History Main / BleakLevel

** The first three strata of the original game are beautiful woodscapes. The fourth stratum is a barren, sandy land where [[spoiler:you have to kill a bunch of [[TheFairFolk Forest Folk]]]], but at least it's still nothing really out of the ordinary. Then comes the fifth stratum and you find [[spoiler:the ruins of Shinjuku, establishing that the game's fantasy setting actually takes place after the end of a modern Earth]].
** The fifth stratum in ''Legends of the Titan'', the Forgotten Capital. It is located in the renmants of [[spoiler:the Yggdrasil after its demise]], and hinted to be one of the extinct major cities of modern Earth. It has only one floor, but it makes up for it by featuring an unsettling atmosphere and a cramped layout, making it stand out from the relatively cheery previous dungeons (which, additionally, have to be revisited in order to start exploring this place). Interestingly, it doesn't have a boss (the opponent at the end, the Cursed Prince, is a MiniBoss), but completing it leads to the reveal of the FinalBoss, [[spoiler:Heavenbringer (the personified form of the Yggdrasil)]], who awaits in the Cloudy Stronghold. The BonusDungeon (Hall of Darkness) is even scarier, but at least it's to be expected due to it being an AbandonedLaboratory, so the impact factor isn't as big.

* ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarePantsBattleForBikiniBottom'' has Rock Bottom, which is every bit as creepy as it was in the show. There's also the [[DerelictGraveyard Flying Dutchman's Graveyard]], which is even worse.

* ''VideoGame/RabiRibi'' somehow manages this with the Warp Destination (aka [[spoiler: the real world]].) There's color to be found, but most of it is just shades of grey, and the whole thing feels...off. The music suddenly gets [[https://youtu.be/VX6CH_kSLMc more serious than normal]], there are actual [[LadyLand male characters for once]] (and they're all [[spoiler: creepy otaku who stalk and take pictures of Erina because of her PlayboyBunny outfit]],) there's no magic to be found anywhere aside from [[spoiler: Noah and the clones of Erina and Ribbon she sics on her]], and even Ribbon finds it oppressive due to the lack of nature. [[spoiler: And when you finally find Miru, it's in a RoomFullOfCrazy, and the resulting boss fight has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fWZtcBP6Mc one of the most sinister themes in the game.]]]]

** If you go for the [[KillEmAll No Mercy route]], you slowly turn ''the entire game'' into one gigantic bleak level. All the trademark wackiness is slowly drained from the game as the player murders all the goofy enemy encounters to extinction, the save points where the protagonist is filled with determination through strange, innocuous things around them are simply replaced with the number of enemy encounters left and then a flat "Determination" once you've wiped them all out, the colorful [=NPCs=] are almost completely absent and even the various puzzles are already solved once you get to them, as everyone is running like hell to get away from the genocidal psycho. Even the music becomes slowed down to the point of creepiness, and you get a special, equally-creepy song through the entire region once you've cleared it out. [[spoiler: By the end of the game, the First Child erases the entire world from existence, leaving nothing but a black, windswept void until you offer your soul to them in exchange for restoring everything.]]

* Mag Mell is an odd example in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles''. A town instead of a dungeon, it nonetheless has some [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAh5-pmz3gM very unsettling music]] and is blanketed in fog and seemingly uninhabited when you first get there. If you revisit it enough times, though, you find out it's actually inhabited by hibernating carbuncles, who turn out to be not all that bad when they finally wake up. A more traditional example is Tida, a town who's caravan never returned home, and is now a miasma and monster-infested DungeonTown.

* ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions'':
** The ''VideoGame/Portal2'' levels and Adventure World, while being a bit more light-hearted than the source material, are still set in a massive, decaying underground enrichment center, completely devoid of life outside of [=GLaDOS=], Wheatley, the turrets, and Cave Johnson's pre-recorded messages. And also the [[AscendedExtra Mantis Men]].
** The game's main story has "A [[Franchise/DoctorWho Dalek]]-table Adventure", which has the main trio journey through a run-down facility filled with Cybermen, Weeping Angels, and, of course, Daleks, all of which are portrayed faithfully (for the most part).

* The ''VideoGame/Portal2'' levels and Adventure World in ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions'', while being a bit more light-hearted than the source material, are still set in a massive, decaying underground enrichment center, completely devoid of life outside of [=GLaDOS=], Wheatley, the turrets, and Cave Johnson's pre-recorded messages. And also the [[AscendedExtra Mantis Men]].

You're playing a video game that so far has been good fun--perhaps not all sunshine and light, but still, fairly safe. The story is interesting and everything's going well. Then...things get a little drearier. The color scheme turns drab, the music plays in a minor key, the creatures seem fearful -- [[NothingIsScarier if they're there at all]].

