Even ignoring its gussied-up next-gen clothes, the game's strengths outshine its weaknesses as an experience, though its flaws outside of the visual realm remain impossible to ignore.
A mostly linear experience that shuttles the player from scene to scene, with the slightly more open hub worlds being there for random LEGO stud hunts and little else.
The less resilient player can and will die more than they have in quite some time; the good ones will be just as excited going back for more after the hundredth Game Over as they were at the first.
The lesson to be learned from it is for anyone making this kind of game to find the beauty in simplicity. Also, to never, ever fart on another man's balls.
The graphics have received the expected uptick in resolution, but Square Enix has also given both games a decent once-over, adding additional environmental detail, effects, even facial animations for the main characters.
The motion controls and the touchpad get a decent, well-integrated workout, world detail is staggering, and the particle and lighting effects of Delsin's powers are breathtaking.
Someone will likely prove this statement wrong, but there hasn't been a game that's run this far with the storybook conceit, and if there is, it's a near-certainty it wasn't executed with this much beauty, heart, and care.
The profiling system isn't as deep as expected, but still offers remarkably strong and subtly creepy world-building away from the main plot.
We're meant to believe that solving the mystery of the Bell Killer would redeem Ronan and allow him the peace to move on, but nothing about the game gives the impression that he deserves it.
Valiant Hearts isn't necessarily lacking in quality or polish, just that perhaps we're looking at one game that feels like it wants to be three.
A next-gen playthrough reveals a game that doesn't break new ground, but very much tries to reach perfection with the tools Naughty Dog and the industry as a whole, really, are all very well aware of.
The fundamentals of Second Son are present, obviously restricted to Fetch's flashy Neon abilities, which is fine since Neon was the most free-flowing and fun of Delsin's stolen powers to begin with.
This is the truer definition of a mature title. This is what happens when first-person shooters strive to be more than a vulgar display of power.
Playing around in Bungie's galaxy for its own sake is still just so undeniable and compulsive a draw that the disappointingly threadbare "why" starts fading into the background.
Natural Doctrine takes strategy role-playing games one step forward, and several clumsy steps back.
The initial joy that comes from mashing buttons and watching Link and his cohorts slash down mindless scores of imps, goblins, lizardmen, wizards, and dragons gives way to a steadily increasingly pile of nitpicks when repeated over several hours.
An old-fashioned game in a newfangled era, Gauntlet does too much and too little all at once.
Chuck E. Scream.
Falling Skies is a functional, unattractive, and uninspired XCOM clone.
Neverending Nightmares is an apt name for an unnerving but meandering experience.