillars and stuff, which don't really appear that often.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

Fences in inFAMOUS. I'm playing as a superhero that can climb and jump off of buildings without any problems, but I can't parkour my way over a fence. This actually stood out so much that when they fixed this in inFAMOUS 2, they actually made a trophy for climbing your first fence.

 

[Juste Goose]

Not for me, but in Arkham Asylum, when you lock away Harley in a cell, the space between the bars is MASSIVE. A gymnast like Ms. Quinn could easily fit through them.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Not for me, but in Arkham Asylum, when you lock away Harley in a cell, the space between the bars is MASSIVE. A gymnast like Ms. Quinn could easily fit through them.

I played through that part just yesterday and those were my thoughts exactly. It doesn't seem so obvious when she first gets locked up, but the second the camera changes angles it's so OBVIOUS she could fit through there. Especially considering we just saw Harley dance and flip about 10 times on her way towards Batman.

 

[SquidSponge]

Fences in inFAMOUS. I'm playing as a superhero that can climb and jump off of buildings without any problems, but I can't parkour my way over a fence. This actually stood out so much that when they fixed this in inFAMOUS 2, they actually made a trophy for climbing your first fence.

Ah yes, fences are a particular annoyance of mine, because they're often just barbed wire which, even if it's too high to carefully climb over (possibly with the help of an item of thick and expendable clothing), it certainly wouldn't stand up to any of the 6 bricks of C4 the protagonist has stashed in mysterious places about his person.

Can I just say "Medal of Honor: Warfighter" and leave it at that? No? Okay...
[...]

Actually, I was playing Medal of Honour: No Subtitle the other day (so I caved to the recent EA Humble Bundle, what'cha gonna do?) and I noticed a load of these "insurmountable" obstacles. I long ago reconciled to the "wait for a teammate to open the door", because that at least has the excuse of tactics (eg waiting for the order to breach), but the unscalable gentle slope was also fairly common.

I have to say that while I'm calling out the practice here, I confess that I don't usually mind the "insurmountable waist-high fence" as an excuse for a quest, providing as it doesn't take the complete piss. And Pokemon generally gets away with stuff like the Snorlax because it's cutesy and sort of amusing.

The kind that usually annoys me is the one that just impedes the player's "quality of life", if that's the correct term - having to go 6 feet around 5cm-tall ground obstacles, or having to backtrack large distances for no reason other than there's no break in a perfectly-scalable fence, especially if it makes no sense not to put a break there. An example of this - if I recall correctly (which I might not), in Runescape (looong time since I played that) there was a fence blocking the most direct main road between Lumbridge, the (quite large) starting town, and Varrock, the de facto capital city for most players, thus disrupting a major trade route (for both lore and player contexts). This fence forced players to double back on a parallel route for about 30 seconds every damned time - just imagine the man-hours this bloody fence alone has wasted between one of the busiest routes travelled by n million players over a good chunk of a decade. And here's the thing - the devs realised it was a pain in the arse, and made a shortcut that could only be used via the members-only agility skill. Not sure whether I should be complimenting their craftiness for exploiting "pay for convenience" or double-facepalming for the world's least effective fix for a known complaint.

 

[Terraniux]

Actually, I was playing Medal of Honour: No Subtitle the other day (so I caved to the recent EA Humble Bundle, what'cha gonna do?) and I noticed a load of these "insurmountable" obstacles. I long ago reconciled to the "wait for a teammate to open the door", because that at least has the excuse of tactics (eg waiting for the order to breach), but the unscalable gentle slope was also fairly common.

You know, I barely noticed them in the Medal of Honor reboot, but they were on my mind the entire time during the little bit I played of Warfighter. It's probably because it does the whole "OMG U WIL DIE" thing whenever you just barely step out of line. I don't mind linear levels that much, but when they appear to be wide open but actually aren't, then I get kinda mad. If they, say, killed you with a sniper, I wouldn't mind. But no, they gray the screen and display this huge ass message in the center, and I hate that.

Another one on my mind now that I think of it is Black, another FPS, this time for last gen consoles. I distinctly recall a level in a prison where you drop down from a three inch drop and can't go back since you can't jump, not even a mantle like you can in Killzone. I didn't mind it that much the first time through, but afterwards it was a total "really?" moment.

 

[Hero of Lime]

when you get into guards being thirsty and fat guys standing around whose dialogue is "We're here for no reason and some day we'll be gone for no reason" and all manner of other arbitrary nonsense, it's impossible to even be frustrated, it's too amusing.

Black and White 2 went nuts with that like you said. How many times are you told "we're doing construction," "I can't let you pass," or "there was an unexpected landslide." Though the group of guys blocking for no reason is probably the funniest/silliest reason. xD

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Perhaps not precisely the same thing, but one trick the Half-Life series loves to play on you is to have you traverse this massive convluted circular pathway of death to open a door that's about 5 yards away from where you started. The most egregious example is in episode Episode Two where the insurmountable obstacle blocking my path is a thin sheet metal door, the sort of thing you see outside of closed shops, which as it transpires was impervious to RPG missiles. Apparently the Combine invested a lot of money into Adamantium doors (just looked at a clip and there's even a window that could have been smashed open too). And yeah, they want to get the car, but I still could have just as easily broken that window open and crossed the bridge to get it, they didn't know it was going to collapse yet.

 

[SquidSponge]

Perhaps not precisely the same thing, but one trick the Half-Life series loves to play on you is to have you traverse this massive convluted circular pathway of death to open a door that's about 5 yards away from where you started. The most egregious example is in episode Episode Two where the insurmountable obstacle blocking my path is a thin sheet metal door, the sort of thing you see outside of closed shops, which as it transpires was impervious to RPG missiles. Apparently the Combine invested a lot of money into Adamantium doors.

I reckon you've got a point there. I forgot about the HL series, but in truth I don't recall it bothering me much. I recall one example that I loved - the lasermine warehouse in HL1 ("shortcuts" where you can see where you want to go, but can't take that route or boom) - and otherwise I guess Valve did a generally good job of distracting me to avoid frustration? But yeah, I do remember maybe one or two ridiculous (annoying) ones like a thin wooden door.

 

[Signa]

I wish there wasn't a low-content rule, because that picture is enough to send anyone who knows what it is into uncontrollable PTSD.

Basically, you have to jump up and down 6 screens of pure spiked hell to get over that.

I know that's not entirely what the OP was looking for, but it certainly was my favorite.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

I'm actually surprised at how long its been since I've encountered one (Or at least one that wasn't done well enough that I didn't notice) so I'll provide one for nostalgia's sake, rather than true humor.

I like this one because it's so simple and unharmful to you that it doesn't even annoy me... Though now I'm starting to be reminded of some of the, actually annoying waist high fences in the game like having to go through a DESERT to avoid a traffic jam, despite the fact that you're walking on foot.

 

[kyuzo3567]

WARNING! TVTropes link! Engage a "no new tabs" policy unless you have 2 days to spare! [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InsurmountableWaistHeightFence]

Just wanted to say this line made me laugh pretty hard in the middle of my morning class... thank you for that! (It is a great policy anyways)

 

[Festus Moonbear]

The fallen tree at the start of Silent Hill Downpour. "Well, I'm not going that way. It's almost as high as my knee."