* The ''VideoGame/{{Portal2}}'' levels and Adventure World in ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions'', while being a bit more light-hearted than the source material, are still set in a massive, decaying underground enrichment center, completely devoid of life outside of [=GLaDOS=], Wheatley, the turrets, and Cave Johnson's pre-recorded messages. And also the [[AscendedExtra Mantis Men]].
** The game's main story has "A [[Franchise/DoctorWho Dalek]]-table Adventure", which has the main trio journey through a run-down facility filled with Cybermen, Weeping Angels, and, of course, Daleks, all of which are portrayed faithfully (for the most part).

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': The Baaj Ruins, the first area where Tidus wakes up in Spira. There are no RandomEncounters (just a fixed unwinnable fight), but there's a perpetual storm raging outside, and the ruins itself is abandoned and derelict, giving Tidus an atmosphere of loneliness.
%%(ZCE)** Mushroom Rock Road, post-Sin attack.

* ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario''
** [[PlanetHeck The Underwhere]], despite its rather silly name, is far from pleasant. The place takes many cues from the Greek interpretation of the underworld, complete with its own version of the River Styx (a pink lake filled with disembodied hands called "River Twygz", complete with utterly terrifying gibbering in place of BackgroundMusic) and [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of Hades, Charon, and the Fates. The way Mario and friends initially get there is by being outright ''assassinated'' by Dimentio, who very cruelly averts NoSneakAttacks. Fortunately, most of the locals are pretty friendly, and a ''VideoGame/DragonQuest''-style RPG battle against a Cerberus {{Expy}} lightens the mood significantly.
** Sammer's Kingdom, after [[spoiler:[[AfterTheEnd it's destroyed]] by the world being swallowed by darkness. There's little BackgroundMusic, and everything is [[WhiteVoidRoom a blank white]], with the only thing breaking up the monotony of the background being the occasional fragments of buildings, reduced to outlines. Presumably, this would be the fate of every world that falls to the Void]]. It gets better, but it's incredibly depressing while it lasts.
* ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash'' has [[spoiler:Black Bowser's Castle]]. While Prism Island is divided into sectors, themed on one of the colors of the rainbow with Port Prisma representing the entire visible light spectrum, this locaton and its associated locations have their color scheme based around black, and have a more serious tone than the rest of the game, with [[spoiler:Mario stopping a bomb factory that could coat the entire world in toxic black paint]].

* Though ''Videogame/HalfLife2'' is already quite bleak, the titular town of the chapter "We Don't Go To Ravenholm..." takes it UpToEleven.

** The "Villi People" level from ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim 2'', in addition to being [[MindScrew bizarre]] and [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext inexplicable]] [[UpToEleven even by Earthworm Jim standards,]] is also pretty dang depressing, what with revolving around navigating a giant intestinal tract while somber classical music plays in the background.

* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996'': The [[TempleOfDoom temple levels]] "Temple Ruins" and "Jaws Of Darkness", taking place in abandoned, dark temples, where the only lumination are the lit fire torches in the background, filled with smashing traps, and accompanied with a foreboding, spooky soundtrack.

** Special note should be made to [[LoveInterest Amy Rose's]] section. Set in [[DeathMountain White]] [[RemilitarizedZone Acropolis]], the stage is made colder and bleaker with Solaris' distortion. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s457A6gAEtQ music for this section,]] [[VariableMix which is actually a section of a bigger track that encompasses all seven characters' sections]] completely breaks down into nothing more than a OneWomanWail backed up by OminousLatinChanting. When [[spoiler:Sonic's death was revealed to everyone]] Amy was [[DespairEventHorizon the one who took it the hardest]] and you can just hear her pain and determination to [[spoiler:save Sonic's life]] in the music.

%%(ZCE)* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'''s final level, the Cave of the Past.

** ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'' has the Evil Spirit Club labyrinth, a pitch-black, eerie abandoned school/hospital that resembles something out of a SurvivalHorror game. Compounded with two truly horrifying-looking [[BeefGate FOEs]] native to that level (which respectively resemble an aborted baby and an old-looking doll), one portion of the level involves the party's [[NeutralFemale non-combatant]], Rei, going out into a [[PrimalFear large, pitch-black room in order to find several keys to free the rest of the party]]. This also doubles as a major case of MoodWhiplash, as the previous dungeon had soothing music, cutesy romantic decor, and a hilarious RomanceSidequest. While the next dungeon, the Inaba Pride Exhibit, isn't remotely bleak (its inspired by Japanese festivals, for one thing), its boss floor certainly ''is.'' All of the vibrant colors that made up the dungeon are gone, it is abandoned and dark, and a very somber reprise of the dungeon's theme serves as the BGM.

