History Main / RealIsBrown

* ''Film/ManOfSteel'': In a deviation from the ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' and comic book aesthetics in general, the film went with a more stylized and desaturated look. It had grey oceans, pale blue artic, sun-baked Kansas, obsidian black alien environments and the Superman costume a very dark blue. Considering director Creator/ZackSnyder's filmography featuring more vibrant ColorWash this was a deliberate stylization to make the world feel natural and lived-in and, in turn, make Superman feel unusual but still a part of that world.

* ''VideoGame/DarakuTenshiTheFallenAngels'' also employs a uniquely desaturated look that reflects it's dystopian atmosphere.
* ''[[VideoGame/GuiltyGear Guilty Gear: The Missing Link]]'' looks notably washed-out palette-wise compared to the future installments in it's series.

* ''VideoGame/GrimmsNotes'' has it's battle sprites (and a few artworks) drawn with brown outlines and applied with a brownish filter, accidentaly making them look somewhat unpolished. Most affected characters are those whose color palettes are supposed to be completely white, ending up looking dirty in battle. Even the AnimatedAdaptation went with this trope.

* ''VideoGame/Satisfactory'' applies location-based color filters, such as a purple filter for the purple-heavy Southern Forest, a blue filter for the Blue Crater, a desaturated filter for the Swamp, or an extra saturated filter for the Long Beach.

* Largely averted in ''VideoGame/SeriousSam 2''. There are only few chapters with brownish color scheme (Planet Kleer). Also averted on one hand in the first game. You can change the setting of blood from default [[color:red:red]] to [[color:green:green]] to [[color:yellow:h]][[color:Cyan:i]][[color:Fuchsia:p]][[color:pink:p]][[color:orange:i]][[color:lime:e]]... and yet majority of the environment was sandy brown. It ''did'' take place in Egypt, after all.

* On their default graphics settings, ''[[VideoGame/SeriousSamTheFirstEncounter Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/SeriousSamTheSecondEncounter The Second Encounter]]'' both look far more washed out than the original versions. Thankfully, the game has a variety of graphic filters to choose from, with "Vivid" being the closest to the original games in terms of color. ''VideoGame/SeriousSamBFE3'' has a similar saturation setting, but is overall much more grey and yellow than the first two, with the graphical slider going all the way to legitimate greyscale. The vivid setting doesn't make it like its predecessors (''VideoGame/SeriousSamII'', for instance, is a very colorful game), but does make it more vibrant than other games on this list.

* On their default graphics settings, ''VideoGame/SeriousSam HD: The First Encounter'' and ''The Second Encounter'' both look far more washed out than the original versions. Thankfully, the game has a variety of graphic filters to choose from, with "Vivid" being the closest to the original games in terms of color. ''Serious Sam 3'' has a similar saturation setting, but is overall much more grey and yellow than the first two, with the graphical slider going all the way to legitimate greyscale. The vivid setting doesn't make it like its predecessors (''Serious Sam 2'', for instance, is a very colorful game), but does make it more vibrant than other games on this list.

** ''Killzone 2'' runs the gamut of colors with this, earlier levels are a dank sickly green color with mixtures of yellow thrown in while the later ones run a mixture of brown orange and towards the end an almost blood red, though in all fairness you ARE on another planet known for its very harsh conditions In a subversion, the sky above the clouds is nice and clear.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsofthePatriots'' gives most of the game beige or gray colors in most of the cutscenes.

See [[http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/PhilippeRinguetteAngrignon/20090606/1708/Why_quotNextGen_Gamesquot_Went_Gray_Brown_And_Grey.php here]] for further info.

* Mocked on ''Series/TheBoys'' when they're filming Queen Maeve's movie and everything has [[https://i.imgur.com/81imxc1.png an almost sickly brown tone]] to it. As soon as the director cuts, it abruptly [[https://i.imgur.com/VLiRsZD.png goes back to normal colors]] and you get to see what the environment ''actually'' looks like.

Giving a game a narrow color palette can make it look [[SlidingScaleOfShinyVersusGritty gritty, dramatic and "realistic"]] and stand out from similar titles. Done well enough, a game and its color scheme will always be associated with each other. In practice, this means a world of [[brown:brown]], grey, and the occasional red (y'know, from the [[LudicrousGibs blood splatter]] [[PaintingTheMedium on the camera]]).

Giving a game a narrow color palette can make it look [[SlidingScaleOfShinyVersusGritty gritty, dramatic and "realistic"]] and stand out from similar titles. Done well enough, a game and its color scheme will always be associated with each other. In practice, this means a world of brown, grey, and the occasional red (y'know, from the [[LudicrousGibs blood splatter]] [[PaintingTheMedium on the camera]]).

