History Main / LadderPhysics

** This looks ridiculously stupid in multi-player games, watching players ''walk'' up ladders - even siller if they're crouching, because the player appears to be levitating up the ladder from a kneeling position.
** It's notoriously hard to grab ladders on the way down in this game. Most players have learned to quick-save before even trying to descend a ladder, because of the sheer number of ways it can go wrong.

* Averted in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, where free running is one of the main mode of getting around.

* Averted in the ''{{Assassin'sCreed}}'' series, where free running is one of the main mode of getting around.

* Averted in the ''{{Assassin's Creed}}'' series, where free running is one of the main mode of getting around.

* In ''MetalGearSolid3'', Naked Snake has to climb a [[MemeticMutation looooooooooooooooooooooooong]][[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24yIQD3k8wc 1]] ladder. The only exhaustion experienced is on the part of the player.

* ''{{FEAR}}'' not only features realistic ladders, but actually a) requires you to crouch down or jump up to get them, and b) allows you to see your hands, arms and feet as you're moving up or down the ladder.

* In ''ShadowWarrior'', while climbing a ladder you cannot use weapons, or even look around.

* ''Return to CastleWolfenstein'' takes the above example a little further: it's possible to not only reload and fire your weapon ?even the minigun!? but also ''kick'' while climbing the ladder. This presumably means that your character is attached to the ladder by one foot.
** The game avoids the 360-degree rotation bit, though: if you aren't facing the ladder, you'll promptly fall off. This troper had to restart an entire mission due to falling down the ladder of a guard tower in such a way.
** They must have had a lot of fun with these ladders during development: there is a note posted in an early level mentioning that safety cages have been installed on all the ladders due to a rise in "ladder-related injuries". Evidently, the Nazis must have been sick of ladder deaths just as much as this troper was.

* Ladders in {{Minecraft}} are subject to all kinds of weirdness. They seem to simply slow your fall when you occupy the same square as them, and move you upwards at the same rate when you move against them. This means, among other things, that your two-square-tall character finds a ladder with rungs on only every other block smoothly usable, moving into a ladder square while falling at terminal velocity will instantly slow you, and it's possible to mine a block while facing away from the ladder you're on... and moving up and down spasmodically, since you can't hold still while you're on one. This reaches ridiculous levels when you realize, with a bit of luck, you can place a ladder segment while in freefall, and instantly cancel your momentum with it.

** Ladders are still major deathtraps in L4D anyway, though - especially when you have to do anything beyond reach the top of the "ladder," which is common when playing as the Infected.

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* Averted in ''GrandTheftAuto4'': the gun goes away, and you climb the ladder slowly (though you can speed it up by pressing A).

* ''{{Half-Life}}'' - Freeman's HEV suit evidently has magnetic feet, because even during earth-shattering explosions, he's able to stick perfectly to the ladder without even taking his hands off the weapon. It's even possible to reload while on a ladder.
** This looks ridiculously stupid in multi-player games, watching players ''walk'' up ladders - even siller if they're crouching, because the player appears to be levitating up the ladder from a kneeling position.
** It's notoriously hard to grab ladders on the way down in this game. Most players have learned to quick-save before even trying to descend a ladder, because of the sheer number of ways it can go wrong.
** Also, in the ''HalfLife'' expansion ''Opposing Force'', the LadderPhysics become even more absurd when they get applied to rope climbing. Cpl Adrian Shepard must be one hell of an acrobat.
* ''{{Hitman}} 2: Silent Assassin'' takes this to ludicrous extremes: Climbing a ladder forces the camera in to 3rd person perspective, and it doesn't restrict your firing capabilities at all, meaning you can and are ''forced'' to watch Agent 47 run up a ladder in third person while contorting his body so much that he can fire a shotgun directly below and behind him.
* ''Return to CastleWolfenstein'' takes the above example a little further: it's possible to not only reload and fire your weapon ?even the minigun!? but also ''kick'' while climbing the ladder. This presumably means that your character is attached to the ladder by one foot.
** The game avoids the 360-degree rotation bit, though: if you aren't facing the ladder, you'll promptly fall off. This troper had to restart an entire mission due to falling down the ladder of a guard tower in such a way.
** They must have had a lot of fun with these ladders during development: there is a note posted in an early level mentioning that safety cages have been installed on all the ladders due to a rise in "ladder-related injuries". Evidently, the Nazis must have been sick of ladder deaths just as much as this troper was.
* In games like ''{{Quake}} 3'' that lack actual ladder behavior, some maps attempt to get around this by just launching the player upwards when they approach the ladder.
* The ladders in ''{{Quake}} 2'' are like glue: once you're attached to them, there's no way in Hell you're going to get off unless you've reached the top or bottom. Need to jump off? Not bloody likely.
* ''{{Red Faction}}'' is bad with this. Ladders work like no-gravity areas where you can move almost freely: you can move off a ladder a bit and still hang on... You can also grab onto and climb girders, climbing up and even shimmying across them, and you can, with small difficulty, climb from the bottom of a girder to the side, and then onto the top! Jumping towards a ladder near-instantly halts your momentum, and can be a life-saver when you're falling to your death but notice a ladder next to you. You can also look anywhere and shoot while climbing ladders.
** This troper made he's character reload his rocket launcher using both his hands and climb the ladder backwards all while going the same speed.

