What made me like the first really doesn't show.
The first thing, is that what makes me like age of war so much, is that it's easy to play. Not that a challenge is bad, but the main selling point for me is that it was a game that I could just sit down, relax, and play when I was tired, but now, you actually have to give it some thought. Do you buy an upgrade, or do you buy more units? Do you evolve, or use your special powers? Actually, making your special powers cost X.P. is not a good thing at all. The powers made it fun to play, and it was a very nice way of releasing stress, but now I can't use it anymore, because if I do it will keep me from evolving, which will make me lose, thus turning a fun feature into a useless one. Also, Ion turrets were nerfed. :(