Highly Conspicuous Uniform / Video Games

• Azure Striker Gunvolt Series
  • The Sumeragi mooks are rather guilty of this; wearing bright-colored uniforms coded for each weapon they're issued with - ironically, those armed with homing missiles are the ones with the most sensible color scheme. Justified as they are corporate soldiers, rather than military servicemen.
  • Eden Pawns are a subdued example as their uniforms are appropriate for the terrain they are operating in, only the pawns armed with chain-mines and submachine guns wear yellow and red respectively and, even then, the latter are only encountered inside their headquarters (helped that some of them are equipped with an optic camouflage that make them ideal at setting up ambushes and infiltration).
  • Half of the mooks from ATEMS wear colorful uniforms, with the basic troops being the most blatant. The other half subverts it, by sporting a practical color scheme that would be suitable for their respective terrain.
• All the Empires in PlanetSide are guilty of this. The Terran Republic has bright black and red uniforms◊, the Vanu Sovereignty has shiny purple and green◊ armor, and the New Conglomerate has neon yellow and blue◊.
  • The sequel makes the default uniforms darker with most uniforms being largely grey fatigues/spandex with faction-colored bodyarmor sections, but players can return to the old silliness with camouflage being a cosmetic that players can buy, to varying degrees of trueness to the definition of camouflage; "Tech" is shiny chrome, and the Valentines Day "Loyal Hearts" camo is a iridescent faction colored camo that is so bright it can be seen from a mile away. You can then further augment your high-visibility camo by wearing the glow-in-the-dark Hard Light cosmetic armor and activating the Lumifiber cosmetic on your vehicles.
• In Knights of the Old Republic I & II, soldiers of the Old Republic got to battle wearing bright red combatsuits, and the Mandalorians seem to like wearing armor in nearly every color of the rainbow. But both are easily topped by the Sith Troopers and their shining silver uniforms.
• In Haze, the Mantel soldiers all wear helmets and shoulderpads that glow luminous yellow, with the rest of their armor being dark grey or black. The helmets and shoulderpads also flash red when the user takes damage. In reality, those helmets would only serve as massive targets for their enemies, especially since they'd flash whenever they hit their marks.
• The dull grey armour in Gears of War would be good for blending in with one's surroundings if not for the colour-coded lights on it.
• Justified in Xenonauts. As noted in the xenopedia since the color spectrum of the aliens is likely vastly diffrent from humans, camoflauge patterns and their development would likely be just a huge waste of time and money thus the research department decided to use simple blue jumpsuits to make recognising friendlies easier.
• Halo:
  • Getting The IWHBYD Skull in Halo 3 creates a chance of a Grunt making fun of the Master Chief's shiny armor. Of course, said Grunt is most likely to be in orange, red or white armor.
  • Other Spartans seem to enjoy bright blues and oranges, among many other colors. And that's not just in multiplayer deathmatches either.
  • In general, the Covenant races wear bright-colored armor which becomes ever more ornate as they advance in rank, with Brute War Chieftains and Elite Field Marshals wearing particularly fancy helmets into battle. On the other hand, many of the Covenant forces can cloak (even if it took them a while to figure out how to also cloak those big glowing energy swords of theirs).
• Half-Life:
  • In the original game, HECU marines are equipped with (among other things) Urban Camouflage BDU, black combat vests with green shoulders, and occasionally helmets with either the Urban Camouflage^note on the original models or M81 Woodland Camouflage^note on the HD and Opposing Force models pattern or a red beret for squad leaders, even though US Marines don't wear berets. These color schemes, which blend poorly with the game's desert environments, were a conscious choice by the developers in order for the HECU to be more visible to players, especially on the lower-resolution monitors of the time.
  • Also played straight with the Black Ops. Both the female assassins in the base game and the male grunts in the expansion pack Half-Life: Opposing Force wear conspicuous black outfits regardless of where they are deployed, though the former also benefits from an invisibility cloak if you're playing on Hard difficulty. This is lampshaded in the web series Shephard's Mind.
