A leaked version of Nvidia's DLSS 5 AI upscaling technology has been used by modders to render Cyberpunk 2077 in a hyperrealistic style, producing an unusually grim and grotesque depiction of the game's setting, Night City. Unlike other games modded with the leaked tech, where only the characters tend to look unsettling, this version renders the environment, vehicles and sky just as oppressively, making it harder for players to find visual relief. The piece frames this as an inadvertent, more faithful realisation of the "dystopian" cyberpunk aesthetic than the game's original, more vibrant visual style.

The article draws a comparison with William Gibson's novel Neuromancer, the foundational cyberpunk text, whose opening line describes a sky "the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" — an image the writer feels the DLSS 5 mod's fluorescent-grey sky evokes. It also notes that Gibson previously criticised Cyberpunk 2077's original promotional material for looking too colourful and inviting for a supposed dystopia, dismissing the game as resembling a "GTA clone" with an 1980s retro-future aesthetic. The author suggests this is the most extreme example yet of DLSS 5 mods producing unsettling results, a pattern seen across other games modded with the leaked technology.