Chromatic Colours In Gaming

Take a look around you. Go on, look.

What’s the matter? Ah, yes, the difficulty of looking around one’s self without taking your eyes off the words.

Don’t worry, we’ll get through this.

I’ve got it! Put your finger against the screen where you are going to stop reading and swing your head very quickly in a predetermined location of your own choice and then back to the screen. If done correctly, your vision will be treated to an array of your surroundings, complete with smudgy and murky filters. Or…

You can just take a look and continue reading after doing so. Perhaps I should’ve started with that…

You’ve no doubt witnessed a few different colours. While you may not actively look around and think about the colours you’re seeing at present, you’re still registering them. For example, you look to your right and see an Angry Birds plush toy. You see it; not necessarily thinking about every colour it consists of, but rather as a sole object.

Let’s look at it again thinking about all of its colours. It is mainly yellow with a light orange beak and red-like eyebrows. The angry eyes are black and white while there is a small white patch underneath the beak. Honestly, that’s not how I think when I’m looking at something, but the aspect proving to be amazing is that you do indeed see all of it without analysing it in detail. Think about it.

With that in mind, let us look at games and the colours they so tremendously assault us with.

 

Green

Not the most complicated of headings, I agree, but bear with me.

With Far Cry 3′s release last week, I started thinking. Despite the game being absolutely atrocious (atrocious = joke), it assaults your sight with breathtaking exhibits of green. Sure, there’s a lot of colours in the game, but you’ll no doubt notice the galore of green this game has to offer.

Thinking back; the first Far Cry had lots of green, as did Crysis and The Witcher 2.

The vegetation in games make way; not only for impressive visuals or set dressing, but also for interesting gameplay. Hide behind a lush, green shrub while stalking a lone guard merely following the route he’s supposed to patrol. Let him pass you and eliminate him stealthily with your knife / panga / scalpel / rainbow-patterned chainsaw without anyone realising their drop in numbers.

Green is an important colour. Do the environment and your neighbour a favour: Recycle this page once you’re finished reading.

 

Blue

BioShock.

Need I say anything else?

 

Grey

Before you get excited; this is not an excerpt from an erotic series of novels.

Now that we’ve lost half our readers by spoiling their fun, we may continue.

In gaming, the colour grey redirects the attention to the more gritty, depressive and morbid settings. Silent Hill. The Darkness. Grand Theft Auto III. Kane & Lynch. Gears of War. Hitman Contracts.

A few examples of the titles that use the colour grey to imbue a certain type of atmosphere. It gets the job done and that’s what counts.

 

Brown

What springs instantly to mind?

Far Cry 2? A large portion of military shooters? Sewer levels? Uncharted 3′s Rub’ Al Khali desert chapter? Spec-Ops: The Line?

All of those actually.

The colour brown may be a result of playing too many horror games on any given day, but I must admit to it being the one colour that genuinely makes me thirsty while playing. Linking this colour to the feeling of hopelessness is not much of an exaggeration. Uncharted 3′s desert sequence and Spec-Ops being prime and worthy examples.

“Bring the 5 litre bottle of water over here, would you kindly, I’m about to play Spec-Ops.”

 

White

Squeaky clean and accompanied by a wide variety of vibrant colours. Clouds forming overhead as our protagonist makes their way through wilderness teeming with peril.

The colour white may be quickly remembered from Mirror’s Edge and Portal.

I remember playing Portal 2 and getting all excited when I found a desperately needed piece of white wall, that will in some way help me escape the menacing, but oh, so hilarious GlaDOS.

Witnessing the colour white in a game: priceless. Witnessing the colour white and only white on and the answer sheet of an exam: not so much.

 

Black

Don’t say it! Your mind is about to be read by a screen. You’re either thinking of stealth or horror, am I right?

Horror movies and horror games always seem to have a LOT of darkness. A ghost in the middle of the day on the sidewalk may not be as scary as a ghost at night peering out behind a door in the middle of a forest with a set of gleaming fangs and red luminescent eyes. Don’t you agree? (What is a lone door doing in the middle of the forest?)

DOOM 3 took the concept of darkness and made it such a large part of the game; I cannot imagine a DOOM 3 without every corner being lit by the worst technicians. Darkness is a must for horror games.

Stealth doesn’t necessarily need to take place in the darkness, but the darkness doesn’t hurt when you’re the sneaky guy wielding a super sharp knife. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory taught me the true value of the shadows.

 

Red

Yes, it’s the colour that quenches the thirst of every gamer out there with a lust for violence. Be it corrupt corporate cretins, zombies, terrorists, aliens or innocent civilians that doesn’t force you to restart the checkpoint when killing them; you’re sure to be satisfied with all the red covering the screen.

Do you feel the need to pound the living drivel out of a treacherous acquaintance, bully or plain asshole without appearing in court or indeed prison? Be sure to pick up the latest gore-fest today!

 

ALL the Colours

Once in a while you stumble across a game where you’re able to see the developers taking acid during the development process. Prime example: Rayman Origins.

Filled with all types of awesome, silliness and fun; Rayman Origins’ visuals will have your mouth hanging open with excitement. So many colours. You’ll be in love.

 

Conclusion

On a planet filled with insurmountable amounts and combinations of colours, the possibilities are endless. Perhaps the next Call of Duty title will have pink assault rifles and orange sniper rifles that need to be reloaded with a yellow plastic turkey. We can only hope that this will be the case.

What game was coloured in such a way, that it ended up being your favourite?