I am joining a Dark Heresy group which is starting next week so the only experience I have is with character creation XD. My group has one person of every single "path" (think class) except the Acolyte. So, that said, here are my impressions so far:
The character creation system is both really good and really odd all at the same time. ALl the game uses is d10s. Either as multiple d10s and then added together or as a d% with one as the 10s digit and one as the 1s digit. There are 8 "stats" you roll for your character. They are Weapon Skill, Ballistics Skills, Strength, Agility, Toughness, Perception, Willpower, and Fellowship. When rolling stats you added a bonus based on what type of homeworld you are from (either Feral, Hive, Imperial, or Space). Except for WS and BS, all skills come in tiers of 10 with 30 being average. So a 28 and a 29 doesn't make a difference but a 29 and a 30 does. WS and BS are their own thing. Strength, Toughness, and Agility are the classic RPG stats. Perception is exactly what you would expect from its name (or if you have played Fallout), Willpower is the same way. Fellowship is the equivalent of the D&D Charisma stat.
*note: There are tables to randomly generate everything. If you want/need to make a character quickly you can roll up everything from class to eye color.
After you roll stats and pick your homeworld, you can pick your "path" which is similar to a class. Basically, each path has an EXP tier. While you are within a certain tier you have access to certain benefits and once you reach the next tier you gain access to new stuff. EXP is spent like money on stats (as mentioned above), talents (think feats from D&D), and skills. Example: Say you want to take a talent which allows you to build explosive wigets. The talent costs 200exp so you spend 200 of your unspent exp to purchase it and then you have it permanently. You reach new tiers of your path when your total spent exp reaches a certain point. You cannot join multiple paths (ie. Multi-class) but the paths are so dependent on which skill upgrades and talents you take it doesn't make as much of a difference unless you want a path specific talent/skill (which there are a few but not a ton, like everyone can take gun proficiency but not everyone can take pickpocket). The types of paths run the gamut of the "I'm a Culexus assassin in training" assassin to the firey preacher cleric, to the mechanically adept Techpriest, to the shifty scum (think rogue/thief).
Every path gets a starter package of gear and skills (some things you get a choice, however. Like proficiency in las pistols vs proficiency in solid projectile for example). Most iconic gear appears in the book (chainswords, lasrifles, lascannons, auspex, etc) but an annoyingly large amount don't (eviserators for example). There is a huge amount of weapons and armor (including power armor!) but remarkably few non-weapon/armor items. This will probably be fixed as more books come out (as few as there will be =P).
Rules wise, the system is remarkably simple. Almost everything requires that you roll a d% and have the result fall under your skill value (after modifiers). This means that starting out (with "Average" stats of 30s in everything) you only have a 30% chance of hitting something with your sword or gun and that is assuming you are proficient with your weapon and they don't have a special ability. It is fairly easy to get your WS or BS up to 40 (thus a 40% chance) but that is still some EXP spent on that rather then something else.
More remarks next week once I get a chance to play
