I have to agree with leonlotus concerning the new arc. KotFE leaves me feeling underwhelmed. At first glance I enjoyed the initial installments story presented in the cinematics but was disappointed by the stifling, linear gameplay I had to trudge through in order to take it in.
I felt as though I was released into a pet's outdoor run/enclosure. The "adventure" is an unalterable progression from predefined point to predefined point. As a consequence I no longer feel as though I am part of a larger world. When I played the class driven stories diversions like side quests and freedom of movement from planet to planet provided an illusion that I wasn't on rails. The recycled corridor and location assets suggest a sequence of tiles being slapped down directly in front of me in order to disguise the nothingness that surrounds my character.
This felt most pronounced as I played Firebrand. The book-ended cut scenes framing the monotonous corridor walking and too numerous, pitiful enemy spawns was an insufficient payoff for the tedium. I returned to SWtoR because of the promise of enriched story telling. I feel that the bar has not been raised and what could have served to focus attention on an enriched story telling dynamic is just lazy and miserly use of development resources because there is nothing that has been delivered to call further attention to.
While the jetpack was kind of neat a hollowed out robot head for a hat just looks silly and is poor incentive for continuing to subscribe given the underwhelming serial I just experienced; This being the draw and the novelty item being just that. I hope that next months story will be better but am skeptical as the majority of the player base hasn't seemed to share or at least expressed a similar opinion. I want to enjoy this and have a happy Star Wars Bioware experience but I'm not feeling it.