It go BIG mode. The over world is not only massive but there's almost no wasted space. There's plenty of nooks and crannies hiding fun content, there's HELLA bosses with a great variety so far (some a tad similar but they're fun obstacles to overcome). Seriously, you can spend hours running around without an objective in mind and find something to discover in the most reclusive spots on the map. There's a lot to love here, regardless, if you don't like other souls titles this isn't worth your time. While there have been a lot of QOL updates and big updates to combat, it's still a souls game and you probably won't like it.
P.S.
If you're having tearing issues just go put that thang in borderless window and update your nvidia control panel to use 3d resources under the vertical sync settings.