* ''VideoGame/MineCraft'' has The End, a parallel dimension of pale stone islands in an unsettling void populated by [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos alien horrors]]. A slight change of tone for a game primarily known for being about punching trees and building statues out of brightly colored wool.

* ''VideoGame/FuturamaTheGame'' has [[SinisterSubway the Subway]]. To put it into context, the level before this took place in the sewers of New New York, and true to the show, the whole place has a campy horror vibe, being filled with [[GrimyWater glowing green waste]], cartoony mutants as enemies, and [[SewerGator alligators]], plus a very funky soundtrack. But then when you reach the ruined subway, everything turns [[RealIsBrown drab and brown]], the enemies are sinister-looking [[DisasterScavengers post-apocalyptic scavengers]] in [[GasMaskMooks gas masks]], and the music [[NothingIsScarier is completely gone]] -- replaced by an unsettling ambience which includes ''distant screaming''. The whole place seems more at home in a ''{{VideoGame/Fallout}}'' game than a ''Futurama'' game, and the weird thing is that it's the ''third level''. No other level later in the game comes even close to being this bleak, not even Old New York, which immediately follows it, or [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon MOM's HQ]] at the very end.

** On the True Pacifist route, you'll explore [[spoiler:the True Lab]]. It's dark, dilapidated, abandoned, and filled with hordes of [[spoiler:scientific abominations]] that employ copious InterfaceScrew and can't be attacked. It contains numerous {{Apocalyptic Log}}s that display horrible accidents. The area's battle music also sounds very similar to [[VideoGame/EarthBound the Cave of the Past]], another bleak, depressing, and scary area. Note that this area [[MoodWhiplash comes shortly after a lighthearted extended cutscene where you help two characters try to get together]].

* Attic Adventure, in ''VideoGame/TheCatInTheHat'', is a [[BigBoosHaunt haunted attic]] that's notably creepy compared to the off-kilter whimsy of the previous levels.
* The [[TempleOfDoom temple levels]] "Temple Ruins" and "Jaws Of Darkness" in ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996'' (as well as its ''N. Sane Trilogy'' remake), taking place in abandoned, dark temples, where the only lumination are the lit fire torches in the background, filled with smashing traps, and accompanied with a foreboding, spooky soundtrack.

* Some of the caverns in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'', especially when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcklfVCEAcg "Life In the Mines"]] is playing.
* [[BigBoosHaunt Gloomy]] [[TheLostWoods Gulch]] in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'' definitely lives up to its name. Crocodile Isle is not a friendly place in general, but Gloomy Gulch stands out as a dark and barren region high up on the mountain, surrounded by dead forests. Cementing this is the world's theme song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYyMNXM8Kgg Forest Interlude,]] which is much more downbeat and moody compared to the rest of the game's soundtrack.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Eversion}}'', the fourth eversion level turns the scenery gray and the enemies stop moving. Subsequent eversion levels only get nastier and darker, going from gray to brown to blood-red to practically pitch-black. And you ''will'' scream, even if you know about [[spoiler:THE HAND]].
* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}: The Game'' has [[SinisterSubway the Subway]]. To put it into context, the level before this took place in the sewers of New New York, and true to the show, the whole place has a campy horror vibe, being filled with [[GrimyWater glowing green waste]], cartoony mutants as enemies, and [[SewerGator alligators]], plus a very funky soundtrack. But then when you reach the ruined subway, everything turns [[RealIsBrown drab and brown]], the enemies are sinister-looking [[DisasterScavengers post-apocalyptic scavengers]] in [[GasMaskMooks gas masks]], and the music [[NothingIsScarier is completely gone]] -- replaced by an unsettling ambience which includes ''distant screaming''. The whole place seems more at home in a ''{{VideoGame/Fallout}}'' game than a ''Futurama'' game, and the weird thing is that it's the ''third level''. No other level later in the game comes even close to being this bleak, not even Old New York, which immediately follows it, or [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon MOM's HQ]] at the very end.

** The [[spoiler: [[AbandonedLaboratory Snakemouth Lab]] is a dilapidated area full of innocent bugs who were experimented on and turned into {{Parasite Zombie}}s.]]

* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' has the Dead Sea, a city where [[TimeCrash time is essentially broken]]. It's every bit as eerie as it sounds.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'''s final level, the Cave of the Past.

* While ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' [[AfterTheEnd isn't]] [[ScavengerWorld the brightest]] picture of humanity, the underlying themes are hope and rebuilding; [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking even the color palette is happier than its predecessors.]] Then you go to the Glowing Sea, a haunted wasteland where the bomb meant for Boston actually hit. After 210 years, the ambient fallout is still lethal.[[note]]At least according to Doctor Amari. in-game it's a measly few rads per second and can be out-healed via Radaway and Rad-X.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'':
** The Baaj Ruins, the first area where Tidus wakes up in Spira. There are no RandomEncounters (just a fixed unwinnable fight), but there's a perpetual storm raging outside, and the ruins itself is abandoned and derelict, giving Tidus an atmosphere of loneliness.
** Mushroom Rock Road, post-Sin attack.