  • The Combine Elites in Half-Life 2 wear bright white armor, probably to emulate Imperial Stormtroopers. They also have a glowing red lens on their helmets.
• Almost everyone in Evil Genius wear brightly colored uniforms. Your neon yellow workers and the orange military minions are particularly obvious. Enemy spies and agents also come in full dress uniforms, some of them more glaring than others. The game itself is a parody on Spy Fiction movies and series, particularly James Bond.
  • Averted with the social minions, whose goal is distracting enemy agents, making them think the island is just a tourist hotspot. The valets are dressed as bellhops (despite performing all hotel functions), while spindoctors, diplomats, and playboys wear suits (albeit with bright-colored jackets).
  • One mission involves the island being invaded by several groups of Mooks in orange jumpsuits. They're, basically, the worker minions of your rival, minus the hard hats.
• Mass Effect:
  • Justified according to the prequel novel Mass Effect: Revelation in that there's no real point to actually wearing camouflage anyway. If you're wearing anything even remotely modern, the only way to hide yourself from enemy sensors is to use a full-on Invisibility Cloak system, because everyone's armor is outfitted with sensors able to pick you out. Your enemies will see you regardless of whether you're wearing dull camouflage or bright blue and yellow-painted gear. For this reason, suits with Tron Lines are commonplace, especially among mercenaries; if you can't hide you might as well be visible and intimidating.
  • Phoenix-series armor from Mass Effect is white and pink. White and pink. One of the (female) party members starts the game with it, but you can give it to anyone. Krogan in pink is hilarious. A few others, particularly the ones designed by Devlon Industries, are highly visible outfits. Then again, the Phoenix series is apparently designed for medics, and the Devlon series of armor is designed for construction and utility work in high-risk areas, so it makes sense that they wouldn't be camouflaged.
  • All three of the major mercenary groups in Mass Effect 2 wear obvious uniforms, with the Blue Suns wearing, well, bright blue and white armor, the Eclipse wearing yellow and black armor, and the Blood Pack wearing bright red. The latter being justified as the krogan don't hide from their enemies.
  • Thanks to the armor customization in Mass Effect 2, it's possible to send Commander Shepard into action wearing bright pink. Yahtzee commented on this in his review of the game.
  • Cerberus dresses its soldiers in highly conspicuous white and gold uniforms with clearly visible logos of the organization, in spite of their status as a covert black-ops terrorist group, and the fact that just being a member warrants a prison sentence in Citadel space.
• In Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, GDI soldiers wear bright yellow uniforms/armor. Nod troopers wear black and red. Note that in the original game, their respective faction colors were tan and black. Or rather, it was gold and red (just as in Sun), but it was far less prominent on their things, and the cinematics indicated that even that was an exaggeration^note the framing explanation for how you are commanding your troops means it'd make sense for forces to be marked with faction colours more prominently than they actually are in reality — makes identification quicker, and since it isn't real it doesn't impact camouflage.
• The Marines of Doom wear quite sensible fatigues, but their body armour comes in Day-Glo Lime Green and Peacock Blue.
• In Quake III: Arena, you can select from a wide variety of dull brown, gray, and orange skins, though this still does not make them invisible in front of brown, gray, and orange backgrounds. However, there are always some players who pick the bright red or blue team-deathmatch skins all the time. If you are presented with multiple targets, they are the ones you aim at first.
• The villainous teams in the Pokémon games, while not militant per say, do tend to wear very noticeable uniforms for criminal organizations.
  • Team Rocket tend to wear black uniforms with a big red R on the chest, probably the most inconspicuous; then again, they're probably the most well-known organization in the country they're in, so they'd still be noticed.
  • Team Aqua wear blue and white pirate-like uniforms, Team Magma wear gray and red hooded uniforms, but these two tend to show themselves in public the least out of the villainous teams.
