Line #29 Main/WhoForgotTheLights


1	->''"Will somebody turn on the lights?! I can't see shit!"''
2	-->-- '''Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarskii''', ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes''
3
4	Lighting can add to the atmosphere of a game. Unfortunately, what looks dark and atmospheric on the developer's calibrated monitor just looks black on your average Joe's computer monitor. That goes double when playing during daylight, especially if the sun shines into the room.
5
6	Other causes include poor lighting code, bad shaders, not using enough light sources or not making the light sources bright enough. Sometimes the developers do it to balance out the player's InfiniteFlashlight ([[AntiFrustrationFeatures or the other way around]]).
7
8	Regardless of the cause, the game ends up too dark, forcing the user to adjust the brightness controls of the game or their monitor. Sometimes this kills the atmosphere once the view is bright enough to see what they are doing.
9
10	Note that this does not refer to games with the occasional dark area such as the flashlight-intensive third chapter in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 1''; that's BlackoutBasement. This trope is when ''the whole game'' is too dark.
11
12	Contrast HollywoodDarkness (using blue tint to emulate darkness and maintaining good visibility) and BackThatLightUp (lighting level being good or bad based not on game design, but on the hardware you're playing the game on). Also not to be confused with "Who turned out the lights?", a common [[OtherStockPhrases stock phrase]] / gag in which a character calls this out after having their head covered by a bucket or something. For the sister trope dealing with a shortage of color saturation, see RealIsBrown. In futuristic ScienceFiction games, often overlaps with TheFutureIsNoir.
13	----
14	!!Video Game examples:
15
16	[[foldercontrol]]
17
18	[[folder:Action Adventure]]
19	* ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'' does it, though it's worse on some monitors than others. Thankfully, this game came with a gamma adjustment control, which when increased improved visibility but made the moody lighting almost impossible to see. No such luck for players on the Platform/PlayStation, however. Even though you do have flares, they do not last very long. It got so bad that on Tomb Raider Forums, someone posted screenshots of a [[UrbanLegendOfZelda hoax]] nighttime version of the Croft Manor level; in reality, this was just the regular Croft Manor with the gamma turned to the bottom.
20	** The 2024 remaster of the first three games is very bad with the lightning. While the improved graphics and lightning makes the games more atmospheric, some areas are so dark to the point that people have switched to the retro graphics due to them being bright, even in places where there's no light. It's worse in the first game since, unlike the second and third games, flares don't exist.
21	* ''[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKain Soul Reaver 2]]'', especially in the BadFuture parts, and when you're underwater in a cave can be so dark that literally, all you can see is Raziel himself. Cranking up the brightness is the only way to see where you're going.
22	* Some areas in ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'' are really dark, especially the parts where you have to move through air vents. If you turn the brightness to maximum, you can see fine there, but other parts become too bright.
23	* Guides for ''Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' suggest adjusting your television's brightness, particularly in the Woodfall area. However, the rooms where this will benefit the player are small, few, and far between so most players don't bother.
24	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' always asks you to adjust your TV brightness before you start playing because of how dark the game is.
25	* ''VideoGame/FindingNemo'' suffers from excessive darkness depending on the console you play on, due to how each system handles the game's lighting engine. The general conclusion is that the Gamecube version in particular has no idea how to properly render the environment.
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder:Adventure]]
29	* ''VideoGame/{{Riven}}'' has an install screen that specifically explains that if they go making everything bright, it blows out some of the detail. So the game has you adjust your monitor to a sensible curve.
30	* ''VideoGame/LimboOfTheLost'' infamously demonstrated why adventure games should never do this; the inability to see turns even simple puzzles into a PixelHunt. The poor lighting would seem to have been caused by the game's backgrounds being ripped off from other games that were poorly lit.
31	* ''Dracula 2: The Last Sanctuary''. Solving puzzles when you can't find the components because it's so dark? Not very entertaining.
32	* Several of the ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'' games have this problem.
