Aspyr unveiled Deus Ex Remastered at this week’s State of Play, debuting a new teaser trailer showcasing how the 25-year-old masterpice has been updated with character models with better lip-sync animations and ragdoll physics.
But while fans were delighted to see the classic game getting a facelift, including reimagined lighting, dynamic shadows, water physics, particle effects, and new textures, the refreshed visuals aren’t impressing everyone.
“Upgraded visuals from 2000 to 2005,” said one commenter on the YouTube trailer. Another added: “There are FREE mods available right now that make the original game look better than this, while being more faithful.”
“The amount I wanted this until I saw screenshots… oh my god that is rough. Loses the charm of the original but also still looks bad and dated,” suggested another person on Bluesky, while someone else said: “Just what I’ve always wanted… the original Deus Ex but weirder looking.”
Many fans are pointing out how “blocky” the visuals look, suggesting it looks “not cohesive and unfinished.” In fact, I struggled to find comments from fans pleased with the visuals at all beyond this pragmatic player: “I don’t care how it looks, I’m hyped.”
“Visually it looks really bad. The extremely simplistic, blocky level design clashes with high(er) quality textures and models like a ‘realistic’ 512×512 Minecraft texture pack,” suggested one fan. “The lighting isn’t great either. Very hard lights and shadows, lots of crushed blacks in the screenshots. Maybe some form of ambient occlusion would help, but I don’t think the levels were designed with any form of realistic lighting in mind.
“I can’t imagine this being worth the money, unless good controller support is a must. An unofficial remaster already exists in the form of Deus Ex Revision with vanilla maps and soundtrack.”
Aspyr’s recent credits include Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection, Knights of the Old Republic 2, and Tomb Raider IV-VI.
And while it makes sense that Embracer, owner of the Deus Ex franchise, Eidos Montreal, and Aspyr, would pick one of its own studios to handle the remaster of a game it also owns, some had hoped Nightdive Studios, the company behind the well-received remasters of Doom 64, Quake, System Shock, and Turok, would take on Deus Ex eventually. Indeed, Nightdive staff had expressed their desire to remaster Deus Ex one day. Alas, it wasn’t to be, leading Samuel Villarreal, lead engine developer at Nightdive Studios, to tweet:
One can only imagine https://t.co/hZydrLVz5b
— Samuel Villarreal (@SVKaiser) September 24, 2025
Deus Ex Remastered is set to release on February 5, 2026, or PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series. Last year, Embracer cancelled a new Deus Ex game from Eidos Montreal, leaving the future of the series in limbo.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
