You should never judge a book by its cover, but I guess that doesn't apply to games, especially when they're Deus Ex Remastered. Yes, it looks so bad that fans have been memefying it ever since the dreadful announcement, in the vain hope of getting something good out of it.
Even if you're not a fan of Deus Ex, or the dated looks of the first game, it's hard not to feel like the "upgraded" graphics feel like a bizarre overcorrection akin to a botched plastic surgery performed in a cyberpunk dystopia. YouTube's comments are pure gold, with nuggets such as “upgraded visuals from 2000 to 2005”. Hilarious, but the reality is even worse.
The looks of the Deus Ex remaster are a trifecta of failure. They don't stay faithful to the original, and don’t make it look just "a bit more modern". This remaster looks like something they'd be making nowadays if gamers had really enjoyed the shiny, rubbery texture of that weird period during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era.
The remaster seems to go out of its way to make "improvements" that appeal to no one. such as making JC Denton incredibly buff. What were they going for? A JC Denton that looks like Steven Seagal imagines himself?
Aspyr recently made a name for itself as a remaster artist. They're responsible for remastering the six original Tomb Raider titles, as well as the two Soul Reaver games. Seven out of these eight remasters are just wonderful, with Angel of Darkness naturally being the black sheep of the pack. These remasters not only revamped the tech used on the original titles but also respected the artistic vision of the originals. Aspyr wisely hired a bunch of fans who'd been modding the original games for the longest time, just out of love for the series, and it showed.
I don't know what happened with the Deus Ex remaster, but, staying true to Deus Ex lore, it's not impossible that Aspyr got tricked into hiring members of the Illuminati, which are totally real, to make something so bad it would bury the first game to reveal the Illuminati to the public. That, or Aspyr is just openly making regrettable decisions, as this YouTube comment points out, "Using AI upscaling for Deus Ex has to be the biggest irony I've seen in gaming."
As a person who's way more into Tomb Raider, Soul Reaver, and laughter than I am into Deus Ex, I understand I am quite lucky. Still, I cannot help but feel for the many Deus Ex fans that, despite possible future re-remastering by Aspyr in response to the backlash, now may never be able to disconnect the image of JC Denton from that of Steven Seagal.
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The post ‘I genuinely feel sick’ – Fans and fellow devs are not letting up on the ugly-looking Deus Ex Remastered appeared first on Destructoid.
