Now that I've done it a few times, I'm quite impressed with this Raid. All of my favorite Raids had a "key" feature. VoG had confluxes and oracles, King's Fall had auras, WotM had siva charges, etc. Each feature was introduced and expanded on throughout the raid until it coalesced into the ultimate boss fight. Garden of Salvation's tether executed this perfectly. 10/10 The art style was fantastic. The skybox was wonderful, and the jungles reminded me of the movie Avatar. The contrast between nature, machine, and the merging of the two was brilliant. Bungie's art team consistently kicks ass. 10/10 The pace of the Raid is very misleading, as the first encounter puts you on a mad dash through gateways trying to stay one step ahead of the boss. After that sprint, you are hit with a slog of a second encounter, which seems artificially inflated, as you are forced to defend and wait until the middle opens up. Autoscrollers are always bad, which kind of ruined another great raid, King's Fall. Once you get to fight Oryx, there is simply no way to speed it up. Players need to feel like they are dictating the pace of battle, as it shows their prowess and understanding of the raid mechanics. The third encounter requires players to juggle several positions and be ready to substitute positions at a moment's notice. This is always a welcome, as allowing one player to always do the easiest thing always waters down that player's experience. It also makes LFG teams annoying to play with as everyone clamors for the easiest position. After beating this boss, we are met with my first harsh criticism of the raid. You immediately go into the final boss fight after beating the first one. For some, this isn't an issue, but for me, it's a missed opportunity. The boss fight has you jump through portals, collecting motes, and tethering to rebuild fortifications and to stun the boss. Nothing is wrong with the fight, but there could have been a whole separate encounter within this arena. Ever since Leviathan, Bungie has ditched the idea of arena introduction, save Eater of Worlds. This would have been the perfect place to bring that feature back. Imagine you get to the final arena and there's a swirling pool of Vex milk in the center with a tether node above it. Your team links up to it and it erupts while creating a blue portal. One of the arena's portions disappear, so some of your team begins repairs, while the others jump through the portal, where they are met by a boss sized Minotaur. Upon defeat, it drops a large Vex component, one Fireteam member picks it up, and you are all returned to arena. You take turns carrying the component through the Vex milk and deposit it into the swirling pool. Repeat this a few more times until, BOOM! The final boss erupts from the pool. You've just constructed the boss in order to defeat him. Mind. Blown. This would have introduced the arena and the portal mechanic. It would also be another spot to get more of that sweet, precious loot. One can dream. The final boss fight is a gem, simply because YOU CAN'T CHEESE IT OMG THANKYOU. I joke, I joke...it's actually very well done as it requires constant focus and coordination. The mechanics were engaging for the entire fireteam, as everyone had an important roll (Kill those damn cyclopes, Bryan!).Deaths are very punishing, as they hamper progress for getting to damage phase. The boss death sequence, although understandable, is kind of, blah. I want to see that mofo shatter into a billion pieces across that gorgeous skybox. Instead, he turns into a statue. *sigh* 8/10 Overall, this Raid was beautiful to look at, mechanically sound, unevenly paced, and slightly lacking in what I believe should have been an arena intro encounter. 8/10 P.S. The weapons are gorgeous and powerful. I got rapid hit/ kill clip on the pulse rifle. More of that please.