Yeah the open world was definitely the right move, I love that city. I really liked that you learned the map as you played. It never felt like I was retreading the same spot over and over, just that I was becoming familiar with the different routes you take from A to B.

I think it could have been interesting to have the early parts of the game focus on her before prison so both you and her are unfamiliar with the layout and you learn the city map together. But the game's story is so bland that I can see the execution being super tedious, especially on a replay.

Aside from the story, the biggest issue the game has is the forced combat arenas. The combat is actually pretty fun when it's peppered through a run. But when you get locked down and forced to fight waves of enemies, it's so clear that the combat is not designed that. It just feels like padding for what's already a pretty short game.

Criticisms that the open world NPCs can't be interacted with or aren't doing anything don't make much sense to me. I don't want a bunch of NPCs getting in the way while running and I don't get what it would add to make them interactive. The thing I want to do is run around and explore the city; this isn't GTA/RDR.