PlayStationDeus Ex is one of the most important games of all time. The revolutionary immersive action-RPG set in a conspiracy-laden cyberpunk future laid the foundation for games like Dishonored, BioShock, Cyberpunk 2077, and, of course, Eidos Montreal’s underrated Deus Ex sequels from the 2010s. So when PlayStation announced at last week’s State of Play that a remaster of the 2000 game was coming to PC and consoles, it should have been a celebratory moment for fans. However, what’s been shown of this re-release has caused more concern than excitement.Deus Ex Remastered, which is being handled by Aspyr, aims to bring the classic into the modern era with cleaner character models, lip-synced dialogue, upscaled textures, dynamic shadows, and new particle systems. It will also add native controller support and a more user-friendly interface. There’s no denying that the new version is a technical improvement, but in modernizing the game, it might also be committing the cardinal sin of losing the original’s texture.As fans pointed out on Reddit, the new visual effects are messing with Deus Ex’s look, feel, and atmosphere. In a few of the trailer’s shots, locations that were once dripping in noir ambience are now overlit, while the improved texture work has left objects looking like plastic facsimiles of their original selves.“It’s a great game, but that reveal of the new graphics was pretty laughable, it barely looks better than MGS3 and I don't mean Delta,” one Reddit user wrote in a thread about the game’s announcement.“If there's any one game I'd buy a remaster of, it’s Deus Ex, especially since it looked like sh*t even back in the day it was released,” said another user. “But this, this doesn't look good at all.”What really stings is that many free mods already update the 25-year-old game’s textures without sacrificing the intentionality of its lighting and direction. Fan-made updates like 2015’s Deus Ex: Revision are easy to install and accomplish much of what the Remaster sets out to do. This also means folks can play an improved version of the game for a fraction of the price (the vanilla Deus Ex is on Steam for just $7, while the official remaster will set you back $30 when it releases in February).Just as fans were starting to move on from the underwhelming reveal, the game’s system requirements reignited the backlash. For some reason, Deus Ex Remastered is demanding high-end PC hardware. As many Twitter users pointed out, these specs imply that a system capable of running 2016’s Deus Ex: Mankind Divided won’t be able to handle a subtle improvement of a game released a quarter-century ago.We won’t know the true quality of this remaster until it’s out, as fans are up in arms based on a handful of screenshots and a 30-second trailer. However, there is precedent for concern. While remasters are a great way to ensure that older games remain playable on modern machines, many re-releases have fumbled the translation. The Batman Arkham games lost much of their atmosphere when they were converted with Unreal Engine 4 for the Arkham Collection. 2025’s Oblivion remaster, while faithful in content, lost its ethereal color palette. And the less said about Grand Theft Auto III’s disastrous Definitive Edition, the better.Aspyr, the studio behind Deus Ex Remastered, is no stranger to such problems. It’s made a name for itself with remasters, and not in a good way. The developer’s Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection was completely broken at launch, its long-awaited Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver remasters took the gritty edge off the classic Gothic action games, and its Knights Of The Old Republic ports had promised post-launch features get cancelled.Aspyr has had some recent wins. Its Tomb Raider remasters are as solid as re-releases get, and this year’s remaster of Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles fared much better than the company’s other Star Wars games. Knowing just how important Deus Ex is to gaming, I hope its upcoming remaster has more in common with Aspyr’s latest releases than its past ones.Deus Ex Remastered will release on February 5, 2026, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.