Finished my first playthrough. 30 hours in stealth mode with no kills.

Looking forward to my Berserk run.

Of course not - Thief has such minimalist design, and Dishonored complete opposite. But Thief has been inspiration for sure, and gets quoted in Dishonored a lot. Like for example all reading materials have exact same background sound as Thief (to my ears anyway).

In some ways, yes. But not to the point where it's like "OMG, this is Thief for the moden era!" Its gameplay evokes some of the same sort of feelings as Thief (you start thinking in the same way), and the whole world is very Thief-like in concept. But it's also very different than Thief in some ways. It's got a much wider focus, and its less about basking in the glory of stealth and more about utilizing the tools availible to you to accomplish tasks in whatever way you see fit. And most noticebly, it's almost all well-lit. So don't go into it expecting a "Thief clone," but expect to at least have roughly the same sort of experience.

I've seen many similarities with Thief (haven't finished this game yet). Not only gameplay, but also the game lore: the struggle between Sokolov's technology and the magic of the Outsider (compare with Hammerites vs. Pagans, also the Glyphs of the Keepers), the lost city, collecting loot and special loot in levels used to buy equipment, the overall steampunk atmosphere... When you climb a high point at the inn safehouse, the vista across the river looks very much like the cityscape in Thief.

The story, however, looks suspiciously similar that of The Witcher 2: the hero is framed for the assassination of the beloved monarch, and at the beginning of the game, he breaks out of prison and vows revenge. In that, he is aided by a group still loyal to the old regime.

Still not convinced the game is awesome?

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/23/dishonored-kill-sequence-spring-razor/

Got a really big dick about this game until I actually got hold of it.

Bethesda style conversations (inane as fuck). Illogical and broken gameplay.
*"SPOILER"*
So, the "tutorial." First this girl runs up to me and tells me some absolute bullshit. Then I choose to play hide and seek with her so she runs down the stairs. I wait for around 10sec or so and then run down the stairs after her (following the marker). She's just standing there in the middle of the street with "whoa you found me." I am then supposed to hide. She tells me to go and hide so I go and run off (up the stairs) only to get an objective failed text within seconds.
Load the game. I go and hide behind a stack of shit (presumably one of the potential areas for hiding in the tutorial). She completely ignores me and simply stands there, staring at an alleyway for minutes. As soon as I enter her field of sight, she "finds" me.
One more load game, I finally get some bullshit about being fantastic in hide and seek.

Thus far, it has been an almost Fallout 3-esque experience. I sure as shit hope that it gets better because otherwise it will have been a complete fucking waste of money.

You are not going to play hide and seek with the girl in the whole game... I figure it was just for plot building... trying to show the characters connection with the girl... and maybe to teach you the art of hiding... as that is something you will be doing pretty much the whole game... unless u wanna go all guns blazing... its an awesome game... i am not much of a first person fan but this one is special... love this game