An engaging story or brilliantly original concept has never been a major selling point of most popular FPS games , FPS's by nature are meant to be immersive ,fast , intense , hardcore and enjoyable...that's where the majority of the games perceived quality is derived from.
I think Conduits biggest apprarent strength may be it's downfall , the developers put so much emphasis on the graphical prowess of the game that automatic comparisons with HD FPS's in our minds , it's not even intentional . As soon as we see that the conduit fails in comparison to it's HD rivals , the fact that it doesn't apear to do anything particularly new or differently it's easy to assume that it's just another generic FPS that got released 7 years to late.