33	** It can be hard to find the alarm-setting button on Nancy's clock in ''White Wolf of Icicle Creek'' because of her bedroom's darkness.
34	** In ''Legend of the Crystal Skull'' you enter a room in which the only thing you can see is the door and window. There's a bed and a nightstand in it, but you only find them thanks to your cursor changing and the sound effect of opening the nightstand drawer.
35	** ''Ghost of Thornton Hall'' has a few moving shadows meant to startle the player. You can see them when playing the game on a very bright monitor, but play it on a darker one and you can't see the shadows. At all.
36	** ''Warnings at Waverly Academy'' has some problems with darkness, but only when Nancy's creeping around at night.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:First Person Shooter]]
40	* ''Franchise/{{Doom}}'':
41	** ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'': The Platform/PlayStation version deliberately has much darker lighting than the PC original, and when coupled with the eerie ambient soundtrack by Aubrey Hodges, it invokes a SurvivalHorror atmosphere.
42	** ''VideoGame/Doom64'': Many of the levels have dark rooms and corridors where the only source of light comes from dim sources (and the most common colors of choice for them, such as deep blue or bright red, aren't very helpful for the player's eyes).
43	** ''VideoGame/Doom3'' is a murky game from start to end, made worse because you can't use a gun and a flashlight at the same time[[note]]which ended up in the creation of the memetic phrase "There is no duct tape on Mars", and the Duct Tape mod[[/note]] or, in the case of the Hell level of the core game, you don't have a light at all[[labelnote:*]]being forcefully teleported [[BagOfSpilling leaves you weaponless]], and you only get the seven classic ''Doom'' weapons: pistol, chainsaw, shotgun, chaingun, rocket launcher, plasma gun and BFG -- note the flashlight is not on this list[[/labelnote]]. [[IntendedAudienceReaction It's an intentional design decision]]: you're meant to use the lights from fireballs and the eye glow of demons when fighting in dark areas, and the flashlight to navigate when it's calm. And unlike most previous games, the engine is actually capable of rendering dark areas as completely pitch black, meaning that fiddling with your brightness settings is not going to help you. Nonetheless, [[ScrappyMechanic the idea wasn't well-received]], so much so that the very first GameMod released on the internet for it (literally three days after the game's release) was "Duct Tape", that attaches lights to the shotgun and the machinegun. Creator/{{id Software}} took notice of that, and ''BFG Edition'', the first official UpdatedRerelease, simply includes a shoulder-mounted TenSecondFlashlight that dispenses [[ScrappyMechanic light-to-weapon switching]].
44	** The ''[=DarkDoomZ=]'' mod for the classic games invokes this by tweaking the light levels of the maps' sectors rather than simple brightness or gamma. The basic lighting settings range from Dim (mostly normal, a tad gloomy) to Pure (total darkness lit only by dynamic lights[[note]]standing lamps, torches/sconces/candles, explosions, fireballs, [[MuzzleFlashlight muzzle flashes]] and glowing textures[[/note]], the open sky[[note]]not even that, should you wish it[[/note]] and the InfiniteFlashlight the mod gives to the player[[note]]the mod is also compatible with other flashlight mods[[/note]]). Of course, nothing stops you from fiddling with the more advanced settings, increasing the sector light levels, and making the game ''[[InvertedTrope brighter]]''.
45	* ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'', especially the GL version. Some areas are rendered pitch black until you activate the lights or [[MuzzleFlashlight light the way with your muzzle flashes]], this being one of the first games to do it (much like ''Doom 3'', adjusting the monitor brightness won't help you). ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' also suffers from this, although to a slightly lesser extent since you're traveling through industrial alien bases and not eldritch dimensions; besides, [[RangedEmergencyWeapon the Blaster]] [[BottomlessMagazines can be fired indefinitely]] and [[MuzzleFlashlight its projectiles work decently as flares]].
