Let me paraphrase that I do like the game. It's just... I'm a little disappointed that it wasn't the game I expected. I mean they called it a Civ sequel, I was expecting to have to play the deep politics game to play people against each other, get my leg up on research, on those vital goods, manage an empire, etc etc.
It doesn't feel like a civ sequel, it feels like a war strategy game. The empire management exists to support your war effort. It's not that you do war to help your civilization be successful, its that you run your civilization to make your war successful. Not quite what I wanted.
The diplomacy game feels very weird, random at best. It feels like it exists solely as a reason to not be at war with everyone at once and only a few at a time if you can manage it a little. The people have no sort of continuity or rationality. They'll randomly team up and go war with you even if its obvious they're going to be beaten badly, and even if they've been cooperating with you in research and friendly relations. Like I said, it's just a means to pacing the combat, and that's it.
So! If you like the war strategy game, you'll like it. If you don't like simulating an empire, trying to tweak different stuff, you'll like it.
And I find it fun for now, but it's already getting a little old. The combat is much improved and kinda fun, but it doesn't change much, keep your empire as efficient as possible to pump out the strong units you can manage.
