Empire was fun compared to getting my ass handed to me the way Shogun 2 did. That wasn't fun. That was, 'shamefurl'. I liked the Global Economy thing and the Naval Battles were gorgeous in ETW. Plus it had the Marathas, who doesn't love them? What other TW game have you ever been able to play an Indian Faction? And it had the other Indians too. And.... Prussians! The Custom Battles were worth the price by itself. I loved squishing Prussians with my Maratha elephants. Good fun.
Well if Maratha was part of Empire's appeal for you, then I guess I understand.
I confess that when it comes to strategy games, the sub-continent has typically held little appeal for me. I also felt Maratha was shoe-horned into the game as a blatant attempt to pander to Indian customers, similar to how the American Revolution tutorial/campaign was added to pander to us Yanks (both of which annoyed me greatly).
I also found the game "unplayable" due to how absolutely horrendous the AI was, both on the battlefield and on the campaign map. To have musket troops constantly charge my lines (instead of, you know, actually fire their weapons at range) or have a faction suddenly backstab me after my being a loyal ally for 50+ years...it just really broke immersion for me.
I did enjoy the naval battles, however; that was one of the main reasons I'd so looked forward to Empire coming out. And yes, you can't really go wrong with Prussia.
...I truly hope CA makes a sequel for Empire. They just need do it properly this time around.