46	* ''VideoGame/{{BioShock\|1}}'' borders on this in places, being set in an underwater city that's falling apart, right down to the electrical system. ''VideoGame/{{BioShock 2}}'' gives you an automatic flashlight, but you have zero control over it, and it only triggers in [[BlackoutBasement specific areas that are even darker than the first game]].
47	* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' has plenty of dark sections. Fortunately, JC has access to the Light augmentation by default, though there's the same problem as ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' in that it drains the power reserve for other more useful abilities, made worse in that Bioenergy doesn't recharge on its own. The beam can alert enemies as well, which you definitely do not want if doing a stealthy playthrough.
48	* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]'' and its sequel do this. Both games even have you calibrate your settings at the start of the game to ensure that you have just the right level of darkness. As with ''Doom 3'', some rooms are completely black, which [[TheAllSeeingAI doesn't stop the enemy from seeing you]]. The second game is the worse of the two, especially with the dimmed-down flashlight, although it's an InfiniteFlashlight as opposed to the first game's TenSecondFlashlight.
49	%%(ZCE) * ''[[VideoGame/{{Descent}} Descent Maximum]]'', as shown in a Let's Play.
50	* Dark areas in the first ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune'' has you running blind, [[GogglesDoNothing even with night vision goggles]], [[TheAllSeeingAI while the enemies can still see you]].
51	* ''VideoGame/YouAreEmpty'' goes above and beyond the call of duty by having no lighting effects to speak of.
52	* The original ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' was very dark unless you turned up the brightness, which killed the atmosphere.
53	* ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' has the light adaptation feature, which is supposed to adjust the light level in the game in a way that the human eyes adjust to changing light levels in real life. However, the feature usually causes the screen to darken in most places, making it hard to see where your enemies are shooting from. Luckily, you can turn the feature off and stick to the standard brightness settings.
54	* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'':
55	** [[WhatCouldHaveBeen At first]], the game was going to be this trope by having the game use realistic lighting and fog, but the developers canned the idea after seeing how difficult it was for players to tell where the zombies were coming from. Instead, Valve went for a downplayed HollywoodDarkness and a dense, tinted fog effect to simulate the same effects used in horror films. The solution was twofold: not only did the fog effect make the game look more like a typical horror movie, but it also created silhouettes for distant zombies, allowing players to see them and prepare for any onslaughts. The fog and lightning idea was later reused in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' in the Hard Rain level.
56	** The actual trope is only played straight in custom campaigns like ''Suicide Blitz 2'' and ''Blackout Basement''. Even then, you can't see the lights of the other survivors, which makes the games particularly dark.
57	** The GameMod "Darkness Falls" for the second game is this trope taken to its logical extreme [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools for those that don't think the game is scary enough]]. All ambient lights are heavily muted, to the point where places with lamps seem to be in the middle of a brownout and those without are ''pitch freaking black'', but the survivors' torches illuminate as normal, and in fact reach a lot farther than in vanilla. Suddenly, a gunlight on your SniperRifle is not so pointless anymore.[[labelnote:why would it be?]]Normally the light beam doesn't reach far enough to illuminate distant targets, so all it does is brighten up areas closer than the zombie you're aiming at, which distracts the shooter and throws aiming off (an effect called "backsplash").[[/labelnote]]
58	* ''Videogame/EYEDivineCybermancy'' had ''extremely'' dark levels to go hand-in-hand with its CyberPunk themes at its release, to the point where the flashlight (and sometimes [[RoboCam EYE Vision]]) had to be activated pretty much constantly. An update a few weeks after release increased the lighting brightness in most areas to be more playable.
59	* The ''Videogame/PlanetSide 2'' beta had pitch-black nights. They [[SceneryPorn looked amazing]] with [[EveryBulletIsATracer tracers flying to and fro]], but it had serious issues due to there being next to no lighting in bases at that point, and the dark color palette of the Vanu Sovereignty soldiers made them almost invisible. The game switched to HollywoodDarkness at release.
