For the art there is a middle point where I like to see these games exist. I don't want to get too close to the uncanny valley when it comes to the renders, but I also don't want to see messily drawn art that looks like two colorful blobs undergoing mitosis.
The story is what holds it all together because otherwise it is just porn. If I want to see a "wham, bam, thank you ma'am" scene there's a hub for that. I'm here for two things 1) a well told story and 2) being able to interact with that story by making decisions in the beginning of the game that eventually fuck up the life of the main character at the end of the game.
And I agree, the last time I enjoyed playing in a sandbox I was 5. Too many developers think that they should include sandbox elements to lengthen the game. They don't understand that if you write a great story people will stick around even when the update is small. I love this game because I feel
naughtyroad is one of the few devs out there that figured this out. He makes a great game with a story that I want to read and art that I want to see. Not a lot of people do that.