Nicer wrapping, less depth.
Good:
- Much improved graphics
- Very polished user interface
- Low entrance level compared to previous iterations
Bad:
- It takes a very long time to calculate the next turn once the world expands, it feels like half of the playtime is just waiting for the turns to complete (I have a super high end desktop system)
- Some minor annoyances in the user interface, where the focus after a turn often is taken away from what you are doing.
- Upgrades and technology is too dumbed down, making you just click on the suggested upgrade most of the time without any other thought.
- Once I won a couple of times, I felt there is not that much left to it, unless you insist on winning in different ways. Winning seems to be pretty straight forward, and just a matter of patience.