I went into the game with no expectations, I don't usually play stealth games as I'm not great at them, but decided to try this out as I've been pushing through my backlog, and knew a sequel would be out soon.
At first, I was into it. The prison and sewer area acted well as a tutorial, and I was learning. Then you are thrown into a smallish sandbox map with lots of collectables, and side missions. It was superb, and i felt great, finding out there was an alternative to assassination was great, and I completed it 100% with ghost and no kills. I was floored, as from what i'd gathered, most people only considered it good.
The second mission was the same, I loved moving around, grabbing loot, doing side missions, and then I was just told that my assassination targets would be taken care of. A bit shocking but I let it go.
Next was a linear map, with no real side quests. I let some prisoners escape and it meant nothing, turning of the lights let me just drop down the building and finish the mission. The mask party was a great idea, but again, the non-lethal option was just letting someone else deal with it, rather than playing a game of intel. Due to my diligence in that level, the next level was a breeze, as I could nearly do the non-lethal as soon as I got inside.

The sandbox maps I so thoroughly enjoyed disappeared as quickly as they started.

Luckily, the level design has not soured my gameplay experience. I was quickly accustomed to moving around the stage and look forward to trying out the DLC and sequel at a later point