They just felt like M2 levelpacks to me, and hard ones at that. Phoenix is the better of the two, I agree, and the biggest pro I'd give it is it has music. There is one level I liked a lot that was underground with some non-lh'owon texture metal structures over a deep pit, but at the same time it was perplexing to figure out and I was on it forever.
Mostly it just doesn't really explore anything new. It's centered on some rogue s'pht'kr clan hiding out somewhere. Umm, okay? The other big scenarios had time travel, the pfhor homeworld, other alien species, pfhor elders, renaissance italy, non-marathon-universe storylines, etc. Lots of new territory. Having s'pht'kr as enemies, and a giant boss s'pht'kr, is really, really hard in an unfun way.
