We can explore the city if we want to forget about the story for a moment. We can take different routes to a crime scene. While it may not be a sandbox, it’s still important that those minor choices are there. So instead, we’ve presented with an open world in which we can enjoy a story that moves us from point a to point b.

See also: stealing a car and driving it into a river, using a grappling hook to steal a helicopter, using explosives to blow up hundreds of objectives spread across the whole world, and driving aimlessly for hours. In a videogame, this normally means driving a bunch of cars into a busy intersection and throwing grenades at the pileup. A sandbox is a giant area filled with toys we get as many of these toys as possible and play with them in as many different ways as possible. We’re clearly misunderstanding the terms “sandbox” and “open world.” They’re absolutely different, and in many cases, our own disappointment of an open-world game can be connected to our desire for every open world to be a sandbox, especially when it comes to a game involving guns, cars, and a 20th century metropolitan area. It’s a game where story is central and the open world is not a license to hang out on a roof with a rocket launcher. Nothing in the game’s premise should suggest to the player that you’re meant to cause chaos and do whatever you want in between the game’s story missions. Remember when Mafia 2 came out? Many critics had one main criticism of the game (among many others that were entirely acceptable): it lacks the same features that define sandbox games.

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