Color is a powerful thing. It emphasizes, defines, and adds character in ways that we rarely think about, but subconsciously pick up on. Look closely at an ad or a sign and you'll see how deliberately color is used. Colors and palettes must be chosen carefully to balance them in such a way that nothing visually clashes, but not so much that it falls flat. It can be difficult. However, I think that many (action) video game designers have decided that all they need is black, gray, and brown. Games today are grayer and browner than they have ever been since pong.
I trace this idea that gritty, action games need a muted palette is necessary to the film Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg chose the look to try and match a number of famous D-Day pictures and World War 2 footage. His use of color was restrained, but very effective. Only problem with it? It has been used ad nauseaum since. Think back about some of the bigger games in the past couple years: Gears of War 1/2, Resistance 1/2, Grand Theft Auto 4 (dlc as well), Killzone 2 (particularly bad), Fallout 3, and on and on. Yes they have color, but muted palettes.
In addition to showing the world through a unrealistic lens, I think it limits a games ability to immerse and show character. For example, imagine a shooter where you are walking through a pristine village, the sun is shining, the grass is verdant, the streets are clean. Beautiful in its own right, now imagine an artillery strike decimating everything, blackening and destroying the village in flames. I believe that would be far more of a "holy crap!" moment than a black building being destroyed by black guns, turning it into black rubble.
Obviously I am nitpicking a bit. Many actions games use color in addition to black, like Times Square in GTA 4 or the forest setting in Resistance 2. I agree that there are many instances where muted palettes are necessary to build the atmosphere. Settings that are meant to be gritty or scary need some degree of a darkness. My issue is with its abuse in action games that use it because it makes it "gritty." As a fan of color I hope to see it more in the future in my action games.
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1 responses:
Maybe the video game movement is undergoing the same sort of progression that art went through in the 20th century. After impressionism with its sort of bizarre color schemes (think 8-16 bit palates) there was realism which tried (and often succeeded) to resemble the real world color and all. The reaction to realism was futurism, cold and machine like futurism inspired things like the Fritz Lang movie Metropolis. Perhaps as the technology improved and the race for the "realist" graphics heated up the video game equivalent of realism was in vogue and a reactionary futurism has taken hold. Look at all the games you mentioned, each of them is a bleak and cold representation of a distopic future (or grittier version of New York City).
Instead of game graphics being solely influenced by the technology available, they resemble any other art form that shifts with the will of its artists and the influence of society.
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