* ''Videogame/GhostRecon Advanced Warfighter'' is one of this, and it's one of the earliest examples of "Mexico is Brown". It also make use of OrangeBlueContrast, where the overlay and HUD of the high-tech GHOST optical gadget clashes with the world that is almost entirely covered in shades of brown.

* ''VideoGame/TombRaider: Anniversary'' is noted for its greys and browns (particularly in Egypt) compared to the bright colors of the original. It makes sense considering most of the areas have been subject to hundreds if not thousands of years of weathering, dirt, and dust.

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'': Sure, the game in itself is about painting the arena, but the sheer level of defiance this game has against duller colors makes one think that wanting to avert this particular trope may have inspired the game somewhat.

* ''{{WebAnimation/RWBY}}'''s costume design for new characters, once CerebusSyndrome hit the show, often have the recurring shade of dark browns and dark greens to reflect just how serious the show has become.

->''"I'm sure with the benefit of hindsight we can all agree ''Videogame/{{Quake|I}}'' wasn't exactly easy on the eye. Which was your favourite ''Quake'' level? The brown castle, the greenish brown temple, or the other brown castle? [[VideoGame/CliveBarkersJericho Jericho]] shows us exactly how far we've come with the levels being, in order: brown ruins, more brown ruins, brown castle, more brown castle, and revenge of the brown castle."''

* ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore 4'' is an extremely gray and brown game. It's very jarring compared to the old installments, which were vibrant, almost technicolor-y in parts. Frustratingly, the environments seem to have a bleaching effect, so that bright red mech you just made is going to look just as gray as everything else. Its sequel, 4 Answer, is still pretty brown/gray, but it improves the shading noticeably to avoid the weird, faded out ghost effect of 4. Compare [[http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/extra/GAMES/large/armoredcore3ps2_006-large.jpg 3]] with [[http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/774/774497/armored-core-4-20070320053521838-000.jpg 4]]. Even the interface is bleached out.

* Being a cyberpunk game, ''Videogame/EYEDivineCybermancy'' relies heavily on Real Is Brown in many of its levels. Some levels swap out the palette for Real is Green or Real is Blue.

* ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank Ratchet: Deadlocked]]'', in chasing after the comparatively grittier ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series, has a decidedly more monochromatic and flatter colour palette to many of its levels, and less saturation overall. While there are many levels that ''aren't'' brown, they tend to be some shade of green, blue or grey instead. As noted in the Parody listings, however, [[SelfDeprecation the change wasn't lost on the developers]].

** Lampshaded by Three Dog in [[VideoGame/{{Fallout3}} the third game]] when telling his listeners about the Oasis:

** Averted by ''Videogame/Fallout4'', which uses a realistic shading not unlike ''Videogame/GrandTheftAutoV''. The brief Pre-War sequences in Fallout 4 further emphasize the colorful cars and clothes.

* The Gun Frontier project games, including ''Videogame/MetalBlack'', did a muted color pallete to allow pseudo-realistic sprites.
* The ShootEmUp ''VideoGame/BattleGaregga'' does this for the scenery ''and'' the bullets, which can lead to many WTF-inducing deaths. The Danish, Chinese, Sega Saturn, and ''Rev.2016'' versions have a feature that turns some of these bullets into brightly colored, easier-to-see bullets (not unlike many BulletHell shooters, such as the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series).

* Compare the colors in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon]]'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS to those of the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe three]] ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones games]] released on [[UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance its predecessor]]. Everything is notably duller in the next-gen game.

* ''Videogame/SaintsRow2''. However averted in the next three games.

* ''Videogame/MafiaIII'' sort of justifies this as it takes place in New Orleans in TheSixties and it sorta tries to emulate old TV shows or films.

* The ''Comicbook/FlexMentallo'' hardcover collection changed the day-glo colors of the original miniseries into Real Is Brown. (Note, for example, the bright-pink moon city, which is now medium gray.)

* {{WebAnimation/RWBY}}'s costume design for new characters, once CerebusSyndrome hit the show, often have the recurring shade of dark browns and dark greens to reflect just how serious the show has become.

* ''Videogame/DeepRockGalactic'' exploits its utterly unreal setting to avert this trope. Rather than having one general brownish palette for all, every biome has its own ''individual'' defining color, which helps to give each its own identity. The closest to brown would be the Sandblasted Corridors, which are utterly dry, desertic and sandy and thus earn their yellowish-brown palette.

