Fun all the way
The Warhammer 40k universe is represented perfectly in this RTS, gritty battlefields, lots of blood and the since that there is just no real "good guys"
they all fight for what they think is right, thats really cool in my opinion.
the game play is fast paced and lots of fun, with lots of units and upgrades, each race has its own playing style, necrons slow but power-full, imperial guard weak but numerous and fast with lots of vehicles, space marines witch can adapt to any situation, and so on, a truly balanced set of SEVEN races, well there are some complaints that the necrons are overpowered but ill let you decide, they have advantages but also have clear weaknesses.
A standard campaign (witch i found was the weak spot in the original game) is substituted with a risk style map of the planet kronus,split into several territories, you choose a race and try to eliminate every other race on the planet, there are some territories that have specific objectives to win, while most are just to eliminate the enemy forces, this works very well, we don't really need an involving story in a truly fun RTS, each race has its own endgame, its own animation for when you defeat a foe.
Each time you conquer a territory you get what is called an Honor guard unit, witch is supply very very power-full regular units, it adds to you feeling you are controlling the planet and grow stronger.
The two new races the necrons and tau are welcome editions to the cast, the tau especially are very fun and very colorfully to play as
the music is OK, not memorable but the sounds of the battlefield are top notch and the voice acting is great.
multimplayer is a very strong point, one of THE most fun RTS to play online fast and fun!
In the end its a very solid game, i recommend it to any RTS veteran or rookie, its just an all around great game... what will relic and thq have for us in 2007? only time will tell.