Lighting is very important in video games. Good and realistic lighting is the make-or-break for the graphics of many games. As with any medium, it is important to determine the atmosphere, tone and visual style of a game. It also has important gameplay features that control what players can see.
Darkness is a useful tool for game developers, but some go too far. Specific parts of their playing are cast almost pitch black. This could be to bring a new element to the gameplay, to change the mood, or just for story reasons. As effective as darkness can be, some games use it in a way that makes certain sections unpleasant to play.
9 Hell of Doom 3 needs to be fixed specifically
Downfall 3 is intentionally a darker game than its predecessors. It is designed more in line with survival horror than the action horror of the previous two entries. To that end, the whole game is quite dark and the player cannot wield a gun and a flashlight at the same time. The Hell level goes one step further.
The player is specifically teleported there and loses his equipment. The whole area is almost black. As such, players must navigate with no light, barely able to see. The earliest mods for the game included more ways for the player to light up the world. The BFG Edition re-release specifically gave players a rechargeable shoulder-mounted light, alleviating Hell’s troubles somewhat.
8 The tomb of the giants literally has no lighting
dark souls as a whole is bleak. Only selected sections, such as Anor Londo, are well lit. The whole game is about the approaching dark, so it’s fitting. One area goes further than most players want. Late in the game, the player goes to the Tomb of the Giants. The unique gimmick of the area is that it has no light sources at all.
The whole area is pitch dark and the player can barely see around a meter. The intent of the level is for players to get one of a select number of items that illuminate the area and slowly make their way. However, the level is notoriously unpopular. Most players just sprint through it and find the fastest route through trial and error.
7 The darkness of the Heisenberg factory adds nothing
Resident Evil: VillageThe Four Lords all live in very different areas. Lady Dimitrescu lives in a castle, Donna Beneviento lives in a house and Salvatore Moreau lives in a mine. Karl Heisenberg, the last of the four gentlemen, occupies a dingy factory on one side. This factory is distinctly dark and dingy, poorly lit in many places.
However, this darkness does not add much to the atmosphere of the area. Resident Evil: Village can perfectly do horror in daylight – as can be seen in the village itself and castle Dimitrescu. It can also make very good use of the darkness, as in the Beneviento House. However, Heisenberg’s factory takes a grubby centerpiece with little effect – and only makes the search more tedious than it needs to be.
6 Cyberpunk 2077 could use a flashlight in some areas
Cyberpunk 2077 is usually a brightly lit game, befitting the exaggerated urban and technological environment. Night City is often lit up regardless of the time of day. However, the game gets darker in the more desolate areas. Certain parts of Night City have no lights, and neither do the Badlands beyond.
This turns out to be a problem at night. Visibility is greatly reduced and the player can do little. Despite the dark areas and night cycle, Cyberpunk 2077 has no ways to increase visibility. Cybernetic eyes lack night vision. There is no flashlight available. As a result, many players have complained about the sheer darkness of some areas.
5 New Mombasa streets encourage the player to use color-destroying night vision
Some games that make extensive use of darkness give the player the means to overcome them. This often solves the problem. Not so into Halo 3: ODSTwhere it just causes another. New Mombasa Streets is the central part of Halo 3: ODST. It is a quasi-open world area where players can explore and unlock each level through.
It also serves as a visually spectacular tour of New Mombasa, one of the Earth’s central cities in the Halo universe. The city is well designed. It feels like both a soaring sci-fi metropolis and an intimate, noir-esque sprawl, depending on the area. The relentless darkness of the area encourages players to use their night vision. This makes the whole city an unfortunate shade of yellow, ruining much of its excellent aesthetic.
4 Luigi’s Mansion’s Breaker Room Run Is Uncomfortably Dark
Luigi’s Mansion spoofs the survival horror genre in a number of ways, including using lighting. Ghosts in a room cause the lights to go out. This forces the player to navigate with torches until they defeat them. Towards the end of the game, this gets exaggerated when every light in the house goes out.
The player must reach the breaker room and turn the lights back on. The problem is that they have to do this in almost complete darkness. This makes navigation a challenge and causes enemies to come out of nowhere to attack. It’s one of the most stressful parts of an otherwise fairly light-hearted game.
3 The storm of Hard Rain lowers visibility
Left 4 Dead uses its light very carefully. Most levels use a well-lit path to unconsciously guide players along the correct route. Much of the game isn’t particularly dark. The developers have chosen to make the game lighter after complaints from playtesters. The hard rain campaign of Left 4 Dead 2however, uses some of their original ideas.
The first half of the campaign is normal. In the second half, the players retrace their steps, this time in an utter deluge. The storm impedes movement, but also greatly reduces visibility. The two factors together make the game much more difficult, and make hard rain an infamous campaign among players.
2 Resident Evil 5’s Mine Shaft turns darkness into an escort mission
Resident Evil 5The 2-2 level is mostly set in a giant mine shaft. Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar have to explore the area, but neither have a conventional light source. Instead, one of them has to pick up a huge lantern and use it to light their way. While using this lantern, a character cannot use weapons.
The result is an escort mission. Due to the overt darkness, the player must protect his helpless AI partner or be helpless himself. With two players it is even worse, because one player must always be helpless. The mine shaft isn’t too difficult to look into with the lantern, but the conditions make it frustrating.
1 The Gutter Reinforces Dark Souls II’s Lighting Troubles
Dark Souls II tries to use light and dark in a way that no other game in the franchise does. Pitch black areas are a staple of the game, requiring the player to use torches to light their way. These areas are among the least popular in the game. By far the least popular is the Gutter.
Not only does the Gutter use the embattled torch mechanic, but it’s also the most precarious area in the game. Players would often risk falling even if they could see. In the pitch dark or dimly lit it just becomes an exercise in boredom and frustration.
0 Comments