In terms of expectation, this is more in line with my fears than my hopes.

All the effort they're putting into slowing the pace of the game is just added cost for development and it's going to hurt them where it really matters, music licensing.

Half the appeal of the original was a soundtrack of popular music that fit the mood of the frenetic gameplay perfectly. Now they'll have to pick lower-energy tracks to suit a meandering "open world" game that might get interrupted by other players at any moment.