Probably you played another gam
I wish.
Unfortunandly i had to say that dmc 5 had none of this, I liked the visual of the level, remind me of dmc 2 design of the level, witch I like but the dmc 5 level are pretty linear
There's no way DMC5's levels are linear (not all of them of course). Especially in the tree missions, the layout branches out a lot with multiple paths to reach your main objective, and those in turn hide tangent paths that lead to secret areas with secret missions, blue orbs and all that jazz.
I think the prime example of this structure is that level with Dante where you need to go all the way down the tree and there are those timed gates that close up after a while, blocking their paths.
In comparison, DMC4 and DmC (especially 4) had exploration, yes, but "guided exploration", I wouldn't know how else to call it. That's what I meant by linear. Like you would need a specific item to proceed so you would explore to find it but in the end, there's only one path that you can follow, and on top of that the hidden areas were relatively easy to find because of that structure.
Maybe he only exception to that was the forest level with Dante where there are portals that lead to different parts of the stage depending on which one you enter.