Forget the remaster — 2000’s Deus Ex is still a masterpiece that you should play in its original form
Towards the end of last year, Deus Ex remastered has been delayed, with no new release date offered and no refunds for pre-orders issued. Developer and remaster specialist Aspyr indicated that it had taken into account negative feedback regarding the remastered graphics and noted that the game would not be released on February 5, 2026.
Now since I still consider the original Deus Ex a masterpiece and one of my favorite games of all time, it was a bit disappointing. I’d rather play the game again, but with a modern graphical paint job and some quality of life updates.
But the screenshots and video from Aspyr’s remaster didn’t showcase a clever overhaul of developer Ion Storm’s original game from 2000, but rather something that looked like it was from the mid-2000s, with visuals that would be suitable for an original Xbox or the early days of the Xbox 360, rather than for modern hardware in 2026.
Look on it
I’m sure taking a 26 year old game and remastering it is no easy task. But reworking textures that seem out of place and in harmony with the dark and austere look of Deus Ex’Original graphics are not the right way to do it. I would rather see the game remade in the Unreal 5 engine or the Dawn Engine Deus Ex: Mankind Divided used; getting access to the latter might be a bit of a pipe dream given that it’s owned by Square Enix.
But the negative reaction to Deus Ex remasteredand Aspy’s arguably shaky track record when it comes to game remastering, got me thinking: are we really need a remaster of Deus Ex?
Art and ambition rather than graphics
Even when it was launched, Deus Ex it wasn’t really a pretty game; the textures were blocky and the game was rather dark in many places. But that was part of the game’s art style that captured the mood of late ’90s and early ’00s conspiracy theories, with a pinch of Matrix-esque and cyberpunk feel.
Additionally, the lack of state-of-the-art fidelity for the time meant that Deus Ex didn’t require very powerful hardware and could have large, expansive maps and core areas to explore. Even playing it years later, I had discovered a secret location, with strong story implications, that I had missed the first time around.
And by not favoring graphic flair, Deus Ex had a mass of immersive simulation elements and systems that could be manipulated and exploited to circumvent all kinds of obstacles. The amount of variation and immersion here exceeds that of many more modern immersive simulations.
So part of me thinks that experiencing Deus Ex correctly, it should be played in as much of its original form as possible. THE Game of the Year Edition makes the most sense, as it supports modern controllers – although I advocate playing Deus Ex on mouse and keyboard – and should work on many hardware.
Hell, I managed to get it to work pretty well on my Steam Deck, although it’s necessary to use the trackpads to manage some of the mouse cursor bits.
For those who want graphics from the early days of the Xbox era, there is Deus Ex: Invisible War; it’s much simpler than its predecessor, but I still think it has plenty of systems to exploit and is perhaps more underrated than it deserves to be.
More fidelity and a simply amazing art style in my opinion can be achieved with Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It is a prequel to Deus Ex but captures much of the essence of the game, with neat systems.
SO Humanity divided builds on this, especially with a large central area in the form of near-future Prague. Humanity divided ended a bit abruptly, which didn’t endear many fans. But its areas felt more like playgrounds of opportunity with myriad routes to take and systems to explore, while Human revolution sometimes it felt like you could only take a few different routes during a mission.
So with all that in mind, I don’t really think we need Deus Ex remasteredbut rather a completely new one Deus Ex game, one that builds on the prequel’s story or explores an alternative sequel to the direction invisible war took.
These are my thoughts; were you waiting impatiently Deus Ex remastered, or would you rather have another Deus Ex game? Let me know in the comments below.
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