I have two problems with the game:
First, the lore is bland. Normally, this wouldn't be a huge problem, but it is reflected in the game in a lot of ways. For example, the civilizations are not interesting, the races don't matter, and the maps are bland. Powers and magic aren't very exciting, either. All of this can be traced back to the lore of the world. The campaign suffers the most in this regard. It was dreadfully boring, and did nothing to explore the individuals you visit in your quest.
Second, and partly related to the above, is that city building is boring. You build whatever you want, where ever you want, paying little regard to what goes where until late game (if at all) when your cities may get crowded. Even then, not specializing barely hurts you. The buildings are uninteresting as well, usually just adding flat small bonuses or low percentages. Since no units are tied to buildings, and the only limit in cities is the amount of squares, there is not much buildings CAN do. This is my biggest problem with the game, because I LOVE building cities in FFH and Civ4. Whether it is the lore associated with a wonder, or the usefulness of building an archery range, you feel like you accomplished something when you build a structure. In Elemental, it is just adding stuff to a que and creating the same city over and over.
What's worse, to me, is that neither of these issues ever get brought up by the developers as something that they feel needs to be fixed. FFH was steeped in lore and fantastical, unique cities and races. Elemental does not even come close.