I'm further into the game. Story-wise, it's got a tale to tell though it's not quite as compelling as the previous games, particularly Deadly Shadows. It's not bad at all though.
The gameplay is traditional Thief, it's what you'd expect of a game in the franchise, let alone the genre. I especially love the context-sensitive traversal; there's no "jump" button per se, it's more a "traverse" button that acts depending on the environment: jump, mount, climb, drop, swoop, etc. It just makes sense. Kudos to Eidos Montréal for breaking tradition and dropping the generic "jump" and majorly enhancing first-person platforming, which is frankly irritating in other first-person games (except Mirror's Edge, BRINK, and Titanfall).
I cannot comprehend what the complaints are about. They're starting to sound like the rantings of a Call of Duty player who is abruptly thrown into a stealth game.
I'll agree that the "open world" is not quite as open as everyone expects when that label is thrown around but it's not a major issue. Honestly, I have never played a Thief game with that expectation in mind. It must have multiple solutions to problems but that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a sandbox game. It is a bit more open than Dishonored in that you can explore the town and take on side missions more freely.
That kind of modern-day context-sensitive traversing reminds me of how Hitman games do jumping, climbing - you hit the command key when in the area, it does it for you. For KB/mouse players - I'd expect this would solve the problem of awkward platforming that often comes w/ our preferred control-choice. It's much easier to play w/ a controller for me, when I'm actually controlling the actual movements of the platforming, jumping, and stuff of that nature - like in Assassin's Creed.
Besides the somewhat open-world experience (Thief 2014 + Thief: Deadly Shadows) vs. each level itself is its own huge sandbox on how to tackle the objectives w/ likely one final way out (Dishonored...and heck, even Hitman series), from what I'm reading and hearing - it sounds like the way each game gives you choices is MUCH different. Garrett usually plays like a Thief; while Corvo acts like an assassin - I wouldn't want both games to play that much alike, anyways. I would guess when comparing Thief 2014 vs. Dishonored - the difference is probably that Thief 2014 often gives you more of a Thief-like way of getting through an area (sneaky-sneaky; use lethal arrows or other arrows to get through area; black-jack for knock-outs; stealth-kills if your difficulty allows it; ); while Dishonored gives you different styles of ways to finish an area (lethal kill, supernatural power kill, stealth knockouts; or avoid killing/knocking-out at all possible).
Kind of interesting that I've heard Garrett no longer has his sword anymore, he just has his blackjack for melee.
Granted, I ain't played Thief 2014 - but it looks like it's trying to evolve and expand upon Ion Storm's Thief: Deadly Shadows, not the older Thief games. Maybe you can speak on that better than I can?
I'm glad to hear the story for Thief 2014 isn't that bad.
Though, how are the actual characters themselves, prose for the actual dialogue itself, and actual voice-acting?
I really want to play this - but, as usual....this is Square Enix PC game here. Chance of this game getting much cheaper very soon are probably quite good - especially if it somehow tanks in sales, critics keep smashing it, or it doesn't do as well w/ gamers. They're often very aggressive w/ their PC games, here in the States on price-cutting and sale-pricing. I still cannot believe we've seen after about around a year, I've seen $5 sales here and there for TR 2013 PC on some sites like Amazon DVG and other digital distributors recently; bloody steal.