Best Invisible Walls In Video Games – GameRant

There’s nothing more annoying in a game than cruising across a vast open world, enjoying the sights, and completing quests, only to then crash into an invisible wall. Developers use invisible walls to contain the player in the world that they have created, ensuring that gamers don’t go out of bounds and enter areas they’re not supposed to. The name comes from the fact that, traditionally, these sorts of blockades couldn’t be seen with the naked eye, meaning that players would literally be boxed in by something that didn’t seem to exist physically.

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However, in recent years, developers have started to find more creative ways to make these walls seem a little more natural and fun so that they don’t end up breaking the player’s immersion. They can definitely be irritating, but when the developer is self-aware of these boundaries, it means they can play around with them so that they are a bit more forgivable, as is demonstrated with these popular examples below.

7 Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

The Terrifying Lurker Shark Will Make Sure Players Don’t Get Any Ideas About Going Out Of Bounds

Much of the first Jak & Daxter game takes place on a remote tropical island, so, of course, there’s always the temptation to jump into the glistening sea to try and swim out as far as possible. If players try to do this though, they’ll initially be met with a basic invisible wall that prevents them from moving forward, but if they persist in trying and get past the barrier, a Lurker Shark will slowly swim towards Jak, warning gamers to move back unless they want to become shark food.

This is a clever way to warn players about trying to get out-of-bounds. Since the shark itself is so terrifying, it means no one will ever dare to try and escape the island ever again upon seeing it for the first time. Using a creature to keep players on the map also makes the wall seem more natural and immersive, and it would go on to be replicated in other games such as Grand Theft Auto 5, where a shark can also appear to snack on players if they stray too far.

6 Sunset Overdrive

The Invisible Wall Actually Relates To The Wider Context Of The Story

Most people who play games are familiar with what invisible walls are and why they are in place, but Sunset Overdrive makes this more apparent than ever by literally spelling it out for the player. This isn’t just some sort of sick joke though, as these tangible barriers have been put in place by the Fizzco company in order to contain the mutant outbreak that they themselves started in the first place.

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As a result, it actually feeds into the story and even shows up in a cutscene where it comes across as a genuinely terrifying sight since there’s no way to get past it and no indication as to how far the wall stretches since it can’t usually be seen. Luckily, Sunset Overdrive still features a massive open-world for players to explore, but if they do start to get a little too adventurous and run into a barrier, the game will let them know about it.

5 Family Guy Video Game!

The Mime’s Invisible Barrier Keeps Players From Venturing Out Too Far

• Release Date: October 3, 2006
• Platforms: PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox
• Developer: High Voltage
• Genres: Fighting, Action-Adventure

Family Guy is often known for parodying popular TV shows and movies, but in Family Guy Video Game!, it also pokes fun at some of the sillier aspects of video game design, including invisible walls. Near the beginning of the story, when players assume control of Peter, they will be tasked with running across the street while taking out any bad guys who appear along the way, but if they decide to turn the other way, they’ll be met with a pleasant surprise.

Even though there’s a long stretch of road that can be seen, players will be stopped in their tracks by an invisible wall that has seemingly been created by a mime. That’s right, a mime, who can be seen pressing his hands up against the “wall” that exists to stop Peter in his tracks. This has to be one of the funniest ways a developer has ever tried to justify an invisible wall in a game, and nothing less would be expected from a series as absurd as Family Guy.

4 Assassin’s Creed

Uses The Animus’ Fragile Infrastructure To Explain Its Invisible Walls

Because the Assassin’s Creed games technically take place in the Animus as opposed to the real world, it means that Ubisoft can get quite meta with some of their more game-like systems and mechanics. For example, loading screens in the Assassin’s Creed games are presented as Desmond tapping into his ancestral memories as his mind fuses with the Animus. This also means Ubisoft can get away with using invisible walls since they are directly linked to the Animus and its infrastructure.

If players make the attempt to venture outside the map, they will be met with a warning signal that says the Animus is beginning to destabilize. The screen will start glitching out, and a literal barrier will appear as if the Animus is struggling to register anything beyond that point of the map. This is a genius way to keep the player inside the playable area while also making sense in the context of the world.

3 Far Cry 6

Bumping Into The Invisible Wall Will Trigger An Amusing Secret Cutscene

The Far Cry games have never shied away from including obscure secret cutscenes for players to discover. Usually, these can occur when the player makes an odd decision during a pivotal moment of the story, but in the case of Far Cry 6, players can impact the story by bumping into the invisible wall. By hopping on a boat and traveling as far away from the island of Yara as possible, players will be met with a special cutscene as soon as they make contact with the wall.

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The scene shows Dani relaxing on a beach while listening to the radio, which reveals that the resistance forces in Yara have been completely wiped out by Castillo and his ruthless army of soldiers. The fact Ubisoft went through the effort of making an entire sequence rather than simply including a basic invisible barrier caught a lot of people by surprise when they first saw it, and it’s remarkable how they managed to integrate such a basic video game design concept into the story itself.

2 SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom

A Live Hand Will Carry SpongeBob Back To The Map If He Strays Too Far Off The Beaten Path

Battle for Bikini Bottom is often touted as being one of the best SpongeBob games ever made, and a big reason why it’s received such praise is because of how much freedom it offers players in terms of its world. Alongside completing missions and speaking to NPCs, SpongeBob is also free to wander around Bikini Bottom at his own leisure, so long as he doesn’t go too far, that is.

Fans of the Spongebob SquarePants TV show will be well aware that it often likes to use live-action images and clips in some of its jokes, and developers Heavy Iron decided to incorporate this gag into the game in the form of an invisible wall. Any time the player ventures a little too far outside the world map, a real-life hand will swoop SpongeBob up and drop him back at the closest checkpoint. There’s no doubt invisible walls can be a real annoyance, but when there’s one as creative as this, it’s hard not to love it.

1 Motocross Madness

The Invisible Slingshot Will Fling Players Back To The Center Of The Map Without Any Warning

• Release Date: August 14, 1998
• Platform: PC
• Developer: Rainbow Studios
• Genres: Racing, Simulation

Motocross Madness might just have the most bizarre invisible wall ever seen in a video game. Though the game features a big sandy arena for players to cruise around in, the map seems to be limitless at first glance since there are no buildings or walls boxing the player in. As a result, most players will ride their bike as far as it can go, but upon reaching a certain point, the game will launch them into the air and right back into the center of the map.

There’s no explanation as to why this happens and no indication of what actually causes the character to be propelled into the clouds, but it’s still hilarious to watch, especially with the cartoon bomb sound effect that plays in the background. In fact, it can be a lot of fun trying to see how high up the racer can go by driving into the invisible wall at full speed. It almost feels like the developers intended for players to toy around with it when they decided to put it in.

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