  • Team Galactic are rather well-known and wear typical "space-traveler" uniforms, gray and blue and really make no effort to hide themselves (they've got extremely villainous buildings just standing there in the middle of goddamn cities) and are mostly ignored due to Apathetic Citizens.
  • Team Plasma also make no effort to hide themselves and dress almost like knights, but they are trying to be known in order to convert people to their goals.
  • Team Flare wear very conspicuous bright red suits and style their hair like flames, but this may be intentional as quite a few citizens in the game think they're just some sort of exclusive fashion club as a result.
• When you dress as the enemy in Space Quest, your uniform has a helmet, but none of the guards on the Deltaur are wearing helmets.
• In Halo: Reach, Rainbow Six: Vegas, and every other multiplayer FPS with a character creator, most players are normally dressed in gaudy and brightly-colored fatigues and armor.
  • Though Call of Duty: Black Ops prevents you from meddling with the actual uniform, there's nothing to stop you from slapping orange-and-black tiger stripes on your gun, putting a bright pink emblem on it, and then wearing blue face paint.
  • Actually invoked in a commercial for Halo 4, where a trio of players in various shades of neon were laughing it up, saying how you had to make your armor "pop" so that the poor schmuck you just killed knew just who it was that was now tea-bagging you. Then the pre-order special rock-texture camouflaged player walks out from right next to them (having gone unseen the whole time) and takes all three out before any of them knew what happened. "Pop".
• In Blacklight: Retribution nearly every single soldier wears the same dull grey fatigues, which normally would be great for camouflage in an urban environment...if it wasn't for the bright neon lights all over your body including hands, torso and a particularly helpful pair on the standard helmet indicating the best spot for a headshot.
• In Team Fortress 2, every class's uniform is brightly-colored around the torso, to draw attention to the weapon they're wielding and to make aiming at them easier.
• In Alpha Protocol, the secret organization G22 fields field operatives wearing bright red jumpsuits and a very distinctive helmet with glowing night-vision goggles. Given that their modus operandi is supposed to be maximum subtlety and stealth, it's a little jarring.
• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has a significant portion of gameplay revolving around camouflage, and most characters wear sensible fatigues. The Boss, however, wears a highly conspicuous white uniform. Which proves to be excellent camouflage in her final battle in a field of white flowers.
• Star Trek Online
  • Until season 9, armor visuals were in bright, often shiny colors, with bright red for tactical officers, orange or yellow for engineers, and blue for science officers. However, you can turn armor visuals off, and it's quite possible to customize the uniform underneath to more subdued shades. Armor visuals were made part of the tailor in season 9, allowing for much more variety.
  • Klingon players tend to avert it, as their color palette lends itself more to earth tones and, barring some of the reputation system armors, they didn't get armor visuals (ostensibly because their uniform is itself armor).
  • While Romulan Imperial (NPC) uniforms continue to be quite conspicuous, Romulan Republic (player faction) uniforms are colored a yellowish khaki with gray trim by default.
  • Post-season 9, Cryptic put out an official uniform code based around the "Odyssey" style, with more subdued colors, and changed all the Starfleet NPCs over. Most officers' service (shipboard) uniforms are black with a color stripe, although flag officers get silver or gold braid and commanding officers get white shoulders, while enlisted service uniforms are in gray with colored shoulders. Tactical (field) uniforms are mostly in gray.
• While Sands of Destruction only introduces us to two members of the World Annihilation Front (your Token Evil Teammate and Love Interest, Morte, and the leader of the Front, Lacertus Rex), and we aren't even told if they have a uniform, Morte's outfit is hot pink. Gameplay and Story Integration has her personal outfits equipped with the trait "War Paint", which makes the enemy more likely to target her. As her stats don't lend her to being a tank (she can dish hits, but can't take them), this means she's likely to die in combat. A lot - luckily Kyrie gets a revive move. Their opponents, the World Salvation Committee, wear pale blue and white uniforms in a world that's largely desert (including the ocean). The one place their uniforms might provide some camouflage, the Winter Isle, is the one place you'll never encounter them.