* Similar to the ''HalfLife'' example, in ''{{Halo}}'', Master Chief and the Arbiter run up ladders, not climb them. Which means not only can you climb and shoot, you can let go and climb back up, so long as your character's looking up.
** The developers realized the inherent silliness of this trope, but have no real way of fixing the ladders without breaking the pace. Solution? They've replaced practically every ladder in the game with gravity lifts.
*** The ladders make a reappearance in the ''Halo 3'' campaign.
* 1-up lacks visible arms. In the ''HomestarRunner'' game ''Stinkoman 20X6'', he can still climb laders. Stinkoman himself has no fingers, yet he can do the same thing.
** 1-up actually climbs ladders slower than stinkoman, because he's hauling himself up WITH HIS TEETH.

* In ''CommanderKeen 4'' and later in the series, firehouse poles feature as ladders. Keen can arrest a fall instantly by grabbing a pole, and also alternate jumping and grabbing to move up faster than simple climbing.
* Similar to the ''CommanderKeen'' example, due to using the same engine, ''BioMenace'' allows you to hold down up and repeatedly hit jump to climb ladders really fast. Some players nickname this "ladder flying".
* In ''LaTale'', ladders can be grabbed while jumping or falling. Due to a graphical glitch, the character's hands and feet never quite line up with the rungs, either.

* In ''MetalGearSolid 3'', Naked Snake has to climb a [[MemeticMutation looooooooooooooooooooooooong]][[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24yIQD3k8wc 1]] ladder. The only exhaustion experienced is on the part of the player.
** Though the climb may well eat into your rations.
* ''{{God of War}}'' features a few ladders which Kratos either jumps up five rungs at a time or slides down the arms. However, the real fun comes when Kratos climbs masonry or cliff faces. Using his blades as pitons, he stabs the wall the direction he wishes to go when going slow or takes giant leaps between wall sections, stabbing the wall with both blades when he gets there. To top it off, he can also still attack enemies with his blades, and even grab them and throw them off the wall.
** God of War II ups the ante by letting Kratos also climb the ''ceiling''. Not only can he still attack, but he can also catch an enemy with one blade while hanging on to the other, pull it towards him, and smash it into the ceiling several times while sticking to the ceiling like glue.

* LegacyOfTheWizard, where it was a matter of course just to jump up all those zillions of long ladders you face, since it's faster than just pressing Up.
* In the original FarCry, you couldn't use weapons on ladders, but the controls on the ladder are relative to how you got on the ladder. So it was possible to go down a ladder facing away from it, which also made it possible to run ''off'' the ladder to varying degrees of pain or death depending from how high you fell off.
* The guards in ''{{Thief}}: Deadly Shadows'' are completely incapable of dealing with ladders. If you ascend one, any guards chasing you will stand at the bottom, shaking their fists at you and shouting "[[WhatAnIdiot How did you get up there?]]". Unless they're armed with a bow, in which case you're in ([[AnnoyingArrows minor]]) trouble.

