The Hive raids definitely were better with the story elements. So much so that I think Bungie secretly has a hard on for the Hive. But fxck both of the bosses to these raids. I heard so much about how awesome Crota's End was, then we glitch our way through most of it, swording across the gaps and what not. Then the Crota fight itself was so lame. Stand on ledge where a god prince and his army can't touch you. Shoot rocket. Sword, sword. Shoot rocket. Sword sword. Run to room. Watch as god prince points at you through a window he can't get through in his own team. (Well. [i]Most[/i] of the time he couldn't get through it.) Then Oryx? That was the lamest boss fight I can recall in a kind time. Oryx's powers are: [b]pew pew pew[/b] which never hits you. Slamming his fist on a random plate veeeeeerrrrry ssssslllooooowwwlllly. Clapping his hands. (One could argue that this is an awesome display of power that he can just clap and kill us. But it's boring as hell either way.) And a [i]single[/i] sword slam. Like, really? [b]Your[/b] race is the sword race, the race that follows/worships sword logic. And yet your best attack with a sword is swinging it overhead one time like a 9 year old girl with an axe trying to cut wood? The first time guardians got our hands on a sword, we were slicing and dicing man. We are still making Aksis our bitch with Hurricane Dark Drinker, and the best that a hive god can do is a poorly timed, easily telegraphed, over head swing? And why was he huge? It looked awesome, don't get me wrong, but... why? It didn't really help any. The whole time he just basically watches us grab the relics and activate coasters on his big ass coffee table while he shoots arc energy at the runner (and misses terribly in the process). Hate to say it, but the last story mission where you fight Oryx was more of an actual fight than the final raid fight. The raid fight was like a virtual version of Mouse Trap. It was challenging, especially with LFG mouthbreathers, but not really a great like, [i]fight[/i]. Dude was a Hive God, right? He conversed with the worms and peered into the darkness of the universe, controlled legions of taken enemies. But in the end, we are better at jumping puzzles than he is.