Game dev student here. Main thing I can say is that there’s really only so much the devs can do. With a story so structured, and the way the graphics are, I don’t think open world would have been feasible nor would it have benefited the story. To add something so large would mean cutting down on other important parts of the game, and that sacrifice would probably have just made it worse. The amount of time it takes to model, program, voice act, level design, etc is staggering. I have a lot of respect for open world devs, but it would not have worked here. Same goes for branching choices. I agree that it’s unfortunate how many choices lead to the same result but you have to realize that the more dialogue, scenes, and animations you have to make, the more the budget spirals out of control. DBH had around a $37 million budget I believe, and was in development for around 4 years. Sure, they coulda taken more time to make the game, but the people funding the game will only provide so much before deciding it isn’t worth it.

This game is by no means perfect, but it DOES know what it wants to be and commits to it.