* ''CommandAndConquer: Renegade'' averts this: When you climb a ladder, the game switches to third person and you can't use your weapons.
* Averted in ''GrandTheftAuto 4'': the gun goes away, and you climb the ladder slowly (though you can speed it up by pressing A).
** However, it should be noted that Niko simply slides down ladders - even on the ladder of a 200ft tall construction crane, which should rightly burn his hands clean off.

* The recent ''TombRaider'' games have pretty good LadderPhysics, probably because the game's about 80% LeParkour and 20% gunplay.
** The original games also have relatively realistic LadderPhysics, although graphic limitations meant that Lara generally climbed on flat surfaces and therefore did not always hold on the "rung" aspects of the textures.

* ''GearsOfWar'' averts this trope in the most baddass way possible. Players climb ladders with one arm, leaping from rung to rung with pull-ups, and climb down ladders by leaping off the top, grabbing the ladder half way down to slow their fall and flip back upright, then drop the rest of the way to the ground. You can't do anything else during these scripted climbing sequences, but since ladders are extremely rare, never very long and you climb them ridiculously fast it doesn't really matter.
* ''{{Gothic}}'' ladders tend to interrupt long falls safely but otherwise behave correctly. Your character can't do anything but climb or let go while on the ladder and getting hurt while climbing will knock him off of it for good.
* ''GodHand'' has a few ladders sprinkled throughout the game, but Gene never actually climbs them, he instead just jumps up and down to where they begin and end.
** Which makes it annoying when you want to reach a platform with an enemy on, such as a watchtower. You climb all the way up, and just when your head clears the platform, he shoots you and you drop.

* ''MirrorsEdge'' noticeably restricts your ability to turn and look while climbing a ladder. Also, while you can still grab a ladder while falling, it will do a fair bit of damage, and it is possible to die by falling onto a ladder from high enough.

* Oh, dear sweet ''DonkeyKong''. You're quite vulnerable to a barrel to the brainpan if you forget to finish climbing not only the ladder, but getting up once you're on the higher platform. And no grabbing the ladder as you run by and jump, either. Granted, you've also got the broken ladders hanging out (tho they may just be missing rungs).
* Ladders aren't subject to many unusual movement styles in the ''SmackdownVsRaw'' games, or the earlier Smackdown ones. Aside from being OK to dive off them onto someone and being able to walk away, or being able to smash someone with it and have the victim be able to walk away.
** [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief Which isn't that hard to believe]] [[ProfessionalWrestling when you consider what those games are licensed on]].
* Ladders and climbable surfaces in general are treated very much like ''Tomb Raider'', above, in the 3D ''[[TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]]'' games.
** There are some really long ladders can take an annoyingly long time to climb, especially in ''Ocarina of Time''. ''Twilight Princess'' speeds Link up a bit.

* The ''RatchetAndClank'' series has the "jump up the ladder" variant.
* Though ostensibly a bug rather than a deliberate aversion, the original ''Game/MegaMan'' deserves a mention for making your one-armed hero fall off of a ladder whenever the game is paused.
** Also deserving of mention: in the first two games of the series, attaching Rock/Mega Man to a ladder reversed his direction (so if facing right when initiating a climb on a latter, the character would face left when reaching the top, when reaching the bottom or when jumping off. This can make for an amusing effect if the ladder is just above ground level, but still reachable when standing on the ground (one such ladder exists in Elec Man's stage): hold "down" and Mega Man will continually switch direction rapidly.
** In ''MegaManX 2'' and ''X3'', X uses both arms to fire a charged shot once upgraded. Which means falling off any ladders you might be holding on to.
* Averted in ''DirgeOfCerberus''; the player cannot take any actions while on a ladder, both arms and legs are required, and there is no automatic climbing, although being a third-person shooter, the camera can be rotated almost all the way around Vincent.
* In ''FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesTheCrystalBearers'', you climb ladders without even touching them, instead using Layle's powers to pull yourself up to the top of the ladder instantly, making you wonder why you can only do this when a ladder is present.
* ''FinalFantasyXI'' avoids this in a rather nasty manner. In the few places where ladders can be found, the player is treated to short-but-too-long Resident Evil style animation of a ladder being ascended and stared at, while their character position remains unchanged at the base until the animation ends, and groups of aggressive monsters that see through invisibility effects wander around behind them.

