IG line is still the best with House Aurelian being close second; both offered good mix of talky and fighty paths being Joo was fun if short CYOA and Criminal Scum was too fighty for my opinion same as Boatmen; too much bloodshed not enough assassinations (use of stealth, disguises, poisons, scoped crossbows, bribery and sex). Felt like some kind on Ninja not assassin most of the time. House of Daratan was big let down when you were not allowed to win even when you got nuclear armed flying ship under your command... and you were punished for solving problem efficient ways... Like no people no problem.
That's about right. Imperial Guard, House Aurelian, and Merchant were probably the most interesting and well-developed paths in the game. Great fights, lots of well-done, believable political intrigue and a lot of chances to get familiar with the lore of the game (particularly as a member of House Aurelian).
The issue with the Thief path is that a lot of skills are just plain useless after Teron (Steal is awful, particularly after Teron, Traps has few uses outside of the Thief questline, and Sneak is also very "iffy" in its usefulness as well) and in general the questline goes downhill, which is why I'm very happy that Iron Tower is dedicating a month to fleshing it out in December. During Teron, I think that the Thief questline is downright brilliant, maybe the best one in the game - lots of different ways to do things, you get to use your rep with the 40 Thieves to solve quests (i.e. Bandit Camp), and in general you feel like you're part of a feared and respected criminal enterprise. It's a shame that the value of a lot of Thief-centric skills plummets after and you don't have cool little additions like the ability to break into places.
I do agree that the Assassin path could use a little bit of work. You generally end up feeling like someone's puppet and are really out of the loop on events (i.e. if you side with House Crassus, the ending slides imply that Meru has gone through with the ritual and there's nothing you can do to figure it out/stop him). I understand that a brutish killer type
should be a puppet because you are basically only around so that people can hire you to kill others, but perhaps a smarter character should have a bit more influence. For example, after I've slain all of Gaelius' political rivals, it would be nice to be able to call in a favour or get a boon of some sort from the big man. Likewise, if I've "converted" and seen the truth of Meru's teachings as Varro did and served him well, then maybe he should be able to confide in me a bit more now that I've proven my loyalty as an Inquisitor (would require CHA and good House Crassus rep).