A great game flawed by ridiculous repetitive routine....
Story(7.5): the story is pretty simple. The emperor's "purge team" has decided to kill everything and each races wants to stop that, in order to make it out alive. Yes, that is it. While there are minor changes depending on the race you play as, it all comes down to kill everything so that you don't die...
Graphics (9): the game looks great. There aren't any major changes from the previous game but it' still an amazing experience. Units, heroes and animations look and feel great with some minor exception that don't bother you to much. While graphics are pretty good, the visual effects of explosions and gun fire are probably the best thing about the graphics and fortunately this game has a lot of them.
Gameplay(8.5): You play as a group of heroes from the selected race and kill everything that moves. By doing so you reach your goals and collect gear while also leveling up your characters. The small level cap and small number of items(compared to the previous game) tend to take away the fun of the game. While this is not some major disappointment it will still feel a little useless to complete all secondary objectives. You still capture resource points but this time you can buy units at special locations and have them fight along side your heroes making the game more like a strategy then a RPG. Another interesting twist is that you can chose to play the game as elite units that share special traits with your heroes. Yet, in terms of gameplay this does not change the game experience at all.
Sound(8.5): voice acting and sound effects are good and fit in the space marine universe. There isn't anything worth nothing but overall the sound is good and will not bother you.
Multiplayer(8.5): cooperative play in last stand is probably the strong point even if there are several other mods to play. While multilayer character progression might provide additional hours (considering double level cap and achievements items) it does get repetitive after a short while. In terms of performance there is little lag but at the present time (may 2011) it is very hard to find other players to play with.
Final thoughts: if you are a fan of the series you will love this game. While it does not have anything amazing to show off it is still a great experience that pushes the story a step further. A single play-through and some multilayer will provide at least a dozen hours of fun with the possibility to replay the mission as one of the other 5 races if you really like the game. If you like strategy game this may also provide very fun, even if the strategical decision aren't always required to win.
Bonus: on collectors edition you get a poster, some artwork cards and a bonus set items for a single (main)hero at the start of each campaign.