Man, I am loving this game...
I also started as thief, so Bandit's Knife... Which was a pain on the first boss with my puny non-upgraded hits.. Took a few tries, then one shot the next two, had trouble with a few others... Basically, it's a Souls game ; )
Also running amazing out of the gate... My recently purchases system (with 980 Ti) runs it at 60, with everything set to max, then a few things set lower (like shadows... Still on, because that looks good, but Low vs High doesn't change anything, especially with movement)... Oh, my bad... Meant that at 4k resolution... I'm sure it runs all max at 1080p for 980 or Ti.
And yes, it does 'feel' more like DS1, but that's mostly because of all the returning stuff... It's a good meshing of DS1/2 and BB... : )