the missions themselves don't really have much going for them in terms of premise outside of the last couple, and even then i still found it pretty hard to follow
it lacks substance. all the other expansions have had a clear premise and a somewhat clear reason for us taking the steps we are taking throughout the campaign. this one might (?) have had set up last season, but for someone who didn't play it, i had no clue what was going on. the rest of the missions were pretty generic "hey, the vex turned the power off go turn it back on and kill the mind that's doing that" missions rather than subsequent missions with momentum like in witch queen and tfs.
that aside, the cinematics were very good. all three of them. yes, *three*. unfortunately, again, there was no build up. one of them involving ikora just gets dropped out of nowhere with no sense of foreshadowing or anything to build up what was shown in the cutscene and i found it quite jarring.
the main villain is BAD. he is written like a borderlands 3 side boss with borderlands 3 quality writing but without the humour and again it feels so shoehorned in for no reason. the payoff with him is a decent callback to d1, but it's only a strike of all things, and it just ends quite anti-climactically. probably one of the worst destiny villains to date.
additionally, ghost feels future proofed for if this becomes the entry point for new players to digest the story, but he either starts sounding stupid or starts saying the obvious. i lost count of the amount of times he asked how the archon's voice was coming out of another fallen like he was dora the explorer, and then also him not-so-subtly explaining the mechanics to you for whatever fight in the same 'talking to a kid through the tv' voice.
now, one would assume after how good lightfall was gameplay-wise and tfs was also pretty decent, this would follow suit.
it does not.
this is one of the worst gameplay experiences i have had playing destiny, and that includes tfs' server issues. holy fuck, the mechanics they added to this expansion are so tedious. i don't dislike that they changed it up from the usual "dunk this here, stand on this plate" etc etc, but at least those mechanics are quick and easy when they do show up. these are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ LOOOONG.
the ball is probably the worst offender, having to navigate from the buff pickup to the door that you always get stuck on, then go through a pipe in janky first person to spam click next to a thing you need to charge. or having to go grab the buff and run around, setting up mid fight because of an enemy with a shield, whilst also being practically defenseless.
i wouldn't mind them if they were only in the jumping puzzle portions (which are severely lacking in comparison to the spectacle of others in the games' lifespan) but they are in EVERY. SINGLE. BOSS FIGHT; having to put a pause button on the boss' health bar to go run around grabbing the mechanics and doing them while also on a time limit (which really isnt that bad but still) THREE TIMES in one fight is absolutely mental to me. maybe i'm just tired, but i could genuinely feel the mechanics putting me to sleep the more i played. hopefully they don't show up in the raid.
finally, kepler. i hate it.
kepler is a reskinned, empty tangled shore with generic vex architecture, fallen architecture, fallen ship architecture and straight up copy-pastes of titan buildings all put into a blender, drank, and then thrown back up again. even the skybox is terrible (it's okay in the last mission). bungie, this is the one thing you don't miss on in every dlc. how the fuck did you fuck up the one thing you're good at??
tldr; don't buy it and pete parsons is a fuck
