Main take away: This game unfortunately feels uninspired and like a cheap take on the Civ franchise.
You've got the
worst part of the 20-odd years Call to Power 1 and 2, the battle screen that does nothing other than getting you out of the game flow. And it looks like it was made back when CtP was made. If the game was far away, this could be temporary programmer art, but since we're getting a demo in one week, it does sound like the game is pretty far along.
The game feels from watching it like FreeCiv (free clone of Civ2) mated with Civ3 and Civ5 (the worst Civ titles, both pretty old by now). It feels cheap, possibly well made, but a direct clone and probably made on a very small budget. It just feels cheap and uninspired.
The village feature sounds promising, but it doesn't seem to be more than named districts from Civ6?
Pro: The undo feature from Old World (Civ competitor made by Soren Johnson, the man behind Civ4), which is pretty neat.
I hope the game feels better in person when I try the demo next week.
Oh yeah, and I am cautiously optimistic about the age progression feature.