Awesome game, with DLCs

It is a fun strategy game with a cool concept.

I wanted to like this game. Before I played this game, I was hoping for a game like Civilization; a game that gave you a lot freedom and options to build your civilization however you wanted. I imagined a single game being a day-long affair, and there was always a clear sense of progression in either technology, resources, or the state of your civilization. Instead, the game felt restrictive; the card-system forced me to do nothing except pick the best option based on the resources I had in my possession instead of focusing on my vision for the planet. Subsequent research dashed any hope that my issues were just an early-game problem. This game was designed around strategy, optimization, replayability, and mastery; game sessions are designed to be relatively short, with players expected to fail a lot before they develop winning strategies (which are dependent on random chance). There doesn't appear to be a clear sense of progression either; technology and building improvements are more like a horizontal progression, or based on random chance. I am sure this game is good for someone, but that someone isn't me. Fingers-crossed that Terraformers 2 (assuming that happens) is more my speed (but I doubt it).