Probably the trend of open world fatigue that has been kicking around the last few years. Games pushed for larger and larger worlds until the public realised that it's only great as long as the worlds are interesting, feel "alive" and are easy and fun to get around in.

Map size seems to be shrinking back down, or at least not be the main selling point for open world games nowadays, and there has been significant criticism of the objective style missions that seem to have become the "fetch quest" of the genre.

> objective style missions

I'm very curious what you mean by this. Are you talking about all the "craft this" etc. achievements in Minecraft?

I’m not that familiar with Minecraft. I mean the kind of mission where the objective is repeated numerous times across the map, eg. Climb x towers (Assassin’s Creed), blow up x enemy encampments (Just Cause), etc.

This style of side mission just pervades open world games nowadays. Spider Man is no different with its towers, street crimes, environmental cleanups etc. but the world is a joy to get around in so I enjoy it a lot more than other similar games.

To use another example of an open world game, take Breath of the Wild which has a huge world but with a lot less of these typical trappings of modern open world games, apart from the korok seed hunting.