As a sequel to the original, it's over-simplified, clunky, and tech-wise uses the same core as CIV 4.
This is even more misleading, because in the video intro, you see the character plopping down a hotel! My biggest complaint is the cartoon-like graphics, totally gone is any sense of scale. Crossing the entire mid-west US, seems like it's the house next-door...in less than 10 mins you can build a rail crossing a few thousand miles. That just seems very unrealistic for some reason, and this game doesn't pull it off.
My last complaint, which i think is the worst, is that fireaxis decided to the use the somewhat mis-aligned CIV 4 engine. They even re-used some of the sounds (interface).
Like CIV4, after a while, despite running on a competent machine, the game started to lag and slow down.
Honestly, in terms of game mechanics (not graphics even), i think the original one, despite being over 20 years old still does a better job of bringing good gameplay to the table. I think Sid Meier's forgot to QA this one.