Someone will ask, why I spend hours of playing with a game I actually did not like. Don't get me wrong - after all it is not a bad game - even when it is not what someone will expect from an XCOM game - so it can entertain in an easy, non-complex way.
In the end it is still something I really miss and therefore it cannot hold you as long in front of your computer as the original XCOM games did.

When playing the game longer you also recognize many more flaws:

It happens quite often, that you click on the false spot (elevated, non-elevated). Problem is, Unit moves immediatly and you cannot undo your decision. In Jagged Alliance, you can plan the moves of all your units before you actually start the action - the same was true for XCOM Apocalypse.
So if you hit the wrong place, because snapping does not work perfectly and somehow is hard to see, you end up sending your soldier in the open field, where he might get killed - not funny.

Firaxis decided that they do not want to use time units - instead you have a 2-part action frame. you can shoot or move .. it is a bit more like chess, than XCOM if you ask me - you can upgrade here and there to be able to shoot another time but in the end the whole thing feels just too simple for XCOM.

That get's even worse if you try to do some tactics, like sneeking over the terrain to find where the enemies are. So you cannot sneek, your soldiers are all little rambos, they can just run into the field beeing immediatly seen by a bunch of enemies.
So the only thing you can do is run from cover to cover, knowing, that if you see an enemy, they get immediate attention on you.
So as I said it is even less complex than chess.

The other thing is the lack of an inventory - imagine you have 2 soldiers with the ability os sanitation but only 1 of the soldiers carry a medikit. The medikit carrier get's shoot down. Normally, you would go there pick up his medikit and heal him. Because you cannot pick up anything, that's not possible. The medikit is welded to the one person who carries it - not very realistic.

There is also no need for ammunition like it was in older XCOM. I am pretty sure, the devs thought, that the old XCOM was to complex for the casual console player.

The level design is another part. In older XCOM the levels was kind of unqiue - in the new XCOM .. there is a bit of variation in it, but actually every level is the same - in the end, that's not that bad, because there is enough other variation.

But one really annoying thing is the lack of complexity. You just cannot play different tactics or different styles. You cannot have a bunch of rambos, throwing rockets at 1 special heavy enemy.

I also see no reason why one soldier is not be able to pick up the rocket launcher from a fallen one. What's so hard to pick that thing up and press a button - there is no reason to be a "heavy" soldier just to press a button.

All the gameplay around the turn based fights is kinda similar - it is very simple, not very complex, yes you can sell your findings if you do not need them to get some money but in the end, you still have 1 base, building some buildings .. all of that is not really crucial - it feels like a try "to do anything" generally it annoys it is no fun.

Currently - even the XCOM Trilogy (Aftermath etc) was much better as an XCOM game - I would rather play those, maybe I will :-) They were very near at XCOM Apocalypse but with the story of the original XCOM somehow. The graphics there are a bit old, but who cares - I do not play a game just because it looks nice - for those things I watch a movie.

So the conclusion: Is XCOM Enemy Unkown worth the money later in the game .. ? NO .. it isn't - wait for a deal if you like to play it - play Jagged Alliance in the mean time, it is more complex and makes more fun somehow - you could even get the XCOM Aftermath Trilogie which gives you weeks of fun for just some bucks.