I've only played half of it, but i have really enjoyed it.

The first major encounter was a lot of fun. The second, well, still working on it. I think once a good system is ironed out, it will go a lot more smoothly.

They definitely spent a lot of time polishing this one. So far, i would venture to say it's better than Crota's End. I think just getting to (and through) the halfway point is nearly as long and covers as much ground as the Crota raid.

I have a lot of VoG nostalgia, so I can't really say if it's better or not. From what i have seen so far, i think this Raid stands the chance to be bigger. Others that have made it through can comment on whether that is true or not.

Still blind, so please no spoilers.

In general, how is it? Interesting? More of the same? Difficult? Not-so-difficult? Better than VoG? Etc.

Lots of fun. Big, long, vast. Similar but quite different mechanics. I'd say not so difficult, unless you're blind, then its harder. It's very much on par with the VoG. There's more to it though.

I'll be interested to see how I think it compares after we've all got the mechanics down pat like we do w/ the VoG or Crota's End. Especially the length of it.

Half way through so far and I have enjoyed it for the most part. The mechanics are interesting and challenging when doing this blind. Hopefully we can make it to Oryx still going in to it blind.

I think Bungie has made this raid in a way that will really force people to work as a team and that's awesome (and frustrating). from the get go it's obvious this was designed in a way that you can't solo the raid anymore.

Still blind, so please no spoilers.

In general, how is it? Interesting? More of the same? Difficult? Not-so-difficult? Better than VoG? Etc.

I think it's the best raid yet by far. Mechanically it makes the Vault of Glass look like child's play, and there are no bullet sponge mobs like Crota's end. It is way more team and coordination focused than either previous raid. There's one boss fight in particular that has you and your team synchronizing like 3 things at once.

There is no soloing this one.

Still blind, so please no spoilers.

In general, how is it? Interesting? More of the same? Difficult? Not-so-difficult? Better than VoG? Etc.

I don't like it from what I've done so far. From what I've seen of the rest, I don't anticipate liking it.

Interesting? No.
More of the same? No.
Difficult? Yes.
Better than VoG? I don't think so.

I think this raid was built with the mechanics in mind first, then a framework on top of them, with only a couple exceptions. It seems like they said "all right, what will be hard?" then threw in the actual content of the raid. There are a couple of really really cool sections, cooler than anything in VoG in my opinion, but it's not a "oh, cool!" thing every time you go to a new area.

To me, each encounter I experienced seemed like it was made not to challenging and rewarding upon finishing, but created to make sure 6 people are there doing it, and make it very difficult.

It feels like a bunch of people were in a room planning this raid. Very vaaaaague hints at mechanics follow. You'll be fine to read them, I think.

One said "hey, let's have the guys fight a boss here!"
"All right, but to damage him, they have to get a buff."
"Great! But to get the buff they have to kill a ton of enemies."
"No, no, kill a ton of enemies, then solve a puzzle!"
"Oh, I like it. Seems too easy, though. What if the buff goes away unless they do some other stuff?"
"Good! But they will become too good at that eventually. Let's make it so they are forced to do it on a very set schedule."
"Can we throw adds at them as well?"
"Obviously. But we're going to need to make sure they can't run from the adds. Let's arrange something so they have to say in one specific place to do it."
"This is sounding good. Let's throw a timer on it."
"How about a death limit, so if someone fucks up, it screws the whole team?"
"YES."

Then they built the raid on these encounters. Vault felt more like an experience with challenging bosses. Crota felt similar, like a really new experience. With only a couple exceptions, this raid feels like Bungie just tried to make something hard.

I don't like hard stuff. I like my games to be fun, not 6 hour odysseys of figuratively slamming my head against a wall only to figure out we missed a fundamental step, then slowly learning to hate my raid partners for no fault of their own, particularly when I like all of them. Screw that. I'm going to wait to do this raid until later when everyone knows how it works.

EDIT: I think I will enjoy the raid more when it's easier, but probably not much more. I'd prefer a simple mechanic and a hard boss over an easy boss and a hard mechanic any day.

Still blind, so please no spoilers.

In general, how is it? Interesting? More of the same? Difficult? Not-so-difficult? Better than VoG? Etc.

Love love love it. Every encounter feels challenging and demanding without feeling overly punishing. Great mechanics that build in complexity as you go.

The pacing is really well done, too. Plenty of intense action, but nice stretches without gunfire as well. And the encounters themselves seem well paced. Nothing as long or drawn out as the Templar's Well in VoG, nor is there anything like the "standing around waiting for the boss to to move" that plagued the end of Crota.

In terms of the overall feel of the raid, I think it is closer to VoG than Crota. It feels vast in a way that Crota doesn't. I'm pretty sure it is substantially larger than VoG as well. You really get the sense that your fireteam is on an epic journey of Tolkein-proportions. The environment feels vast and ancient.

I do have a soft spot for VoG. Particularly the environment. Something about delving deeper and deeper into those caves really clicked with me. I'm not really a fan of the Hive aesthetic in general. I got tired of the dreadnought quite quickly (love all the activities to do in there, just don't like the playspace itself). That being said, I think Bungie has done a great job of creating a raid that takes place within a Hive ship without sending us down endless gross, gooey hallways. There is a lot of variety to the locations as you play through them.

My 1 complaint (if you can even call it that) is that many of the environments in King's End feel extremely "gamey" compared to VoG or even Crota. I kept thinking back to that moment in Galaxy Quest where they need to run down the hallway with the fire traps and pieces of wall slamming together and one of the characters starts complaining "why does this place even exist in a starship? What purpose does any of this serve?!" So in that sense it's not as immersive as the old raids (VoG in particular), and I could see that bothering some players who like to dive a little more deeply into the "role playing" side of things. But it didn't bother me at all because I found it all so mechanically fun and rewarding :)

TL;DR It's awesome :D

I am concerned that some areas, once done 3-4 times, will become tedious. Time will tell. Everyone does have to be on their game and that can sometimes cause grief as funkmon points out. If you have a consistent group this likely won't be an issue. Pickups will be much less forgiving.

I am the opposite of some I think -- I don't like jumping puzzles much. Others hate some of the complex boss mechanics where I love figuring out that stuff. There are things in here that will appeal to everyone.

Make sure to watch the humorous video I'm sure Cruel has/will post about the section after the second boss. That may have been the best surprise of it all. =)

Overall a very fun experience. 8/10 thus far, and I'm sure that will change as things progress and secrets are found.

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Just out of curiosity, how long did it take you all?

Kermit's squad is going in on Friday night, and I'm trying to get just some sort of general idea to work my weekend around.