Enjoyable, but nothing special
You get some new buildings which is nice, but they don't add much variety. For example, the new apartments come in only 2 flavours - small and large - and are identical except for height. Condos have only one skin instead of the 5 or so they used to have. Agriculture buildings now do everything for you and all look the same, which while handy, is kind of dull. They also take up a lot more space.
While the skins of the buildings are irrelevant to game play, this lack of variety limits your ability to add personal creative flair to your city design, which for me, is a big part of the fun. On a positive note, the modern buildings are great, and let you add something that looks like a downtown core. They also offer new ways to appease or bully your citizens as you see fit, giving you more options for managing respect and happiness. New edicts, on the other hand, feel like an after thought, and I only used them when directed to by the campaign goals.
The campaign itself is same old, same old. It is also extremely easy. Unlike in Tropico 4, where I routinely expected to fail the first attempt at a mission, in Modern Times I only had to start over a couple of times. There are a few exceptions in the form of missions which were so frustratingly difficult to accomplish I had to retreat to the internet to figure out how to solve them, but in general I'd say the game is either much easier than its predecessor, or the difficulty wasn't scaled at all to account for the player having already learned how to play it.
That being said, I do recommend this game to anyone who enjoyed Tropico 4 and wants more of the same with a bit of an update. It is still the same old satisfying Tropico, but if you want something new it isn't for you.