History Main / InsurmountableWaistHeightFence

** The same goes for ''MassEffect'', and generally most games where you can't jump.

* In ''MassEffect'', while driving the Mako on story worlds the ''Gentle Slope Of Unclimbability'' was made the more obvious, since on non-story worlds you could make it climb almost any mountain no matter how steep, while on story worlds you were confined to narrow valleys with walls much gentler and you still came rolling down from them. On time, there was even a Insurmountable Waist Height Fence in the form of a big boulder, that should have made you impossible to go further with the Mako, but with some good positioning you could jump over it, leading to a glitch.

** In ''MassEffect2'' -- when you're recruiting Tali in Haestrom -- rubble blocks your way until you find nearby demolition charges; while it's as large as you, you've been shown performing athletic stunts before that should make simply climbing up a lot easier than fighting your way through all those geth. And naturally, you can't clear the blockage by shooting it, even with the nuke launcher.

** Same in ''MassEffect3'', particularly some fences on the Citadel. And some invisible walls on the Multiplayer maps preventing you from jumping to your death... but enemies can use jet-packs to jump up from somewhere below.

* To people confined to wheelchairs, their whole surroundings can seem like one of these, especially in places that lack handicapped-friendly architecture.

* In ''VideoGame/TheNightOfTheRabbit'' waist height fences are used literally to prevent you from getting into certain places (wood dwarves's, Hares family's garden and their birthday party). Instead, you have to solve some puzzle in order to get there. Talk about a hero who respect private property!

*** Bonus points for most doors in the Fallout universe either being damaged and a couple of centuries old, or being jerry rigged out of a piece of scrap metal.

** Most of ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' is in corridors and such, taking place in a large research ship and all. So for the most part the railroading and paths being blocked by reinforced doors is justified. But then there's this one missile tank, well, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_nS1ADTJY0 see for yourself]].

** To be fair, beyond those little barbwire fences is a very quick and painful radiation death.

* In its defence, the fences are chest high and shootable in ''[[XCom UFO Enemy Unknown]]'', but it is odd that your troopers are tough enough to hardly notice stepping off the roof of a two storey building but need a flying suit to get over a dry stone wall. Also you remember those dragon's teeth concrete blocks they used to slow down tanks in World War 2? In the near future you will be able to get a similar effect using a picket fence or a box of tomatoes.

*** The texture and model of many of the metal doors (particularly those found in vaults) include a "emergency release switch." These switches are just cosmetic if the door is locked however, even though the switch is clearly meant to prevent the door from becoming and impedance.

* ''CollegeSaga'' parodies this (just like it parodies everything else). "A huge chair is blocking your path". Once Jesus joins your party, he averts the trope by simply blowing the chair up.

* In ''VideoGame/TheNightOfTheRabbit'' waist height fence are used literally to prevent you from getting into certain places (wood dwarves's, Hares family's garden and their birthday party). Instead, you have to solve some puzzle in order to get there. Talk about a hero who respect private property!

*** ''Lonesome Road'' has dozens of these, but one of the most blatant is in the main part of the Divide, where a collapsing building creates an insurmountable wall to force a detour through a [[DemonicSpiders Tunneler]]-infested cave, frustrating the player even further with a pile of signs that looks like it could be used as a ramp.

*** ''Lonesome Road'' has many of these, but one of the worst is in the main part of the Divide, where a collapsing building creates an insurmountable wall to force a detour through a [[DemonicSpiders Tunneler]]-infested cave, frustrating the player even further with a pile of signs that looks like it could be used as a ramp.

* Hyper and quasispace in ''VideoGame/{{Star Control 2}}'' have an edge. This is pretty common to the genre, but somehow glaring here (possibly because the issue of an edge is [[WrapAround sidestepped]] in melee).

* Almost every level in the ''{{STALKER}}'' games (at least, the first two). Most of the exterior levels are bordered by flimsy barbwire fences. You can jump over higher things during the game, including climbing a stack of crates over a concrete wall (twice in quick succession) during one of the plot missions in Clear Sky, but the border fences are unjumpable. They do jingle when you bump them, though...

*** Parodied in [[http://www.halolz.com/2013/05/15/who-needs-hms/ this]] comic strip.

!!Parodies, mentions, lampshade hangings

* This trope is '''[[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]]''' in ''VideoGame/YumeNikki''. If you explore the wasteland long enough you will stumble across some [[PettingZooPeople toriningen]] having a lively little picnic with the happiest song in the game playing in the background, but some small plants prevent you from joining them, so all you can do is watch from afar and feel left out. When you try to find another way in, you'll find that every possible way is blocked. What makes this [[TearJerker heartwrenching]] is that this event is taking place inside the protagonist's head and likely represents past experiences with social exclusion.

* This trope is ''[[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]]'' in ''VideoGame/YumeNikki''. If you explore the wasteland long enough you will stumble across some [[PettingZooPeople toriningen]] having a lively little picnic, but some small plants prevent you from joining them, so all you can do is watch from afar and feel left out. What makes this [[TearJerker heartwrenching]] is that this event is taking place inside the protagonist's head and likely represents past experiences with social exclusion.

* Deconstructed in VideoGame/YumeNikki. Madotsuki being unable to get through really small shrubbery to participate in a picnic being held by some Toriningen represents social exclusion, and can be very depressing.

* This trope is deconstructed in ''VideoGame/YumeNikki''. If you explore the wasteland long enough you will stumble across some [[PettingZooPeople toriningen]] having a lively little picnic. This could've been a happy moment in an otherwise unsettling game, but some small plants prevent you from joining them so all you can do is watch from afar and feel left out. What makes this [[TearJerker heartwrenching]] is that this event is taking place inside the protagonist's head and likely represents past experiences with social exclusion.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Vette}}'', large sections of San Francisco are blocked off by insurmountable fences, some waist height (No, you can't jump over them with low gravity, either). {{Handwaved}} in the manual as being due to "earthquake damage". And if you try to jump over Lombard Street, you hit an InvisibleWall.

** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has some particularly lazy examples of this; the overworld is cut into cells to ease loading times, and one can only transit between cells at passes. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell this to the designers who made the visual landscapes, meaning the Courier is often unable to climb two-degree slopes at the edges of cells. In particularly buggy areas such as the area around Nelson, the Courier can end up several dozen feet off the ground by skimming a cell edge. Some of the indoor areas, e.g. Vault 34 are also divided into sub-areas.

*** Similarly, one of the {{MacGuffin}}s for the Still in the Dark quest is on the Oxygen Recycling level of Vault 22, but there's an overturned desk (Unslideable Passageway) blocking direct access, forcing you to find a keycard in the Common Areas to unlock the back door to the room from the Food Production level.