* Parodied but not quite in ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank Ratchet: Deadlocked]]''. One of the "cheats" is called Super Bloom, and sure enough, everything is really really bright. As noted above, however, it isn't completely averted.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'', there exists a town called Happy Happy, home to a cult whose members believe everything is to be painted blue. So the town -as expected- uses a palette of only blue or blue-related colors. When the cultists change their ways the town takes up a more natural look.
* Completely inverted in ''Videogame/{{Fable}}'', which features extremely lush, painterly, stunningly beautiful scenery ablaze with colors that are just as totally unrealistic as the next-gen brown tint.

* ''Videogame/{{Splatoon}}'': Sure, the game in itself is about painting the arena, but the sheer level of defiance this game has against duller colors makes one think that wanting to avert this particular trope may have inspired the game somewhat.

* While the resort and jungle in ''Videogame/DeadIsland'' are very colorful and lush, the slums are overwhelmingly brown and grey.
* Averted in ''Videogame/JustCause2''. All the colors are vivid, lush, and the colors are so convincingly reminiscent of real-life tropical locales. Even the mandatory desert stage is a vivid hue of yellow instead of gray, contrasting brightly with the blue skies (except when it rains).
* Parodied by ''Videogame/{{Minecraft}}''. In April Fools 2013, Mojang released a joke update called Minecraft 2.0 with lots of stupid features which basically made fun of community suggestions. One of the features was a filter called Super HD Graphics. It didn't change the resolution of the game at all, it just made everything look really brown by desaturating the graphics.

* A ''ComicStrip/HsuAndChan'' comic that poked fun at shooters like VideoGame/{{Killzone}} and ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' included this inspiring line

* The UsefulNotes/{{Emulat|ion}}or Gens GS had a special release dubbed "[=S2HD=]", ostensibly to give the best [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 Sonic 2]] HD experience ever. So can you guess what the "HD Realism" feature does? (Why yes, it turns one of the most fondly-remembered brightly-colored games in history a drab brown!) Also included is a LensFlare filter, ridiculously high system requirements (Gens itself has very low system requirements), and [[PoesLaw a number of questions raised by a few who may or may not have understood the point]].

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** Any zone that's got a predominantly "evil" presence is like this. The Plaguelands (green/brown), the areas around Blackrock Mountain (red), Darkshore (Grey), Felwood (green), Duskwood (grey), Hellfire Peninsula (orange), Shadowmoon Valley (nigh-radioactive green), and most recently, Icecrown (washed-out blue).

* A good portion (minus the above examples) of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. Nearly every indoor location has a huge contrast of colors, simply based on proximity to light sources(torches, lanterns, etc.). In addition, they seem to be avoiding this more with recent content--most of Northrend is strikingly colorful. The only exception is Icecrown.

* Parodied by ''Videogame/{{Minecraft}}''. In April Fools 2013, Mojang released a joke update called Minecraft 2.0 with lots of stupid features which basically made fun of community suggestions. One of the features was a filter called [[AwesomeMcCoolName Super HD Graphics]]. It didn't change the resolution of the game at all, it just made everything look really brown by desaturating the graphics.

* While the ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' series has traditionally avoided this trope like the plague, a few of the tracks in ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' have a strangely subdued, low-contrast palette. This is particularly notable in the [[NostalgiaLevel Retro]] tracks, when you compare both versions and notice just how much brighter the old versions are (compare Piranha Plant Slide from ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' to its appearance in ''8'', for instance). There are still plenty of courses with the familiar bright colors of past Mario Kart games, though, and the tracks are generally much better at distinguishing what amount of less saturated colors is ''actually'' realistic than some other examples on this page.

*** The island of Vvardenfell, the game's setting within the province of Morrowind, is more than 60% an ashy, [[LethalLavaLand volcanic wasteland]] owing to [[ChekhovsVolcano Red Mountain]], the massive, active volcano at its center (and the 2nd tallest mountain overall in Tamriel). Naturally, this leads to a ''lot'' of brown and gray in the game's color scheme. Even the plant life in the "greener" areas of the game are still often dull in color, leading to a washed-out appearance.

*** The titular realm in the ''Shivering Isles'' expansion both plays it straight and averts it: the setting's map includes the bright and cheery "Mania" and the dark and depressing "Dementia".
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' drops much of the bright colors of its predecessor. It takes place in Tamriel's [[GrimUpNorth far northern]] province of Skyrim, which is largely snow and tundra. Like ''Morrowind'', even the greener areas tend toward a darker and duller colors. The [[UpdatedRerelease remastered edition]] of the game for [=PS4=] and Xbox One is also considerably brighter in many locations.