First impression: Very interesting use of an existing space. It's fundamentally still the same place, but the rotating modifiers make it interesting, and the music and darkness feel really cool. I've been soloing and the furthest I've completed was 3. Also, I appreciate that the trigger seems to be killing enemies - when we first heard about this thing, it sounded like it was going to be a sprint-fest just like all the strikes that go through the Infinite Forest. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that it isn't.

Oh, and this isn't strictly about the haunted Forest itself, but I really appreciate that Horror Story's only requirement seems to be getting enough of the reward currency. I was dreading there being some kind of quest with a step I'd hate, but nope! Just do whatever parts of the Festival you want, as long as you do enough of it.

What's your first impression? How many branches have you completed? Is that... thing... really invincible? Is this what the Forest should have been?

The Good-
Optional Matchmaking! Want to go in alone, or with randoms? It's as simple as picking which you'd rather do. Innovative concept for Bungie, but they nailed it!

Content for everyone! Anyone who has the base D2 can play! And unlike content like Iron Banner, the 200LL requirement means that they will have a good time playing it. More accessibility = healthier playerbase.

It's fun! From the initial "chase enemy across two Lost Sectors", to the Sanctuary Onslaught Haunted Forest itself, the writing is solid (yay Amanda!), the playspaces are used well, and the name of the game is pushing through enemies, as opposed to the Forest's classic "ignore everything and run" gameplay.
Like I said elsewhere, the Infinite Forest's potential as a randomized Firefight-style mode was obvious, and now Bungie's done well to capitalize on that. And the Invincible enemy that pops up randomly? Subtle stroke of genius that adds to the feeling of needing to GTFO. Plus, that extra little trick/puzzle at the end with the chest? Bravo, Bungie.

The rewards and grind are done well!
Masks with applicable buffs, A 600L Masterworked weapon as your stretch goal, and an exotic catalyst that lets you meet its criteria by involving yourself with the game's systems naturally? Bungie, you done good. The double engram thing is nice, but it realy should be standard with any Eververse-linked event.
While the rate at which you acquire event currency is a bit on the slow side (meaning that you will not be able to obtain everything before the event is done, unless you have a lot of free time) The fact that there is no cap to the reward stream means that you really can just work towards what you want, and your choices on what to buy will definitely be more meaningful. Which is good!

The Bad-

The Forest is dark and full of terrors. Gameplay terrors, that is, like unclear navigation and awkward platforming. Because of the extreme darkness, it can be a little tricky to see where you are in relation to the path you should be taking, and the game can confuse you as well. At one point, we killed some daemons, which opened a path to our right. but when we ran through it, we noticed no enemies anywhere. After a few jumps, we realized that the path opened up by the daemons led us back to where we came, and we had to run all the way back to the correct direction. In the darkness, it's hard to make out where platforms have appeared at times.
But that's probably just a quirk that wasn't polished out from the way the Forest normally works, so not the worst thing ever, but still, when you're being timed, and success comes from killing enemies, any lull in battle caused by the game leading you in the wrong direction hurts.

The Scary-
I kind of like that they tossed Iron Banner in with the mix, it really gives you a feeling of having a ton to do, but with grindy bounties, it does put some bonus stress on you to play IB, since you only have a week, but that also means you aren't working towards the Horror Story, or daily bounties, and I don't even raid! Time management is scary enough IRL, but man... And of course we have a wonky Flashpoint this week.

Overall, the Festival itself is neat, and I hope Bungie actually fleshes out the event for a change, instead of just making it a one-off a la SRL or Crimson Doubles.
The Forest continues to have loads of potential for content.

What's your first impression? How many branches have you completed? Is that... thing... really invincible? Is this what the Forest should have been?

I matchmade in last night for a round and I got through 4. I appreciated that they built it around scaling enemy health, not just scaling LL. THat mad eit so even at 230 (with mask) light i could still get in there and do some work. Very nice and thoughtful bungie!

HOWEVER, whooo boy was I feeling the lack of kit. I'm still doing that level up via blues thing, so I have no mods, my weapons all are year 1 rares, missing good perks. The biggest hit are all my cooldowns. It takes roughly 2 years to get a super/grenade without an exotic that can generate that stuff, or armor to speed those up. I found myself saving my hammers for bosses so it slowed us down pretty bad in the enviroment.

Death penalty is really smart! You aren't totally reliant on your fireteam, but if you don't get revived you get pushed back to the start of the branch and it sssuuuucks.

the pacing is great! some other destiny "non mission" type activities can never find the right cadence. POE was a slog with tons of downtime. Strikes are often just a sparrow sprint to a boss etc. This has nice ups and downs. Take a breath-> sprint -> fight -> hunt down -> sprint -> fight -> lock in boss battle -> take a breath.

I don't think it would have the legs to be a permanent thing, it needs a couple more gears intersecting before I feel like ti could stand. But it's a lovely little thing that's perfect for a three week grind.

This has been a lot of fun so far. I cleared 6 branches with a pair of randos on my first outing and nearly made it to the 7th with Zero and another rando later on. We were 86% of the way through Branch 6 with about a minute and a half left when the Invincible Nightmare cut us all down and blocked our path to the last few adds we needed. Can't wait to roll into this with a full fireteam and see what the 7th branch has in store for us!

-Disciple

Well, It's been two days now, and I have to say I've thus far enjoyed the certain design choices that make this mission special, and I can't help but think (or perhaps its just some sort of odd self-destructive hope) that we'll see these design choices again.

Its really interesting how by just forgoing lighting all together within the play area can change up a space to play in. Nothing new of course. Its been done many times before in other games. But... for Destiny, with its Bungie built love of large vistas, to have this sort of... "Fog of War" through the whole play space really adds a subtle layer of mystery about things, and only adds to the rest of the points below.

The forests modularised random(?) play space has thus far always felt more a gimmick then solid game play space to me. More often then not, I've been one of those players that just trys to speed run it and skip the space entirely.

I love that somewhere in the darkness chests will spawn often by a certain character I'll speak about in a moment, and while such so far has been a (as far as I recall) Raid only thing, I find my self wondering if it shouldn't be. If the games should have more... random acts/sources of potential loot. It always feels like a find, or at least it has so far in these last two days.

Then there is our ever invulnerable, invincible, and very smash happy friend. I find myself recalling a few things in response. About this time... last year, I decided to give the 2017 Version of Prey a go. I knew absolutely NOTHING about it. As I recall, it had a Demo. I had played the original Prey for the Xbox 360, and had enjoyed it, and was looking forward to Human Head's rendition of Prey 2. I even got to see a build of it be played live. There really are too few "Bounty" style games out there. Anyway, when that didn't get published, and was instead rebooted, I was curious to see what would come from it.

Thanks to certain enemy mechanics, as well as the sheer power of the foes you face early on, was some the most fun tension-filled moments I've had in a game in ever a long while. It of course, didn't last. After a while you adept, and even the darkness learns to fear you.

Hence my utterance of "odd self-destructive hope". I hope that doesn't happen in Destiny with the true big bad, be it "The Darkness", Savathûn, or what that ever-so-smokey wispy 5th race turns out to truly be.

All this is to say, that our ever invulnerable, invincible, and very smash happy friend brings forward ever so subtly those feelings. That as a result of there being a bigger fish, something that can't be beaten, bullied, and only wishes to see things burn...er... crushed, brings an element we only really ever saw in our waking moments of early Destiny 1. I hope we see more of this. This aspect brings the forest together like the wolves who howl upon the hallows eve moonlight.

Bet you didn't see this coming eh? TL;DR: Every Maze needs its Minotaur.