History Main / GravityBarrier

* ''{{Marathon}}'' had numerous gravity barriers, where the player would fall off a ledge and be unable to backtrack. Since the game took place on a space station, these barriers only impeded movement because the artificial gravity was turned ''on''.

* ''{{Borderlands}}'' has this in many areas. Falling off a cliff results in instant death, even though you can survive the fall most likely. Jakkob's Cove also kills your character if you try to jump off a cliff to get down to the docks as a shortcut and going too far out in the water also kills you.

* AlanWake does this, being set in the mountains of Washington State. There are plenty of areas where gravity barriers stop you from travelling off the beaten path, and yet it works really well. Good level design, thy name is Alan Wake...

* In the ''[[LegoCrossoverGame Lego Star Wars]]'' games the only way of knowing you've encountered one of these, especially when there appears to be a ledge on the other side, is attempting to cross with an astromech droid.

** Relatedly, ''{{Prototype}}'' has the same kind of water barrier. However, while the hero is ''far'' too dense to be able to swim, he can ''jump off the bottom'' just fine. The game has to artificially force the player to jump in the direction of the shore to prevent him from going out of bounds.
** And [[InFamous inFamous]], in which the protagonist accidentally electrocutes himself in water more than a couple of inches deep.

* Some racing games (typically of the 'kart'-style) have these as part of the atmosphere, but it also does prevent turning around and driving back. And then there's the ones where the cliff version of the barrier is in effect, where if you leave the track you really leave the track; in ''MarioKart Wii'', do this on Rainbow Road and you get to watch yourself do a re-entry burn.

Gravity barriers can sometimes be temporary obstacles, until a character comes back with a power-up. For example, the ''SuperMarioBros'' and ''WarioLand'' platformers will often have secret items on high platforms unreachable unless the character comes back with the special feather, leaf, or other item that allows them to fly.

Gravity barriers can sometimes be temporary obstacles, until a character comes back with a power-up. For example, the ''SuperMarioBros'' and ''WarioWorld'' platformers will often have secret items on high platforms unreachable unless the character comes back with the special feather, leaf, or other item that allows them to fly.

** In the "Versus" mode, you take turns playing as the boss monsters, and you can actually explore the unreachable areas to prepare better ambushes.

* The ''{{Metroid}} Prime'' 3D games used this extensively: either there was an impassable ridge looming high above, insurmountable even by Samus' legendary jumping skills, or a precipice. There was some subtle manipulation as well, in ''Prime 2: Echoes'' and ''Prime 3: Corruption'', where attempting to cross a boundary chasm using the Screw Attack would suddenly eliminate the technique's momentum and drop Samus like a stone. Of course, this is absent in the 2D games, where the Wall Jump and the infinite Space Jump allow Samus to leap over any vertical obstacle.

** ''Metroid Fusion'' puts a twist on the water variant by making it ''horizontal'' as well: until you get the Gravity Suit, you can't use the SprintShoes you'll need to escape a flooded area late in the game.

* This is what traps victims in the town of SilentHill. More specifically, the collosal, bottomless chasms that spontaneously appear and turn the town into a mist-shrouded plateau. And you can fall into the BottomlessPits in later games.

* In Survivor: The Living Dead, you can't drop from the second floor to the ground as 'Jumping off will snap my skinny legs for sure'. You ''can'' throw bombs from the balcony, however, though there was a glitch in some versions taht caused them to ''bounce back up''.

** ''San Andreas'' is an exception since there are no barriers to physically hold your character back. Although the longer you go away from the mainland, it will take just as long to go back. And if you go into other towns when you are not allowed yet, you get an unshakeable wanted rating, justified by the plot.

** Relatedly, ''{{Prototype}}'' has the same kind of water barrier. Justified, in that the hero is ''far'' too dense to be able to swim.

* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' used mountains as gravity barriers when it was released. Unfortunately, they underestimated player ingenuity and it was possible to climb over most of them and reach empty lands with unfinished graphics. This was later fixed. It also uses water barriers, in the form of "fatigue" which quickly kills you when you're above sufficiently deep water, regardless of your situation (swimming, walking on water with magic, flying above the water, etc).

* The {{Tomb Raider}} series uses these alot, both to define the outer edges of outdoor levels and occasionally to prevent backtracking.

** They're adding flying to the original maps in the new expansion. Again, no HandWave for why you couldn't before, but at least it got fixed.

* In Survivor: The Living Dead, you can't drop from the second floor to the ground as 'Jumping off will snap my skinny legs for sure'. But taken to a whole new level of absurity when you try to lob a bomb outside at the zombies and it BOUNCES back at you. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbcyEoOGWnY Much to the confusion of at least one reviewer.]]

** ''San Andreas'' is an exception since there are no barriers to physically hold your character back. Although the longer you go away from the mainland, it will take just as long to go back.