i bought it and played a few hours. It's between good and not bad.
Seems to me AI cheats like hell, ICS seems to work, far too few factions, not sure about diplomacy but seems weak (well, not like it's different from other games) but it does work, it has some nice ideas and the "fresh meat" aura for us hungry gamers.
I think I'll probably play it for 40-50 hours in the next months so it's not like it's a bad investment when it comes to price/gaming hours.