During it's entire existence all Relic did was selling grand-tactics games under the guise of RTS games. Ironically Dawn of War was their fist and only actual RTS IP, even if corridor, tactical and tiny-scale one. Well, not anymore, this is an outright squad-(squad)-tactical game. It has mission-based structure, including randomly generated side-quest, which you can drag to infinity if you want to farm some randomly generated gear more.
And that mix of a squad-tactical game with H&SARPG sensibilities is what makes it so good. Even if you are limited to the stupid space marines again.
The story declares Soulstorm campaign a mistake, and otherwise isn't memorable, despite the all of cutscenes.
Game's very pretty and the core gameplay loop is fine.