In my opinion, my impression of Elemental is that it does not promise to be a revolutionary game. It's aiming straight for the mainstream. It's grid-based, and the production method is a simpler approach than the usual production points. The research and magical spells are quite simple ideas. The setting is for an accessable fantasy world, rather than something more esoteric. Aiming for simple, appealing mechanics is a good way to sell a lot of product, as is picking and choosing what mechanics contribute to the game, rather than including every new thing for little purpose. Quite frankly, elemental seems simple, and it definately has the potential to be entertaining while remaining accessable. It might even be deep.
On second though, that may be revolutionary, but not in such a way that it could be "Too revolutionary". My personal opinion is that Stardock has been quite conservative, maybe even too conservative, settling for creating quality mainstream products, and their sales numbers seem to back that up.
Mind you, my dream game would be a roguelike with detailed body simulation, a procedurally generated gameplay world including random creatures, storylines, terrain, civilizations, magic, and so forth, so maybe I've got a strange definition of conservative. Can you imagine firing up your roguelike and finding out that you're an escaped slave that is a member of a civilization of sapient comorants, living on a geologically active, metal-poor world, out to build an army to lead your tribe to a new home on the other side of a huge mountain range, all while knowing that you'll need to cross the territory of the planesmen, who ride horses and wield mighty air magics, as well as command fearsome groups of magical giant eagles?
