It's been a long time since I've been on this site, but I saw something about AOW3 on here when I was searching Google, so I decided to come and see the thread.
I'm very much enjoying this game. Everyone is correct that this is not CIV. The depth is not there, but that does not mean that the game is not fun. To me this is closer to Rome Total War than it is to CIV. I don't get as much of the "One more turn" thing as I did with CIV, but I do get some of it, and I have been awake too late at night nearly every day since I got the game.
The Devs are active in the community, and they seem to genuinely want to make this game the game that the players want. The last patch was full of balance tweaks in addition to fixing bugs. The Devs have promised a big overhaul on diplomacy in the next patch. Also, there is talk of expansions and/or DLC, adding new races and content.
If you are looking for a CIV clone, this is not it, but I think it does a pretty good job at adding some Role Playing elements to a strategy game. They did a much better job at combining the two things than Sid Meier did in the remakes of Pirates and Railroads.
If you are hesitant because of bad reviews, remember that most of the reviews were before the balance changes. They recently had flash sales on both Steam and GOG, so watch for those and give it a try. At the very least it will be a good time filler until the release of the next "must have" game.