60	* ''[[Videogame/MechWarrior MechWarrior Living Legends]]'': the first release of the TSA_Clearcut map had a night-day cycle with pitch black nights. It was great for showing off [[Videogame/{{Crysis}} CryEngine's]] power with [[SceneryPorn laserbeams scything through the air and missiles raining down on the terrain]], but it made engaging [[SpacePlane Aerospace Fighters]] (black against the black sky) and the tiny [[PoweredArmor BattleArmor]] a miserable experience even with night vision enabled. It was later brightened up, though night vision and exterior lights were still required at night.
61	* ''Videogame/BlackMesa'' is consistently darker than the original ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' -- the developers made sure to demonstrate how a resonance cascade would mess up the power grid, lighting systems most of all. Gordon's suit light has [[InfiniteFlashlight unlimited]] battery power [[AntiFrustrationFeatures to compensate]].
62	* ''Videogame/DeepRockGalactic'' levels are intentionally this dark, with pitch-blackness that no amount of saturation or gamma will fix in mind. These ''are'' natural, untouched caverns you're spelunking into and that you need to illuminate yourself, after all. Every class thankfully gets flares, with the Scout getting an even more potent FlareGun for the biggest and darkest. Though some biomes ''are'' darker than others; the Sandblasted Corridors are particularly bad about this thanks to a lack of luminescent flora or minerals and the sheer size of the caverns, while the Magma Core has something of an ambient level of light because of the abundance of glowing, molten rock, even if there's a thick smoky fog to keep you blinded without flares.
63	* Most of ''VideoGame/DeathlessHyperion'' is set in a darkened, monster-infested space station, and your vision is limited to a circle illuminated by your flashlight.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:MMORPG]]
67	* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'''s high detail graphical updates have added this to the game. In dungeons, it can become very difficult to see if lighting detail, textures, and ground detail are turned on. Fortunately, turning one or all of these off makes the game much brighter.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Party Game]]
71	* ''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight'' has the "Lights Out" mode, where, alongside other restraints, the map is very foggy and darker than normal. It reflects in the in-universe perception of all player characters: survivors cannot judge the proximity of a killer based on the [[HeartbeatSoundtrack Terror Radius]], and the killer cannot see the scratch marks survivors leave behind as they run around.
72	[[/folder]]
73
74	[[folder:Platformer]]
75	%%* ''VideoGame/{{Abuse}}'', a shooter with dark graphics, does this on some, especially older, monitors.
76	* ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxterThePrecursorLegacy'', despite having a bright, kid-friendly color palette during the game's "day", becomes a world of black during the night cycles.
77	* Owing to the DarkerAndEdgier factor, ''VideoGame/EpicMickey'' can often be too dark to see properly.
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Puzzle Game]]
81	* Developers wanted to make sure that you'd play ''VideoGame/{{Limbo}}'' at night due to brightness levels being low.
82	* ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'' and ''The 11th Hour''. Both asked you to adjust your brightness to the proper level before playing.
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Role Playing Game]]
86	* There are several buildings in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' where lighting is either almost or completely nonexistent, and a few sidequests take place in them. Turning up the gamma is about the only way to see anything in these areas, and it's become a [[https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkgame/comments/px5bqt/you_know_what_cyberpunk_2077_needs_a_flashlight/ common]] [[https://forums.cdprojektred.com/index.php?threads/night-vision-or-a-flashlight.11047127/ question]] why CDPR didn't include a flashlight or some form of night vision optics which led to someone creating a [[https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/2913 flashlight mod]].
87	* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
88	** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' is an offender as its very many dark areas are almost pitch black even at the highest brightness setting. Turning on the Pip-boy lamp only brightens a tiny area and makes everything in it, such as rocks, shiny and causes lots of bloom. There are mods around that affect it both color- and reach-wise to address this issue. On the other hand, there are {{Game Mod}}s which intentionally invoke this trope, both for this and ''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas]]''.
89	** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' is, perhaps, a ''worse'' offender by virtue of the fact that it lacks a brightness setting '''at all.''' Many, many areas in the game are as dark, or darker, than those in its predecessor, but without a means of compensating beyond manually editing the game's gamma from a configuration file.
