How dark do you like dark places/times of day to be in video games?

[StaceyPowers]

Do you like realistic levels of darkness in video games, or do you prefer higher levels of visibility?

I was actually quite surprised to discover I like my Skyrim modded for dark nights quite a bit more than when I could see everything in the vanilla game.

[m76]

Night levels that are designed as such are OK, but in games that have day and night cycle I absolutely despise the night. I despise darkness in real life too. Except for sleeping. I quickly loose my orientation and awareness of my surroundings in the dark.

 

Edited February 25, 2022 by m76

[Kane99]

When it comes to certain games, I can't do super dark, because I also need to be able to see where the hell I am going. So many horror games make it too dark, and sometimes you just have to turn the brightness up just to see where you're going. 

Games like the new RE series are doing it good, because they have impressive lighting to make up for the darkness. But some games you really do need to up the brightness just to see what's going on. 

[Heatman]

If you want to have it being realistic, then it should be as it's supposed to be in peach black in the night as it is in real time. I don't like dark settings except for horror games. 

[Head_Hunter]

Video games should follow-up real world time, when the time is late, the weather meanwhile have to change to night, it should gradually roll into night, when happens to be at the day time, then, it should be bright. 

[Withywarlock]

I think it varies from game to game. I've been loving Hell Let Loose lately but I would abhor playing that in total darkness; I've only recently adjusted my eyes to seeing enemies as little pips in the distance (hitting them's another matter entirely). And yet I love World of Warcraft's Inky Black Potion (see below). Most of the time I like darkness to be pitch-black, on the proviso there's a reasonable means of tackling it (being able to craft/buy torches, lanterns of different kinds, light spells, and so forth). Don't get me started on what was and wasn't the old D&D games' 'infravision'.

7 hours ago, Head_Hunter said:

Video games should follow-up real world time, when the time is late, the weather meanwhile have to change to night, it should gradually roll into night, when happens to be at the day time, then, it should be bright. 

The problem with that comes when you can only play at certain times of the day, or your climate dictates that the game gets brighter/darker earlier/later. This was one of the major debates that took place in World of Warcraft: how dark should the world be? There were few arguments against darker nights, but that was mainly from self-confessed daylight players. To compromise, the developers added the Inky Black Potion, which would darken any sky for one hour for the imbiber.

I like IRL day-night cycles in MMOs but I wouldn't want it for any other sort of game, especially at the cost of artistic integrity. Ain't no way the symbolism of midnight in Spyro 2's Winter Tundra - a metaphor for Ripto's reign and the player's quest reaching its zenith - is going away for realism.

[Empire]

Depends how the game portrays night time. Shinobido for instance, a game about being a ninja, is completely set during the night. But it looks great. The world isnt that dark but it feels like the middle of the night. Perfect for a ninja to be ninja-ing about.

I do like to play DayZ and it does get so dark that you can't see flip all. I do like that in fact as that's cool and walking around with night verions on. 

[Darth]

I think it can depend on the type of game that you're playing. For driving games, I do prefer it if there is a realistic level of darkness during the night because it just makes it more interesting especially when you have to rely on your headlights to see in front of you. The Crew had this problem because the headlights didn't function properly so they fixed it by reducing how dark it was at night 😞

[Justin11]

I love combination of dark and day time, when the game portrays one and leaving the other out, it wouldn't look realistic enough for me. 

[Head_Hunter]

17 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

The problem with that comes when you can only play at certain times of the day, or your climate dictates that the game gets brighter/darker earlier/later. This was one of the major debates that took place in World of Warcraft: how dark should the world be? There were few arguments against darker nights, but that was mainly from self-confessed daylight players. To compromise, the developers added the Inky Black Potion, which would darken any sky for one hour for the imbiber.

I like IRL day-night cycles in MMOs but I wouldn't want it for any other sort of game, especially at the cost of artistic integrity. Ain't no way the symbolism of midnight in Spyro 2's Winter Tundra - a metaphor for Ripto's reign and the player's quest reaching its zenith - is going away for realism.

I knew such kind of climatic change in video games, gonna cause stir, I am happy that some of this video game developers, got solution to the games, and improvement it's darker nights, implement basic designs, that it should go with. 

[killamch89]

I tend to like it when it's extremely dark with a bit of visibility. It gives these areas a sense of suspense and constantly forces you to be alert.

[Patrik]

in Snowrunner in a specific map (that i forgot its name actually lol), you get a purple sky full of stars with a bit of rainbow in the night, it's unusual for a trucking game that's about extreme roads etc..

[killamch89]

On 2/25/2022 at 3:43 PM, Kane99 said:

When it comes to certain games, I can't do super dark, because I also need to be able to see where the hell I am going. So many horror games make it too dark, and sometimes you just have to turn the brightness up just to see where you're going. 

Games like the new RE series are doing it good, because they have impressive lighting to make up for the darkness. But some games you really do need to up the brightness just to see what's going on. 

I agree - I like it to be Dark in terms of hiding monsters but I at least would like to be able to see where I am going. It also annoys me when they have an annoying static camera so not only can't you see where you're going but you aren't certain if you're even aiming in the proper direction.

[Heatman]

On 4/4/2022 at 4:23 PM, killamch89 said:

I tend to like it when it's extremely dark with a bit of visibility. It gives these areas a sense of suspense and constantly forces you to be alert.

This is exactly how I love my horror games. It's the only way I can get to enjoy it while feeling all the effects used in it. 

[Justin11]

I don't enjoy video game that only displays on night mode, viewing it through clearer and smooth mode is the best.