Everyone thinks the Deus Ex remaster looks awful and they're right: 'They really turned those 1999 graphics into 2003 graphics'

A comparison of the NSF terrorist leader from Deus Ex's Liberty Island level: the old model on the left and the new on the right.

(Image credit: Aspyr)

I am, as is well-documented, something of a remaster sicko. I love having an excuse to revisit a classic in its mostly original form (I shouldn't need an excuse, sure, but my brain works like this to my detriment), I love hoovering up the daft achievements for the sheer narcotic thrill of it, I like having modcons like easy gamepad support and autosaves in games made before such things were common.

So I ought to be thrilled that a proper remaster of the original Deus Ex—immersive sim granddaddy, bonafide all-timer—broke cover at yesterday's State of Play. I am not thrilled, and nor is anyone else, so far as I can see. Almost as soon as that trailer did the classic 'transition from the old graphics to the new ones' bit, our joy at a Deus Ex revival turned to ash.

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JC Denton looking bulbous in HD. — (Image credit: Aspyr)

It looks dreadful: bafflingly shiny, alarmingly bulbous, strangely smooth, and in general manages to look worse than the models ginned up for Deus Ex's HDTP mod all the way back in 2006.

"Hopefully there's a toggle to just play with original graphics, it is shocking how bad all the remaster assets look" wrote one Reddit user in response to the announcement, putting in relatively measured terms a sentiment you can find almost anywhere there are people talking about Deus Ex online. "How did someone not realise how awful those visuals look?" wrote another. "Deus Ex is one of the best games of all time, deserves far better treatment than some shitty ass AI upscaling and sharpening filter. Save 20 bucks, grab the original and just install the transcended mod instead," agreed one more. You get the idea.

But maybe that's just Reddit, right? Wrong. "They really turned those 1999 graphics into 2003 graphics," wrote one disgruntled fan among many on Bluesky. "Thanks to the advanced technology in the PlayStation 5 Deus Ex can finally look worse than it did 25 years ago" wrote another on X. Want to know what the Steam forums are saying? Well, me neither, but I checked in anyway and they're not fans either.

deus ex remaster coming to ps5
— @claymoregwen.bsky.social (@claymoregwen.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-09-25T13:02:06.157Z

They're not wrong. The trailer and the screenshots look wretched, and at this point all I'm left hoping, as an inveterate Deus Ex fan, is that either this remaster is suffering from a world-historic case of Bad Trailer Syndrome, or that we can at least toggle between the 'enhanced' and original graphics at the tap of a key. Otherwise? What a shame.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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