* ''Videogame/FinalFantasyXIII'' has [[spoiler:the ruined, [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Cie'th]]-infested village of Oerba.]]
* Meanwhile, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' (pictured above) has [[spoiler:A Dying World and New Bodhum, both in 700AF.]]

*** Joke's End. In a game that takes place in the Beanbean Kingdom, whose culture in large part revolves around humor and which features regions with laughter-themed names like "Chucklehuck Woods" and "Teehee Valley", in come this bleak [[SlippySlideyIceWorld icy level]] that is specifically stated to be a graveyard for bad jokes featuring some rather sinister music.

** In ''[[VideoGame/UnchartedDrakesFortune Drake's Fortune]]'', after getting to the German bunker, [[spoiler:zombie-like creatures show up]]. It doesn't help that they don't appear in a obvious pattern, making the scene (along with the slow music and the darkness) not only bleak but difficult.

* ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'': Mission 11, "The Inferno", involves the Allied Forces [[ObligatoryWarCrimeScene indiscriminately bombing the Belkan industrial city of Hoffnung and setting it ablaze, killing scores of Belkans including civilians]]. Then retreating Belkan troops implement a scorched-earth policy and set fire to their own city's buildings. Even the mission's music sounds like a dark reprise of the upbeat music that plays during the liberation of Ustio's capital earlier in the game. The horrors of the bombing lead to [[spoiler: Pixy's FaceHeelTurn and eventual defection to A World With No Boundaries.]]

** Thunder Plains is an entire plain of grey, dreary darkness, only [[[[Pun]] lightened up]] by the constant lightning strikes that make it such an unhospitable wasteland. However, all this is offset by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ax45TprB4A this]] adorable soundtrack.

** Thunder Plains is an entire plain of grey, dreary darkness, only [[IncrediblyLamePun lightened up]] by the constant lightning strikes that make it such an unhospitable wasteland. However, all this is offset by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ax45TprB4A this]] adorable soundtrack.

** Zanarkand itself, which is when the story catches up to its flashback-telling and the entire party is shown to have become resigned to the upcoming fate of Yuna. Zanarkand is nothing but ruins upon ruins, night doesn't end anymore and the area is filled with Pyreflies, which let the player see memory upon memory of previous summoners and guardians making it to this place. And as [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic amazing]] as the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xRCjjiTR7I background music]] may be for this area, it's still melancholic. And then the background music changes to a much more subdued and very low note, with barely any music playing inside the Zanarkand Dome itself.

** The most disturbing may be [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep the Keyblade Graveyard.]] While in the other two games, the main character and his two friends accompany him, this game features every main character entering it completely alone. [[DeathWorld It is a vast desert without any sort of life]] lined with thousands [[InferredHolocaust if not millions of ownerless magical swords.]] This is definitely helped by the demented piano music that serves at the world's background music.

*** Po Town. A dark and rainy town, Po Town is taken over by Team Skull and is surrounded by white walls, [[spoiler:presumably supplied by the Aether Foundation.]] Its background music is somber and sounds more fitting for an abandoned mansion, and it's where you get to see what Team Skull is ''really'' like.

** [[PlanetHeck The Underwhere]], despite its rather silly name, is far from pleasant. The place takes many cues from the Greek interpretation of the underworld, complete with its own version of the River Styx (a pink lake filled with disembodied hands called "River Twygz", complete with utterly terrifying gibbering in place of background music) and [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of Hades, Charon, and the Fates. The way Mario and friends initially get there is by being outright ''assassinated'' by Dimentio, who very cruelly averts NoSneakAttacks. Fortunately, most of the locals are pretty friendly, and a ''VideoGame/DragonQuest''-style RPG battle against a Cerberus {{Expy}} lightens the mood significantly.
** Sammer's Kingdom, after [[spoiler:[[AfterTheEnd it's destroyed]] by the world being swallowed by darkness. There's little background music, and everything is [[WhiteVoidRoom a blank white]], with the only thing breaking up the monotony of the background being the occasional fragments of buildings, reduced to outlines. Presumably, this would be the fate of every world that falls to the Void]]. It gets better, but it's incredibly depressing while it lasts.

** New Home is colored in stark whites and grays and almost completely empty, aside from an eerie reproduction of Toriel's house and some [=NPCs=] who appear in "random encounters" to regale you with [[spoiler: the tragic backstory of Asgore and his family.]] At first there's no background music, but then "Undertale", a touching symphonic remix of the game's opening theme "Once Upon a Time", starts playing...