Newbies will have a tough time. Addictive once you're familiar with it.
The gameplay offers deep and complex mechanism which is pretty hard to understand if you're new to this game (double the trouble if you're new to city simulator game). There are a lot to manage, from food, drink, entertainment, power, resource, diplomacy, trade route, ecological balance, etc. The game is "worth the wait" if you're willing to persist and wait until you master the game system. It sucks you in once you're familiar with it, which is very unlikely to casual gamers who seeks for quicker actions.
The visual is great, however... to think that Battlefield 3 runs far smoother on my system at maximum settings than this game at maximum settings marks an inefficiency of the graphic engine.
Music is charming, I never engaged a battle in the game so I cannot conclude whether the music also changes during the battle scene or not.