I love this game. I beat it 4 times. The director said that he wanted to focus on three things to make Sonic popular again: open world gameplay, realistic graphics, and a complex and detailed story. This has all three of those plus a detailed combat system. I love exploring the world, fighting the roving bosses, and doing the individual challenge levels. The complex story is a great bonus, and the world might not be "alive" in the sense of other open world games (no traveling characters for instance) but the night/day cycle and weather add to it. My favorite Sonic game by far.