Can you free roam an open world in the 1st one? I never even got the 1st one but one can only be curious about a game that is so highly praised.......... and now in bargain bins... >_>
Sort of, at certain points in the story you'll have access to different areas of the Asylum, and towards the end you'll have free run of pretty much the whole place, but I wouldn't call it free roam in the same way as GTA or Assassin's Creed. It's more along the lines of the Metroid games.