Just got this, and I've been having a blast.
I really like that there's a choice in your equipment. I've never played the originals for any appreciable amount of time, though I've watched a couple LPs, but one thing that always bugged me about them was how limited your arsenal was. In the first, all I can remember is ever seeing use was starting rifle > laser (possibly skippable) > heavy plasma, with occasional support weapons in the form of fire/explosive cannon rounds/rockets and stun/blaster bombs.
Afterlight seems to be tempting me with an eventual moddable arsenal and tons of big guns, though I've been using the projectile weapons for forever (and they're awesome). There's also variation in suits and troops, instead of the completely linear armor tree from original X-com, which is great... except I've also not gotten any except the light battle suit.
The only thing I can really complain about is how slow the geoscape goes. I've only got one science and tech truck ranging across my giant territory (30 territories, a quarter of the surface I'd estimate), they're hella slow, and I'm not sure if I can ever get more. As a result, getting cool new buildings and tech takes forever, as I can't get the needed resources quick enough. Research similarly takes aaaages despite four guys working non-stop. I've got tons of them lined up, and still a few unassigned. I guess the speed's balanced to let me keep up with the aliens... but still, I've only just gotten grenades.
Fights are quite fun, though I've only been using the humans on missions due to finding my xeno allies and the drones pretty useless. As a result, they're severely underleveled, and therefore useless! Despite the lack of variety, though, the humans have enough equipment to stay varied, and therefore interesting.
It was pretty cool when the enemies ramped up in difficulty the first time - suddenly captains! - and this second time I've managed alright too. ...Except for my latest mission, where like eight high-level beastmen are bunched up in one of their huge great hall things, with five more outside. I think I counted 3 chiefs in there, with another in the group outside. I've been trying to overwhelm them through sheer grenadery, but there's just too many of them. The captains and chiefs manage to stay standing after I huck like five at them, and I just can't suck up the amount of gun they bring to the fight.
...Actually, I just thought up another thing to complain about. Why do my damn drones need combat experience to have their upgrade chips installed? That makes them weak, unable to keep up, and non-expendable, as they should be. Dammit, game.