• The Galician uniform in Valkyria Chronicles is a blue with red and white stripes design, although the colors aren't as bright as some examples. Special mention for the Bullseye Badge goes to Alicia. Her baker's scarf may be a nice symbol of the life she fights to defend, but in the mean time she's wearing a bright red piece of cloth on her head.
  • Played with in Valkyria Chronicles 4. The Ranger Corps. wear a much more sensible dirt-brown uniform, which is about the best camouflage one could expect in the setting. That falls apart when they end up in the snow, but then they have bigger problems than just being spotted. They eventually get insulated uniforms, with appropriate camo, and even the tank gets a lick of paint to blend in better.
  • Both games have medics wearing bright pink. The fourth game clarifies they're noncombatants and want everyone to know it. It does become a problem in Chapter 13 when a sniper is deliberately targetting medics in violation of the treaty.
• Splatoon has an interesting case, as players' hair/tentacles and ink are colored bright neon hues that contrasts with the environments of the game. However, the game's main objective is to paint as much of the stage in this same color. Since you can swim in ink of your own color, in addition to allowing for better mobility, areas painted with your ink provide some degree of camouflage.
• In Disco Elysium, going by the old war veteran René Arnoux, who is Still Wearing the Old Colors, it appears this was very much the case with the old royal army of Revachol. How else can a bright blue jacket with canary yellow markings and an accompanying pair of almost fluorescent orange riding-pants be described? René even acknowledges that taking it into combat during the Civil War might have looked and felt glorious, but it proved amazingly impractical against the rebelling Communists, who in contrast blended much better in in urban envioments due to wearing black and grey fatigues, and the royalist forces suffered for it over the course the war.
• Ravenfield has the Eagle and Raven factions wearing bright blue and red respectively. Even in the Spec Ops gamemode your small squad is still dressed in bright blue/red, albeit with some extra black gear on top of their normal uniform. The game features downloadable skins so you can dress up your army in more practical uniforms for the environment but they have no effect on the enemy's ability to spot you.
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine being set in the same universe as the table top game, naturally plays with this trope the same way. Captain Titus and the Ultramarines play it straight with their power armor being bright blue with gold trim and heraldry. Lieutenant Mira and the Imperial Guard avert it by wearing the standard olive-drab flak armor of Cadian regiments.
• Elden Ring: The Lordsworn soldiers and knights all wear brightly colored tabards & often decorated helms. In this case, it's for much the same reason historical soldiers did; there were six Lordsworn factions fighting in the Shattering, and they all wore similar armor types, so the distinctive colors kept friendly fire to a minimum. The only faction to avert it were the Mt. Gelmir troops, whose color was black.
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind:
  • The lower ranks in the Imperial Legion wear fairly standard metallic chain and plate armor in darker colors. Higher ranks, however, get into the gold/tan "Templar" armor with bright red accents, the gaudy Imperial Silver armor, and finally the legendary, enchanted (causing it to glow) Lord's Mail typically worn by the highest ranking member in the land.
  • Bouyant Armigers are the Tribunal Temple's elite force, with their members hand-picked by Physical God Vivec himself. Despite operating in desolate areas such as Molag Amur and inside Red Mountain, their very best tend to wear bright green, iridescent, spiky glass armor that really stands out.
• The People's Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps in the tactical shooter Squad wear a naval blue camouflage that makes them highly visible. Hilariously, it comes in two variants: "desert" and "woodland", the only change is the camouflage of the body armor, the rest is still the same. And yes, this is a case of Aluminum Christmas Trees, PLA Marines really do wear those blue-camouflage uniforms since they are supposed to garison small islands in the South China Sea and (probably) do amphibious assaults straight unto urban areas in Taiwan.