Having played the full version now, it's an okay game. Yes it is not Sim City 4, heck it's not even Sim City 3000 or 2000. From the little gameplay I had this morning before work, I feel that it's a respectable 6/10 game. The major problem is the Origin/Online DRM that has come with it, along with the server issues. I can understand the frustrations those would cause. I remember when Football Manager went onto the Steam platform and the first year they were on Steam there was horrendous issues with activation, which following the negativity on the forums for that game about going over to that system was not ideal for SI. Hopefully the server issues will ease, now that might be too late for some people and I can understand.
Hopefully Maxis get to build on this as there is a basis for a really good game. Unfortunately I think the negativity outweighs the positives and we might not see another game in this current branding of the series.