time gear
Eternity in an hour
Utopia isn't an open world game, it's just a lot less linear than most other Sonic games. It still has a definitive beginning point and end point for the level. Also, a bit of a hot take here, but Utopia isn't even all that impressive. It certainly does have a few good ideas, but a somewhat fun moveset and a playground level to toy around with it in doesn't make the game better than anything SEGA has done. The game will need to actually be finished to be able to even make a proper comparison. It's a proof of concept tech demo, nothing more.I don't think you're getting what I said, Sonic Utopia is already 100x better than anything Sega has done, will still probably be better than that so-called "Sonic Rangers" and Forces.
Innovation is a necessary piece of the industry as a whole. There's no such thing as a perfect game, and more of the same gets old fast. Even Mario has to deal with this problem. Mario 64 was good and all, but the devs knew moving into Sunshine that just making the same game again but with different level design wasn't going to cut it. The same is true for Galaxy and then Odyssey. Even the 2D Mario games shake things up from title to title.Also if it ain't broken don't try fixing it
Sonic is no different. If the devs are unable or unwilling to innovate and try new things with each new title, the franchise will lose it's novelty and fade into obscurity. They've long since gotten the memo that the fanbase likes the boost formula, so I doubt the new game will remove it entirely. However, if they are finding a new way of going about it, that isn't a bad thing. It isn't a matter of whether or not it's broken. It's a matter of whether or not it's getting old and needs a fresh coat a paint. In the case of the boost formula, we've seen it used in Unleashed, Colors, Generations, and Forces. A new, unique way of going about it is certainly something that should be on the table.