90	* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series invokes this in some areas. The games provide various means of lighting both mundane (torches, lanterns, candles, etc.) and [[FantasticLightSource fantastic]] ([[InnateNightvision Night Eye]] and [[UtilityMagic Light]] spells), with the expectation that you'll need to use it to light up the darker places in the game world.
91	* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' can have this sort of effect. Some players have complained that the [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI original game]] needed the brightness at max to be able to see in dark places like the secret place. With the brightness at normal, it is a black room. With the brightness at max, you can see the detail. ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' got similar complaints.
92	* ''VideoGame/TheMaimedGodsSaga'', a fan campaign for ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', has trouble with being too dark to see your hand in front of your face at times. Good thing your starting equipment includes a holy symbol of Tyr that can cast ''light'' an unlimited number of times.
93	* ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'' asks you to adjust the game's brightness before you begin playing, telling you to change it until you can barely see one of the dragons and clearly see the other. Most players should probably just turn it all the way to max, though, even if the instructions would put it only half as bright because nighttime will be ''pitch black'' otherwise and you'll probably end up blundering into a cyclops or something.
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder:Stealth Based Game]]
97	* The ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' series, to a ridiculous level. It's sort of the whole premise of the series. In any event, the developers were thoughtful enough to include flares in ''The Metal Age''.
98	* ''VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject'' includes in-game keys to increase or decrease gamma. Many players use these so often, that they remap the controls to the scroll wheel for ease of use.
99	* The first ''[[Franchise/TheChroniclesOfRiddick Riddick]]'' game, ''VideoGame/EscapeFromButcherBay,'' throws you into some very dark situations before Riddick receives his SuperSenses. The worst of these occurs in Pope Joe's den, where you're asked to [[FetchQuest retrieve a radio]] in a [[{{Pun}} pitch black]] [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer sewer]] while armed with a [[TenSecondFlashlight dying flashlight]]. Also, the sewer is populated with howling mutants.
100	* ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Pandora Tomorrow''. The game actually looks pretty good; too bad it's so dark that you'll almost always be playing it through the black-and-white night vision. [[StealthBasedGame The genre]] justifies it – it would be hard for a "SIGINT ninja", as Sam himself calls it, to move around the [=AOs=] in bright daylight.
101	[[/folder]]
102
103	[[folder:Survival Horror]]
104	* ''VideoGame/Perception2017'' runs on this because by default your character can't see ''anything''. This is because she's blind and relies on echolocation to get anywhere.
105	* ''VideoGame/TheSuffering'' is kind enough to let you set the brightness yourself. But since it's a horror game, it shows you a static image and tells you to make it just ''barely'' visible. The end result is dim, eerie lighting, perfect for a fright.
106	* ''Franchise/SilentHill''
107	** This happens for a little while in most games, before you locate your flashlight, and during this point, your best bet with enemies is to simply run your fool ass off.
108	** ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming'' is the worst culprit for this, having areas of the game so dark, that even with the flashlight you can barely see where you're going.
109	* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil''
110	** Many areas of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' are pitch-black or close to it, requiring you to equip the Lighter to find your way around. For about a third of the game, you won't even have that luxury.
111	** The newer ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' is a bad offender too. It is debatable if it's just an unplanned example of this trope or if it was [[FakeDifficulty intended to make the targets harder to hit]]. Then again, not even the brightness adjustment screen seems to work well.
112	* In the ''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}'' series and ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'' by Creator/FrictionalGames, most standard environments are dark, and the only static light sources you can rely on are the ones you light up yourself. The character's vision realistically adjusts to the darkness if you stay in it, and sneaking around in the gloom is vital to evade hostile monsters, though in ''Amnesia'' that also drains the player character's SanityMeter, as he's afraid of the dark. Frictional recommends you play them in a dark room both for extra fear effect and so you can see the screen without having to blow up the gamma.
