History Main / BenevolentArchitecture

* ''{{FEAR}}'' and its sequel. If it weren't for this trope (such as a convenient hole in the wall, among others), it would have been impossible for the protagonists to proceed through the games.

* In ''TheDukesOfHazzard'' it seemed that every time they needed to jump over something with their car there was a convenient dirt ramp.

* The ''{{Metroid}}'' series. One has to wonder why so many planets throughout the galaxy have areas that can only be accessed by beings who can morph into balls. Or be opened only by Samus?s beams.

** Parodied in this ''Virtual Shackles'' [[http://www.dorkly.com/comic/2839/virtual-shackles-intelligent-design strip:]]

[[AC:Real Life]]
* Averted in Manly, New South Wales, Australia back in the eighties. Some of the planter boxes around the corso had surrounds that resembled quarter pipes. Skaters began using them for exactly that, so extra bricks were added protruding from the planters to prevent this.

* In the latest [[BatmanArkhamAsylum Batman game]], everyone's favorite [[BedlamHouse loony bin]] is revealed to have an endless number of human-sized air vents and, apparently, the masons had a near-fetishistic love of indoor stone gargoyles.

<<|VideoGameTropes|>>)

* ''{{Dark Messiah of Might and Magic}}'' featured a mechanic where kicking enemies into spikes caused instant death; why the enemies set up racks of spikes in their homes or gardens was never explained.
* Paradise City, the setting of ''{{Burnout}} Paradise''. While by no means the first driving game to include an open world for you to drive in, this is the city in which, to [[{{Psyclone}} the author]] at least, the trope is more apparent: {{Broken Bridge}}s everywhere, flimsy "Private Property" fences that can be knocked down by merely touching them (and which the game encourages you to destroy), highways full of gaps in the walls, ramps scattered around for no reason, a rail system without any (moving) trains that seems to serve no purpose other than a shortcut, etc. All of this is heavily {{lampshade}}d by the game's DJ, who every so often thanks the "lazy City Works Department" for not fixing the bridges and highways.

* ''Dark Messiah of MightAndMagic'' featured a mechanic where kicking enemies into spikes caused instant death; why the enemies set up racks of spikes in their homes or gardens was never explained.

** ''{{Trackmania}}'' United and earlier versions, in stark contrast to the popular Nations, has environments that are either homages to other games (Outrun, for the Island environment) or attempt to look and feel very realistic. Coast in particular has a rural French setting that almost looks like something out of Gran Turismo. Then you get to the loops and corkscrew jumps. The Bay environment is a Japanese city and you get an SUV. It also has construction frameworks that very much resemble quarterpipes and loops, actual loops in the highway, giant jumps and highway roads that head at a sixty degree angle towards the sky. Justified in that this is a stunt racing game, but compared to the obviously artificial Stadium environment of Nations, some of those environments feel ''off''.

** An intelligent moviegoer will realize that the base is a former Cyberdyne Systems facility that was once staffed by humans before the war and after judgement day had been adapted by the machines for their purposes.

It seems in certain shows and video games involving vehicles or characters with special abilities, the setting the characters reside was planned from the get-go with their mischief in mind, usually regardless of whether or not it would be useful to anyone else (say, for example, the people who ''live'' there). In the case of vehicles, for example, the town may have an abundance of {{Broken Bridge}}s that can be jumped over, flimsy fences protecting places where cars aren't "supposed" to go, a strange overabundance of seemingly useless ramps, etc. Of course these could be considered AcceptableBreaksFromReality, but still, you have to wonder why someone doesn't complain about those bridges.

* If the environment of ''[=~Assassin's Creed~=]'' is anything to go by, Islamic and European architecture in the Middle Ages must have been specifically designed to facilitate Altair's quest. Just about every man-made structure in the Holy Land is covered with built-in hand and footholds, making scaling up sheer walls and leaping between rooftops a breeze. The developers claim the architecture is accurate to the period. TruthInTelevision?
** Mostly TruthInTelevision. A bit exaggerated, the rooftop garden things isn't exactly accurate, but it's mostly realistic. EXCEPT FOR PUTTING A GOTHIC CATHEDRAL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY! Wrong place, wrong time, wrong everything.
** The European structures, with the exception of stronghold structures, were designed to make it possible to climb for the sake of having people go up and clean the windows and roofs.
** For that matter, many of the strongholds featured flat or nearly flat roofs so that archers could sit up there and plunk away at the enemy.
** Let's be fair: it's ''miles'' more believable than the architecture in most platform games. Altair just happens to be ''really'' good at grabbing things like window lattices and decorative stone carvings. Granted, the stones sticking out of walls are a bit overt.
*** Maybe they need to hire better masons...

** Very easily justified, since that's how stealthy infiltration ''works'': find another way. Not so easy to justify when Sam must infiltrate ''CIA Headquarters'', which should very much be a fortress and...isn't.

*** Somewhat believably HandWaved for the most part by explaining that much of the games' environments were either directly built by the Chozo, or in the second game built by people who "borrowed" Chozo technology; so it is reasonable to believe that Samus and her Chozo-created suit can navigate them. As for why the Space Pirates and other places do this...oh well.