I really agree with all of your points. The environment as it is right now is nothing but a pretty background for killing enemies over and over again. But beyond being pretty the levels should tell a story that immerses the player. In ODST we had audio logs that told a nice little story that had almost nothing to do with the main plot, but immersed the players by giving a little bit of background about the world. In Old Russia we should get something similar like letters, datapads or anything that gives us some information about how the cosmodrome worked before the darkness, or even an eyewitness account of the attack. Give us a little puzzle where you can open a hidden room with a bunch of skeletons and a letter that explains how a family tried to hide there during the attack and got trapped inside. Fallout 3 did stuff like that extremely well. Almost every Vault, cave, house, factory or raider outpost had at least a little bit of backstory, making exploration very rewarding. And show us why we should hate the Fallen (beside the fact that they wanna shoot us). Right now they feel kind of generic. In ODST you can see the Brutes mistreating an innocent little Engineer. That makes me feel good about myself when I finally kill them. Give the villains some character so we can kill them with more satisfaction. The same goes with NPC's in the Tower. Make them more than just faces. When I first saw Lord Shaxx I thought he looked super imposing and I wanted to know more about the guy. But right now we get nothing. I would also like to see some NPC's in the combat zone. Maybe a tiny little outpost manned by a small fireteam of guardians who are searching for some old world artifact. That would make the world more alive, give us a little backstory and even provide the opportunity for a public event where you have to defend the outpost against an onslaught of enemies. Granted we have only seen a small sliver of the story (I hope!), but as it is Old Russia is not a very interesting place. I remain somewhat hopeful however, that some of these points will be adressed in the final game.