I loved the original game. I played it through many times. I am really liking this edition, too, except three things. I don't know if anything can be done about them, or if I'm just playing wrong.
First is the game speed. I start building one building... and then I can't do anything else for hours. If I'm going to do a quest or worldbuilding type game, I'd like to be able to actually play it more than five minutes a day. Those kinds of game can be great for player engagement, but not if I can't do anything when I log in. I see that there are items I could buy to speed things up, but in only five minutes a day, I don't have the sort of engagement that makes me want to spend money.
Second, I have an army that's too weak to do the Ruins quest as they keep getting killed. If I build a bigger army, not only will it take me several days, but I will lose Culture, which shrinks my land area. I'm surrounded by other people, and I am not keeping up with their growth. I don't understand how to finish that quest in a reasonable time frame and still keep my lands or grow them.
Third, on multiple part puzzles, there's no indication that I've got part of the puzzle right. If I have to do three steps and I do two right ones, then the third is wrong, I have no idea that either of the first two was a step in the right direction. I just got done with a puzzle where I was pretty sure I knew the answer and kept trying to apply it, but because nothing happened in the first parts, I thought it was wrong and tried other things. I was stuck for way longer than I should have been, and it was really frustrating. If there could be some indication that progress in a a puzzle is being made, it would make things much more fun.
I am really liking a lot about this version, and I would love to buy it, but I don't enjoy not being able to do what I need/want to do.