I've been hopping between the Deus Ex games and noticed that Mankind Divided basically just concedes to a "smart" vision indicator that can not only see through walls but also tell you what things you are able to interact with. Just about every modern game has some sort of Arkham inspired detective mode. The Deus Ex games are especially reliant on this because you NEED to know what is and isn't just a prop because the level progression is reliant on the options available to you. Generally though, every game since 2010 has been getting increasingly detailed, and that eventually ends up directly harming the UX.
Imagine a CYOA visual novel where you're given branching paths at certain crucial parts of the narrative. Now imagine you had to play an obtuse "where's waldo" mini-game to even find the half of the options. Imagine if this difficulty wasn't intended, imagine if the developers put a toggle to highlight the objects in the mini-game for you. One would wonder why you are even bothering with the mini-game in the first place just make it 5 choice boxes! Or maybe the mini-game should just be improved to be less obnoxious and actually enjoyble.
Obviously if you're a company that bleeds millions of dollars every year you're going to want to chase the environment detail arms race. While Doom 2016 retreated to the fast paced 90s shooter gameplay it could not leave out the AAA environment setpieces. Even when the interactables aren't as important there's a certain foggy effect that happens when I play it. I can shoot enemies and generally parse out the situation, but it's not as clear as the '93 Doom where the floors are walls are so obvious. 2D sprites stick out in the 3D mazes of 93 Doom and are 90% of the time usually an enemy or item. A lot of people always say that retro graphics make you use your imagination but I'd argue that it simplifies everything, and not just the visuals.
In the original Deus Ex, just about everything interactable is a 3D modelled object. There's occasionally some brush edits to decorate the level but it's very clearly part of the level geometry, and even those are distinctly interactable. This is compounded by the fact that the game setting is very flat and urban. I'd bet that the the polycount density increases the more possible actions there are in a given location. This is mostly incidental due to the constraints obviously. Even many indie devs that are making low poly games are likely contributing towards this even if their intent is to mimick the nostalgia rather than optimize efficient environment parsing.
I'm really bad at concluding so I'll just say low poly games are neat and not because of charm or nostalgia.


