What I liked the most is that the quests are sending you over the worldmap to nearly all places. Don't get me wrong, I like to explore on my own as well, but due to my experience with Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3, I just know that exploring in these games doesn't have any other sense than finding some more random clutter items that you don't really need anyway. So it was pleasing to see that this time you at least will get a "finished quest" and such as reward for it and not only yet-another-stimpak...
Reminds me of the Gothic games (and Risen), which works in a similar way. The world is open and you can run around everywhere, but if you just want to do quests and talk to people, you will see the world as well, because the quests are sending you around. (Though, obviously quests that just send you around all day long over the whole map x time to make the quest feel longer are bad as well.)