This could have been so good, and it's obvious that there is a great game hidden under the layers of DRM, online-requirement, in-game ads, and Origin. It's a real shame.
I enjoy simulation games, still fire up Railroad tycoon from time to time (it's still better than Sid Meier's Raillroads) and was really looking forward to this. Then after launch the damning reviews of broken servers and bugs made me decide to wait a couple of months. The reports died down - I have to assume now because people just playing it - but I bought it.
What a mistake. Right from the start even the tutorial bugged out to the point it was impossible to complete. Retried, same result. So I thought "what the hell I'll wing it", and faced bizarre bugs like being unable to source from or supply other cities in the area, weird behaviour from Fire engines and ambulances, game stuttering badly at times (and I have a kick-ass gaming rig here that doesn't even break a sweat running Crysis 3 across 3 1920x1200 monitors with everything turned up). Probably worth mentioning that this game is even worse if an attempt is made to play it across multiple monitors - textures just stop, controls are spread too far apart and it's horrible to play. Single monitor only.
I persevered, but after losing 2 cities due to bugs, and tonight trying to play again after a month or so off, and it not managing to download a patch after 6-7 attempts, I uninstalled it.
It's terrible. I feel sad for the developers who actually put together the good parts, and anger at the people who made the decisions that pretty much ruined the game. I'll never play it again, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.