It falls somewhere between Civ and Crusader Kings and is a great version of both.

I have to give this a positive review because I do love playing it... but I wouldn't be writing this review if I weren't upset about how ridiculous this game can be sometimes.... Although with that said, I have picked up all the DLC's. So, yes I recommend, but I must rant.
You start as a leader with bonuses for your empire, but if your leader dies, you lose those bonuses. Other leaders offer other things later on, but what's really annoying is when you never get to take advantage of the traits because they die much too soon. I was just playing as one of the Persian dynasties, a leader that gives a free promotion (strike 1) to all melee units made in any city and extra bonuses if you found the religion Zoroastrianism. Just before turn 12, it tells me that another empire founded that religion, so I wouldn't get said bonuses after all. I also had 3 cities going, all producing warriors and on the final turn before they were complete, turn 14 BTW, my leader dies for literally no reason. He wasn't sick, he wasn't assassinated, he just died without warning. He was 37, wtf happened. When all these warriors spawned a turn later, none of them had the promotion that they should've gotten. I feel like I have to restart the game again or play as a different leader because that's just uncool.
I had a similar experience with one of the Roman dynasties, where you play as Nero's Mom. It's a great leader because you get the spy master from the start of the game, however, it's not really worth it because once Nero is 15 or 16 he begins plotting against you, his mother, and kills you before turn 15. I had to restart and imprison him as soon as I possibly could just so that I could stay alive for a couple more turns... although it still wasn't long enough to put that early spy master to much use.
So, I'm giving this a positive review because as you can see, those experiences have not stopped me from restarting and trying again, but it has been incredibly frustrating that I spend a few minutes reading about these different dynasties and their different perks when the leader doesn't live long enough to actually take advantage of those perks! This is not like the civilization games where you keep the same bonuses throughout the whole game. It's constantly getting changed up on you. You, your court, your generals, and governors will dictate the output of your yields... and they'll die all the time... but it usually won't bother you unless it's your ruler. The beginning of the game should be about exploiting as much as you can from the bonuses your character provides for you while they last, giving ample time to do so without worrying about the ruler dying out of nowhere. Personally, I think that the starting leader should be able to last at LEAST 30 turns otherwise they are rendered obsolete. The first 15 turns are for making settlers and builders... so having them die just after setting up a decent amount of production is just stupid. literally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid.
There's a lot that I'm leaving out here... there's a lot that I enjoy from the events.

TBH, the game is best after the first leader is long gone. It's fun having a bunch of children and seeing them compete for the throne and choosing the best most capable for the job. I prefer young leaders with wise traits, the longer they can live and serve, the longer their memory will remain with the people. It'll create events generations down the line. Events are what make this game engaging. If there weren't as many events I would've quit ages ago, but every time I play there's always a new event that I haven't been through yet which constantly makes the experience feel fresh.

Feels very similar to a slow Civilization where you've installed a mod that prevents you from moving all of your units in the same turn.

Some things are nice about it. The family dynasty stuff just feels like busywork rather than anything interesting, but are the only real departures from Civ that I've noticed so far. I'll probably poke at it a little more, but it really does feel like playing a mod.

update: played some more... got to the midgame (as given by the points score) and... it's just way too slow. I'm tabbing out of the game to watch youtube while the turns crunch. Most of my cities are on auto because that's tedious, as are most of my workers. So I'm playing very little game while I'm playing the game. And it's this slow on medium setting for everything. I don't understand how it can be this slow, coming from Paradox games that simulate dozens of nations in 'real time'.

Might have been okay but to be spending *more time* outside the game than inside while playing is just silly.

also: I have half a dozen 'glowing' achievements... for doing mundane midgame stuff. Glowing means fewer than 10% of players have it. The achievements percentages show that most people who bought the game are not sticking with it.