A lot of people here seems to speak some serious non-sense about the game. Except... Clothing is sad, yes... But not being able to customize buildings? You can customize all of them. And having all tools from space age in a couple days? Have you been playing non-stop, it takes ages to get the real nice tools, which is bad in itself since the initial tools you get aren't all that fun.
Yes, the game is kiddie oriented, but you seriously didn't expect that from Maxis? Please, it has been ages since SimEarth and they learned fluff makes things sell. I knew it would be that way, I bought it, I didn't expect any extreme complexity and I'm having fun with it.
Would I rather have a more serious sim like SimEarth, yes, no doubt about it. I know how frustrated you all are, but really, don't make things up.
By the way, plant and terrain editors should become available via free patches later. At least that's what I read in an interview earlier this year. So stick with it a while longer.
Read more carefully before accusing somebody please. It was told about tribal buildings, not civ ones.
And the game is really customizable in many aspects, bu not in all we were promised. And the gameplay is dull, you can't neglect it.
Cell phase: great as carnivore, not bad but a bit less fun as herbivore species. This phase is made good.
Creature phase: many things were skipped but it's still fun so I rate this 4/5 because it can be really fun. Many aspects of important "creature" life are skipped though.
Tribal phase: here our Personality becomes an "ant" and while it offers some variety it's still a bad rts. No ability to customize anything but a few clothing pieces, bad pathfinding and no ability to form squads (at least I didn't find it) and a very bald diplomacy makes it <<< settlers. Tools variety is near 0 (weapon, gathering, musical instruments) and they are always the same... This phase looks unfinished.
Civ. phase: doh. << civilization, <<settlers, << (!) space rangers 2 rts system. Meh, this rts system is really bad. The only funny thing is the ability to make "trade routes" with actual moving vehicles. One of the worst RTS systems I've ever seen (NO SQUADS AGAIN?).
Space phase. Well, it can be fun and isn't bad at all in many aspects, although it's not balanced in many ways. No ability to really "die", again that dull diplomacy and no ability to manage your empire other than building cities is weird. Where's the promised epicness? And terraforming is really cut and "childish", I've already told that I don't want "chololate rivers", I want surface-cutting lasers and different types of atmosphere. Also I want diplomacy, at least simple technology development (the "badge" system while somewhat fun is totally arcade-ish, it's not evolution!)...
The result is: 1 good phase, 1 above average phase, 1 undecided (good/bad/dull?) and 2 terrible phases (in comparison with the things that were promised) = (my opinion) 1+ 0,8 + 0,6 + 0,4 + 0,2 = 3/5 for a game we were expecting for years... Too bad for me.
I still play it because it's unique in it's way and it's good for people who weren't expecting it for years and who hadn't read the info about this game in the beginning of it's development, but it's definitely a game which was damaged by the EA opinion "make it for all" IMO and also it has noticeable problems like unfinished phases. I think Will needed more time but EA hurried him.