113	* Even the areas with an open sky or containing flaming barrels are shrouded in absolute darkness in the ''Lasting Light'' horror GameMod for ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''. Literally, the ''only'' light source at any given time is your lantern, and juggling it is a core gameplay mechanic. [[DarknessEqualsDeath Stay in the dark too long and the Screecher will kill you]], but shine a light on the photophobic [[SavageSetpiece Creeper]] for more than a split-second and it'll destroy you; also, [[TenSecondFlashlight a full lantern runs dry in minutes]], so hunting for oil cans is a priority.
114	* In the ''Film/JuOn: Film/TheGrudge Haunted House Simulator'' shovelware game, there are absolutely no lights outside of your TenSecondFlashlight. [[DarknessEqualsDeath If it goes out from lack of battery power, you die]].
115	* ''VideoGame/{{Slender}}'' takes place in a forest at night. While the game does give you a somewhat effective flashlight, using it too much will [[TenSecondFlashlight cause the batteries]] [[OhCrap to run out]]. But believe it or not, visibility can get even ''worse'' from there - the more pages you collect, the more OminousFog, and the more Ominous Fog means more encounters from [[BigBad Slender Man]]. An official mod was released to play the game during the daytime, but it makes little difference: the game's still just as scary.
116	* ''VideoGame/Lit2009'' revolves around navigating through a school that's been taken over by monsters and darkness; [[DarknessEqualsDeath setting even one foot into the dark results in getting killed by the monsters within]], so the player must activate various light sources in the room to forge a path from entry to exit.
117	* ''Videogame/EternalDarkness: Sanity's Requiem'' relies on low visibility to build tension. Every area has an explanation for being so dark, but this falls apart in the year 2000 in HubLevel house with its working electrical lights. The player has the option of altering the game's brightness to increase visibility, at the expense of the intended atmosphere.
118	* ''VideoGame/HiddenDeep'' is set in an underground complex of mines beneath the ocean floor. Most of the facilities and tunnels close to them have good light fixtures, but they're often out of power by the time you get to them, and the farther reaches of the caves are not lit at all. The only light source you can always count on is the headlamp on the characters' helmets, which projects a blob of ambient light around the character and a long beam in the direction it's pointed, or the wide red glow and LIDAR effect of the [[AttackDrone Scan-Balls]].
119	[[/folder]]
120
121	[[folder:Third Person Shooter]]
122	* ''Conflict: Vietnam'' has a level where you're in a bunker that takes place in the evening with napalm smoke in the sky. The next level, 'Bad Moon' takes place full-on at night... And is easier to see.
123	* ''VideoGame/BulletWitch''. The ubiquitous dark areas are so black the only way you can realistically spot enemies is from their muzzle flashes. And the protagonist is not MadeOfIron or anything so waiting to get shot is a poor way of finding them. Made all the more insulting by including a "brightness adjustment screen" in the options...that can't adjust the brightness. What are they expecting, that you change your TV brightness every time you play this game?
124	* In addition to the occasional completely black rooms, the sixth-gen ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'' games suffer from this during night missions, particularly if the mission doesn't allow a flashlight or night-vision goggles. ''Dark Mirror''(no pun intended) is the worst of the bunch, as the flashlight has been nerfed to the point of being almost useless, so you'll nearly always be using your NVGs in dark areas.
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Vehicular Combat Game]]
128	* ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal: Black''. The darkness was intentional -- it is intended to convey a CrapsackWorld, but some players can't see their hand in front of their face except on the highest brightness settings.
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Wide Open Sandbox]]
132	* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' does this {{inten\|dedAudienceReaction}}tionally.
133	** As [[DarknessEqualsDeath monsters spawn at lower light levels]], the creator (Notch) wanted to encourage players not to simply blindly wander through the night or through dark tunnels and to place torches as often as possible. A side effect of this is a generally scary atmosphere, especially outside Peaceful mode. There are (glitch) instances where the lighting for various covered blocks fails to take full effect and make the space within at a light level of 0. This can be fixed by placing or removing a block next to the affected area, causing a chunk update and re-calculating the light level.
