I dunno, I'm in the "stealth/gameplay is pretty good" group and I play a lot of stealth games. It's not really that you have a million options like some games, but rather it's a very paired down and well executed gameplay experience. Just like how the story overall has been done similarly before (although there is a subplot that is like A+++++ and is Silent Hill 2 caliber and felt really fresh) but it's just very, very well executed. Reminds me of Breaking Bad which I've been watching. Story's been done before, but it's just very well made and so everyone loves it (and it's a great watch).
The subplot (and the reason why the game is in my top 5 of last gen for sure) is spoiler (click to show/hide)
That the game acknowledges the narrative dissonance that 99.9% of videogames do not (including Naughty Dog's own Uncharted series: That in a videogame where you're killing hundreds of people...you're a fucking murderer. The entire endgame subplot in the snow where David and his buddy are basically like "we're doing what we're doing because some sick socioopath has been murdering all our friends in town" is the endgame part of that hits the plot home. YOU/Joel are the bad guy in everyone else's eyes. It's only from your viewpoint that you see yourself as the good guy and all these badguys are sociopathic murderers. Hell, the game going out of its way to give every enemy unique dialogue in the game to establish that they are human beings was something really groundbreaking that strengthened this aspect. And then the final ending of the game, killing Marla fucking humanity over for your own selfishness and then even to the very last line where You/Joel lies straight to Ellie's face, ends this subplot with the most satisfying narrative bang this gen. Just utterly fantastic writing. It's like they saw all those "Nathan Drake is a murdering sociopath!" on gaf and decided to make again acknowledging that narrative dissonance. Damn good stuff.
I'm stealth fan numero uno and I thought the first couple of hours was mediocre with forced stealth encounters designed around only one solution filled with brain dead enemies that offer no real challenge other than "don't get spotted!" Level design was incredibly limiting and just amounted to isolated encounters jammed into boxed areas broken up by linear hallways. It just reminded me of the worst of Splinter Cell, honestly. Also, I was never a big fan of the physics of Uncharted's gunplay and control nuances. While it did the job for those games (casual shootan') I think shoe-horning it into a stealth game highlighted the inherent sloppiness of the aiming and character controls. If I'm going to be sneaking around stabbing bitches and whipping out head shots then I need a game that can keep up.
It could probably improve later in the game. I should probably pick the PS4 version later on and give it another shot.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that I'm in the camp that thinks the PS3 controller is complete shit so a few of my complaints can be derived from being forced to play with that (loose sticks, convex triggers, and a huge dead zone is a deal breaker for fps/tps). However I love the PS4 pad so I'm sure the game will automatically handle better for me.
I don't find the stealth itself incredibly deep since it isn't, it's presented as an option among the rest of the tools the game gives you.
Breh, what? The shooting's nothing like Uncharted. Especially during the beginning with an un-uprgaded Joel. It was never meant to have super precise shooting, you know to build tension and shit.
As to the other stuff:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
The game opens up tremendously at Bill's Town and Pittsburgh. Most of Boston was basically tutorial stuff. If you're still not feeling it then, it's probably not gonna change. The strength of the gameplay for me was that it gave you multiple options to tackle an encounter (different ways to do stealth, combat or both). Fuck listen mode though, casul shit.