Restore Deus Ex: Human Revolution's golden glow in the Director's Cut with this mod
The googles, they do something!
A defining part of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's look is a golden haze over everything, a flourish that some mocked it for. I don't know if Eidos changed their minds about the golden wash or just got sick of the jokes, but either way it was wiped away as part of the Director's Cut a few years later. Bit of a shame, really. Purists and goldlovers, rejoice: an enterprising modder has faithfully restored that filter in DXHR Director's Cut. It took a lot more effort than you might expect.
The fella known as "Silent" (who also makes those great SilentPatch fixes for old GTA games) released his Gold Filter Restoration doodad on Sunday. As the name suggests, it restores the gold filter. That's not all! It also has options to change the bloom effect and lighting of the Director's Cut to look more like the original Human Revolution. Plus you can change the colours in other ways, if you want.
Why wouldn't you just play the original Human Revolution? Because you might want both the glow and the other changes from the Director's Cut, which include tactical options in boss battles beyond simply 'shoot them in the face', the DLC rolled into the main story, a New Game+ mode, a more generous energy system, and developer commentary. I plan to take it for a spin myself tonight, all golden and glowing.
Silent wrote an interesting blog post poking about in the game's technoguts to see exactly what changed, and how. The process is a lot more involved than just 'put gold over everything' yet the post is an accessible read.
"It's up to the reader to decide whether the changes are for better or worse, but we can objectively say that the game looks different – and there is no going back," he said about the Director's Cut changes. Thanks to him, we can now go back. And hell, we can hardly go forward at the moment.
The series seems to be on hold after the 2016 sequel, which disappointingly was more of the same but, on the bright side, was more of the same. "There still aren't that many games like Deus Ex around and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is an excellent game like Deus Ex," our Graham said in his Deus Ex: Mankind Divided review. Eidos Montreal went on to release Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, and are currently known to be doing Marvel's Avengers.
Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda said in 2017 that Deus Ex was not binned but, ah, waiting its turn. "The reason there isn't a Deus Ex right now is just a product of our development line-up because there are other titles we are working on," he said.