Yeah there's varying opinions on the game, I watched a ton of videos and overall I really like a lot of the new stuff, it's a big change from the old games in many ways but overall I think it looks pretty fun, for $40, I'll give it a go (Amazon preorder price after $20 credit). I think the city size could be frustrating but being able to have multiple cities in the region helps with that, and they may increase that as time goes on.
Also that review / chat is funny...really you only have highschools yet you wonder why your nuclear plants are fucking up? Last I checked I think I'd want college graduates running my nuke plants lol.