134	** The brightness setting, which was added sometime later, can avert the trope. With the brightness turned up to the max, you can still see in caves with zero light, but it's still dark enough to partially cover up whatever dangers are lurking (Moody, the setting with the least brightness, plays the trope as straight as it can be without a GameMod). You can also zig-zag the trope by drinking a Potion of Night Vision, which makes everything bright as if the sun was up, [[DevelopersForesight but has zero effect on monster spawn rates]].
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Other]]
138	* Hilariously spoofed in one ''Gamepro Magazine'' April Fool's edition. They claimed to have first-look screens of the new ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' console game, but just showed black screens (and the multiplayer had a black screen divided into four!). [[DontExplainTheJoke The joke being that Daredevil is a blind superhero]].
139	[[/folder]]
140
141
142	----
143	!!Non-videogame examples:
144
145	[[folder:Hardware]]
146	* The original design of the Platform/GameBoyAdvance had a very dark screen. The problem was made worse, at the initial release of the system, because early development units had a brighter screen than retail units, so the colors were calibrated to be darker than intended. ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon'' and the port of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' are commonly-held examples of games that are noticeably more playable on a backlit GBA SP or DS. ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' had the option to turn off sector lighting (no darkness and shadows, everything is fullbright), which was like having a permanent [[NuclearCandle Light Amplification Goggles]] powerup -- which was removed from the GBA edition for being redundant.
147	* This was once a common problem for Mac ports of PC games due to different gamma values. (As of OS X 10.6, the Mac has adopted standard Windows gamma as its default.) The [[MediaNotes/GameEngine Unreal Engine]] in particular was subject to this, due to a gamma-correction feature that only worked properly on [=PCs=]. This platform difference could even spawn a GuideDangIt: when the Mac game ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' was ported to Windows, many PC monitors were so much darker, that vital scenery objects were swallowed by darkness.
148	* Many televisions sold in stores have their contrast and brightness turned up very high so potential buyers can spot the TV from a fair distance away. Older models were set to much darker factory defaults to avoid premature burnout, which meant the screen could appear very dark until you fiddled with the settings. Since the advent of longer-lasting LED backlights, however, manufacturers have been much less cautious about these settings. Most [=TVs=] you buy now are in what graphics professionals refer to as "torch mode", with brightness, contrast, and saturation values cranked up to near maximum.
149	[[/folder]]
150
151	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
152	* The ''Series/GameOfThrones'' episode "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS8E3TheLongNight The Long Night]]" featured a battle at night, in a snowy and [[WeatherOfWar foggy]] location, with natural illumination - i.e. whatever fire could be used in a realistic manner. The original broadcast was [[https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/game-of-thrones-dark-battle-of-winterfell-cinematography-1203199892/ deemed too dark bordering on incomprehensible]], [[https://news.avclub.com/was-game-of-thrones-the-long-night-too-dark-to-see-t-1834416256 which was considered]] owing to both DemandOverload and [[https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/29/18522550/game-of-thrones-got-season-8-hbo-battle-of-winterfell-long-night-fix-tv-settings-darkness uncalibrated televisions]] downgrading the footage quality. This problem has been solved on Blu-ray, where the image quality of the episode is clearer.
153	* The natural lighting used in some scenes in ''Series/WolfHall'' drew [[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/11361855/Wolf-Hall-viewers-complain-naturally-lit-scenes-left-them-in-the-dark.html viewer complaints]].
154	* A complaint among some ''Series/TheXFiles'' fans is how dark many of the scenes are, leading to an edit of the iconic "I WANT TO BELIEVE" poster saying "I WANT TO S E E".
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Web Animation]]
158	* The webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Waterworks}}'' which features the occasional Flash animation. If there's anything happening underground, you'd better turn up your monitor brightness to the max if you want to see anything at all.
159	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / WhoForgotTheLights