So is this legit? How does it compare to the lukewarm (imho) The Cave and Broken Age?
It's better then The Cave, in the sense that Ron Gilbert is obviously more comfortable with this type of gameplay, then platforming.
I'm still not that far into Thimbleweed, those who have played it longer and even beat it might correct me, But based on what I played:
Graphics: Well, that depends of what you like the most. Both games excel with their own styles, with Thimbleweeds great pixel graphics, and Broken Age's great handdrawn paintings.
Puzzles: Broken Age easies you into it, and gradually gets more difficult, and as such ended up being a too easy to begin with. Thimbleweed lets you loose with lots of objectives, characters and inventory items from the get go.
Voice Overs - Broken Age had pretty great voice overs. Thimbleweed almost makes me want to disable them. NPC's are often better then the cast though.
Dialogues - So far, Broken Age wins this, with really funny dialogues with a great flow. Thimbleweed has a lot of great dialogues, but also a lot of very cringe worthy, and takes references to other adventure games too far. I hope it easies up on this.
Story: Haven't beaten Thimbleweed, but I think it will win this. So far att pretty great mystery, that creates a great atmosphere. Broken Age started well, but got a bit messy towards the end.
Interface: Well, pretty self explanatory from pics from the games. I'm one of those who feels like the verb interface is a bit unneccessary and just adds extra clicks, but the game delivered what it promised here.