On balance, United Front Games succeeds in creating the ultimate edition of its open-world crime drama, giving PS4 and Xbox One owners the most eye-catching console release so far. The only snag is that, in aspiring to the PC's top-end visual standard, the struggling 20-30fps performance is a high price to pay for this luxury. And with visible tearing creeping in too, the current-gen console experience doesn't feel quite as definitive as we'd hoped.
Compared to PC, the only visible console-side sacrifices are the lower-grade ambient occlusion - appearing faintly more intrusive on Xbox One - and a more prominent depth of field effect. But between the Sony and Microsoft releases, PS4's main advantage is undeniably on the performance front; Xbox One hitting the bottom end of the 20-30fps band during our tests, while segments of play unfold at 25fps at its worst on PS4.
The end result is that only the new PC version lives up to its Definitive Edition moniker. But are its extra touches worth the extra money for owners of the original PC release? While the broadened draw distances are a major plus, we'd argue many other tweaks are simply too subtle to justify another expense. Edits to character model designs, upped object density and new city atmospherics are welcome. But it's fair to say, for most developers, much of this falls into the territory of a courtesy, free post-release patch.
Be that as it may, for those arriving from the heavily stunted Xbox 360 and PS3 versions to this new release, it's a whole new world. On top of the ramp up in city detail, the Definitive Edition's inclusion of DLC missions, such as Nightmare in North Point, bolster the package's overall value. Neither PS4 nor Xbox One deliver the perfect playthrough - but if you can turn a blind eye to its performance lurches, there's still plenty to enjoy here.