* ''[[{{Myst}} Uru]]'' had fairly realistic ladders - it's a puzzle adventure, not an FPS - though with the obnoxious tendency to shunt you into third-person when you get on or off. There's also the quirk that, to avoid making multiple "climbing" animations, all the rungs on all the ladders in ''every universe'' are the same distance apart - even the ones you improvised by breaking a rope bridge.

* ''ShadowComplex'' averts this by treating ladders fairly realistically. You can climb ladders as normal, you can climb them quickly up to the limits of your stamina (which quickly increases as you level), you can slide down them (friction burns are ignored, but later on you get armor, so then it's okay), shoot from them by holding on to the ladder with one hand (but you're not climbing up or down while you do this, and it takes a moment as you stop and pull out your firearm and put it away, and this doesn't address the issues of recoil while holding an AK-47 with one hand), ''reload'' with one hand (again, you're stuck on the ladder in one spot while you reload, with a lead-in and lead-out time), and once you get the jet pack, you can even slide ''up'' the ladder. Which looks kind of awesome.

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** This effect could also be used to the player's advantage. When "glued" to the stairs, Goddamned [[GoddamnedBats Medusas]] could reduce player's health, but couldn't make him fall for his doom.

* In the original FarCry, you couldn't use weapons on ladders, but the controls on the ladder are reletive to how you got on the ladder. So it was possible to go down a ladder facing away from it, which also made it possible to run ''off'' the ladder to varying degrees of pain or death depending from how high you fell off.

** Also deserving of mention: in the first two games of the series, attaching Rock/Mega Man to a ladder reversed his direction (so if facing right when initiating a climb on a latter, the character would face left when reaching the top, when reaching the bottom or when jumping off. This can make for an amusing effect if the ladder is just above ground level, but still reachable when standing on the ground (one such ladder exists in Elec Man's stage): hold "down" and MegaMan will continually switch direction rapidly.

* Though ostensibly a bug rather than a deliberate aversion, the original ''MegaMan'' deserves a mention for making your one-armed hero fall off of a ladder whenever the game is paused.
** Also deserving of mention: in the first two games of the series, attaching Rock/MegaMan to a ladder reversed his direction (so if facing right when initiating a climb on a latter, the character would face left when reaching the top, when reaching the bottom or when jumping off. This can make for an amusing effect if the ladder is just above ground level, but still reachable when standing on the ground (one such ladder exists in Elec Man's stage): hold "down" and MegaMan will continually switch direction rapidly.
** In ''{{Megaman X}}2'' and ''X3'', X uses both arms to fire a charged shot once upgraded. Which means falling off any ladders you might be holding on to.
* Averted in ''DirgeOfCerberus: FinalFantasyVII''; the player cannot take any actions while on a ladder, both arms and legs are required, and there is no automatic climbing, although being a third-person shooter, the camera can be rotated almost all the way around Vincent.
* In ''FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles: TheCrystalBearers'', you climb ladders without even touching them, instead using Layle's powers to pull yourself up to the top of the ladder instantly, making you wonder why you can only do this when a ladder is present.

* ''{{La-Mulana}}'' has very frustrating ladders: while you can use your weapons (main weapons, at least) while on ladders, you have to start climbing them from the bottom or the top; you can't jump or even ''walk'' onto the middle of ladders. Taking any hit while on a ladder, usually from [[CollisionDamage colliding]] with GoddamnedBats, sends you falling to the bottom.

This works against you as well, as it's commonly believed that ladders are among the most prevalent causes of death in first-person shooter games. The primary reason for this is that getting on and off a ladder in many [=FPSs=] is automatic: if you're touching the ladder and walking in the proper direction, you'll get on or off and climb. The problem with this being that it's very easy to slide off the sides or walk backward off the front to your doom. It also makes getting onto the top of a ladder something of a crapshoot, since it seems no two developers ever come up with the same solution; you might have to walk as if stepping off whereupon you'll automatically turn around and grab on as you start falling, step backwards off the ledge and use [[JumpPhysics air control]] to grab the ladder on the way down, hit the use key...even when you're on it, climbing is a risky business and working out what 'climb down' is can result in death. For example, pressing 'back' (because forward is ''up'' the ladder, surely!) will make you leap backwards off the ladder to your doom, because the devs thought it made more sense to use crouch and jump as the climbing keys.