I was curious about this because I've generally been a fan of Volition's work, but the reviews of the game had me second guessing it and waiting for a lower price. Now, after seeing some gameplay, the map looks ridiculously small. Less like a city and more like an arena. I mean, I don't always need a huge sprawling map to have a good time in an open world game, but I also don't like to be familiar with every area immediately either. This thing looks like it could be dwarfed by a handful of Overwatch maps put together.

This video gives an idea of how cramped this thing is without the deceit of screenshots conflating the actual size.

I REALLY wish they just did another Saints game over this uninspired-looking Crackdown clone. that's kind of a dealbreaker.

Considering how boring most open worlds are, I can't say I'm really bummed.

Did he really put 'to' instead of 'too' in both the video title and in the thumbnail text? Oh my.

Size of world doesnt matter, the game within the the world matters

As much as I don't think it is that big of a deal, as long as content is there. It is very tiny.

If the open world design isnt REALLY necessary, developers should really go for a more linear or semi open world design.It just makes the game better and this " It needs to be open world!" mentality is just detrimental to the industry.

Oh damn. Maybe open-world was not a sound design choice for this game.

Yakuza isn't open world. It's a hub area. You got to think of it like old fashioned overworlds in RPGs. It serves the same purpose. Games like FFXV, Nier Automata, Yakuza use the logic of a overworld not open world.

Shadow of Mordor has a really small open world too. Even with 2 areas

So, that does not do them any favors.