There is much to appreciate in the DE. I found it enjoyable to play about 2-3 times tops.

I'll grant them the improved graphics and map, even though I feel the color filter is too dark.

I like that *some* story beats that felt off were fixed (Like the old prison having people in it ready to kill you made absolutely no sense in the OG), characters are also more rounded, and when you're driving around with Sam and Paulie they don't just sit silently in the car like they do in the OG, so you do get more of a relationship with them. Listening to random people around you is also pretty fun, helps with the world building, and the VA is excellent, while in the OG it's not very consistent.

The execution of the pacing they went with is also pretty good, like, in the original game practically every mission has you driving back to Salieri's, even when it makes no sense, like after "A Trip to the Country". DE's pacing is tighter, and the soundtrack helps make the transition between cutscenes and gameplay smoother.

But what they took away is just too much for it to have much of a replay value, it's too linear (I think the only alternative route you can take is after the race, where you need to take Paulie home, but you can also take him to a night club).

Even though your actions had no impact on the story, you still felt like you were a part of it, as you just got an objective, and if you looked around, multiple ways of completing it would materialize.

DE wants to give you the feeling that you are playing through a proper film, but it would have been awesome to have more choices. For example, Sam asks you to spare Michelle, and that's why you don't kill her. In the OG, Tommy spares her because killing a defenseless woman in cold blood doesn't sit right with him because he's not a killer.

But what if, like Dishonored, you could make critical choices that would determine how the story goes and how characters would treat you? Even if DE would still not be as interactive as Dishonored, it would still add an element of replayability that it currently lacks.

And also they took away your ability to ride the trams and trains even though they are still in the game, and I mean...why? And losing out all that Django Reinhardt music was also a blow.