This game fakes you out a bunch of times on when the 'real game' starts.
First you do the tutorial section and beat the RoboSnek, talk to people in Meridian, the opening credits roll and you show up in The Daunt and think "this is the real game, in the open world now."
Then you do all The Daunt quests and have the big showdown outside Barren Light and you're like "oh, that was just the extended open-world tutorial area, NOW this is the real game."
And then that's not even close to the start of the real game lol.