Positives:
What they're actually attempting here is surprisingly ambitious. The tech web + the 3 ideologies + the virtue system having wide and narrow bonuses has the potential for a LOT of flexibility and changes in playstyle, not just for preference, but to actually respond to game to game scenarios.
The number of units and ways they can be built is impressive, and probably has some of the best potential for a combat system i've seen out of them, especially when compared to Civ 5 where tech paths as far as war went were almost always the same, barring one or two race specific units. I really can't stress enough how much potential the new military system has in solving a lot of older Civ combat issues, especially late game.
Spying is no longer a joke, and again, has the framework down to be a real vector for your strategies, not just that thing you do because you got a free spy. You get real economic incentive from proper spy use, and can get military incentive as well, which is huge. I do wish however that there was more to it, especially when it comes to screwing with their cities.
Orbital has potential to finally change the very basic land upgrade game and add another way to really influence what lands you hold. The idea of something that's like forts, but doesn't suck, is awesome.
Aliens, even as they are, are infinitely more interesting than barbs ever were. As is it's a little shallow, but again, i see great potential with a few fixes.
Cons:
I use the word potential a lot because it's currently not living up to it. Unlike a lot of people here, I just flat out didn't expect the release to be balanced. It seems like a case of "get it out before X mas", but even if it wasn't, I don't think people honestly understand how extremely difficult it is to balance something like this. I don't love that we're the balance beta test, but I do think that it's probably better to just get it early, let the players figure things out(because the devs never find everything anyways. We've got people who are arguably more skilled, and we've got numbers on our side), and then get a real patch.
In short I hope that things that are just #'s issues(weak wonders, trading to some extent, unit balance, etc) will be resolved/lessened with a balance patch withing say 2 months at the most. I can't blame anyone for not buying the game until such thing drops, and if it doesn't drop i'd advocate avoiding it all together.
That said...WTH trade? Convoy's have basically become workers, in that they're literally just as, if not more, important to the growth of your empire, and while it's sorta just another #'s issue, it's a big one. Even if this is how they want them to be(which is feasible), they NEED to redo the UI to make it less tedious, and then they need to rebalance a ton of other factors to account for the idea that trade is basically workers on crack. Personally I really think trade needs to revolve around roads, but that's not the point.
Going tall, once again, seems hampered. I really hate how wide is almost forced in these games. I'm not asking for viable single city strats every time, but I would like to be able to drop 3-6 mega cities rather than 8 rushed out trade/unit hubs becoming 20 later. Especially with the idea that orbital could easily make tall much more viable, when in actuality the numbers just don't seem to support it.
Diplomacy is still just Civ 5 diplomacy, and Civ 5 diplomacy sucks. Endless legend/space, for all of their flaws, have a much better diplomacy system, not just in execution, but AI reactions and logic as well. I would LOVE a patch/expansion that gives the sort of effort and thought religion brought, to diplomacy. Favors is a cool concept, that feels completely tacked on and mostly pointless. In short diplomacy still just boils down to 1. Keeping the AI from getting mad at you and 2. Figuring out the magic numbers you can get from resources you don't need. You could just replace them with a market and be done with it.
AI- regardless of what anyone else has said, it's better than Civ 5. It's just not good enough. I've seen multiple skirmishes with the AI that were vastly more intelligent than the Civ 5 suicide fest. Still, cities have no clue how to defend themselves(gee, maybe target the one marine I brought or the artillery that's pegging you for free, rather than the 4 fortifying armors), and with the tech balance so out of wack, it isn't hard for a player to quickly and easily net an extreme strategic advantage. Some of this will get better as the balance improves(programming the AI with good strats requires knowing those strats, and massive amounts of players always figure those out faster than the devs), but again i'm just worried about this on a fundamental level. Especially with so much flexibility now inherent to the game, playbook openings are going to be even weaker and much harder.
Overall- I don't actually regret buying it, but I also wouldn't recommend it as is unless you really like experimenting with new ideas, rather than just doing whatever works best. It's currently a solved game, that was solved waay too fast, and while there's plenty of potential, how much of that is realized should weigh highly on anyone. Honestly if they ONLY DLC this and don't give out just a few basic "ok we see what we did wrong" patches, i might just drop them completely.
There is a free 100 turn demo you know.
