Offline mode takes care of some problems. There are still bugs that remain, and the small map sizes. Mods help, to an extent.
My current assessment of value for the game would be that I would buy it for 10 bucks if it included the expansion as well. It's a little hit or miss. For all my criticisms of the game, I still spent a lot of time with it trying to figure it out. I still think you can do the free trial of the game to try it out for yourself first.