One thing I've noticed on SoD and UF is that the gamma is set pretty high by default. Lowering it in the client options would make things darker, but I don't know if that's the same thing you're looking for.
I do remember playing a barbarian as my first toon when EQ first came out, and it was really hard to see. I had around 5 sets of shiverback gloves in my bank for when I died and had to run back somewhere naked.
