Trust me, the game is fucking beautiful. I helped write the manual (/brag), and I was really floored by how the game looked. I never played AoW2, so I can't compare the two, but it's a huge improvement over AoW. Runs like a charm, even at 1920 x whatever. It is 2D, but anyone who judges it solely on that...well:
http://www.specialolympics.com/And yes, it's a blast to play. Very fun. One of the few games I'll probably play after doing intensive writing sessions on it.
http://www.matthewrorie.comhttp://users.ign.com/collection/Azraelot