It's hard to pin it down to a single factor but I guess I would say that the environment is not scaled correctly. The space given to the area is rather small and I think it might look better if the area was opened up more. Granted, I cannot say too much as the game crashed rather early on me.
Another aspect that may affect it is the use of invisible walls and the obvious end of terrain. An area that highlights this is the small stream and bridge that you see right after leaving the house. When I try to go left, there's an invisible wall a short distance away. To me, this makes the game feel very enclosed and linear. A better way to deal with the problem is to create natural barriers to stop the player rather than artificial ones. (cliffs, oceans, lakes, steep walls, etc...). Doing this may also open up paths that will add more detail/spectacles to your scenes.
Hope this helps.