Well I bought it, played a bit over an hour, and refunded it. The game is so massively different from the original. Now, it plays much more like Civilization, or Sim City, and I don't prefer that. You set districts, and the rest is all built automatically.
I strongly preferred being able to hand place my buildings, trying to squeeze out maximum efficiency in regards to closeness to the generator.
Speaking of generators, it mostly seems like an afterthought now. I was able to place industrial areas and such quite far from the generator and they were fine. As long as you are bringing in enough coal and your heat demand doesn't exceed production, proximity is no longer an issue.
The advent of adding new factions is interesting - new interest groups can form based on decisions you've made, and that's interesting.
It's gone from day one to wait for sale for me though.