As someone who's been straddling the two levels at Stars for a bit (until my BR got hit by a tornado) I can say yes, there definitely is a noticeable difference in play. Continuation bets don't always work, people will come over the top with middle pair, or sometimes nothing. IE - if they put you on AK and you make a standard continuation bet on a ragged flop they may come over the top, which puts you to a painful decision. I think a lot more of the $60s guys (and up definitely) get the big secret that most flops miss most hands (shhhhh), and you can't always give your opponent credit for a high PP. A good chunk of the $27 guys don't seem to have caught on.

As another example, on the $27s there may 3-4 players at the beginning who will call preflop raises with AT or even lower, then call all the way down if an A hits on the flop. Great to make money off of when you have AK, not so much fun when you have a high PP. I'd say you're lucky if there are 1-2 guys like that on the $60s, and they're usually dead pretty quick. But if you can make it down to the bubble you still get plenty of players who don't know about pushbotting or play weaktight heads-up.

There are other examples I can't think of right now, you'll just have to learn to execute and recognize on your own. To sum up, yes IMO they are tougher. So you have to find better edges than what worked on the $27s. #1 - You can move to Party, which I hear is softer, and try to find a rakeback deal. #2 - You can try to outplay them pre-bubble. This is what I was trying to do, since I'm still learning and 2-tabling max, and it's fun. But I don't think this lends itself very well to 8-tabling. Or #3 you can work on finding all your leaks and tightening up your game fundmanentally. This is what I am working on now. From what I hear super-solid ABC poker should still take the day on the $60s, though maybe not for the same ROI as the $27s.

Also as someone who's dabbled on the $119s a bit, I can say it's the same deal all over again. Much more aggressive, very few gimme-pots, and you have to learn to execute and spot new tricks. But you can do more traps and possibly get them to make mistakes trying to outplay/test the newb. So that's fun.

When moving up, I think it's pretty normal to lose for a while until you acclimate to the new level. How long I can't say, I'd love to hear some of the $215 guys weigh in on this.

So I can't say I know any of this for sure, but that's my impression FWIW.

-Matt