Cornflakes

Have some in-depth thoughts about Nemesis Reborn and the new Forbidden Valley, entirely about the new theming, as you all know the ride itself is excellent - It’s Nemesis!

Been looking forward to this a lot, but had some reservations regarding Forbidden Valley and its theming, I do think it’s a real shame that Forbidden Valley has lost its Post Apocalyptic, Mad Max-y vibe, but what’s been done with the new theme is - regardless of personal taste - very impressive.

Almost every major set piece moves, every set piece has sound, the station and shop have their own small show sequences, the theming is dynamic in a way that Merlin hasn’t really attempted before. The area makes you feel like you’re in a bombastic monster movie, if old Forbidden Valley was about exploring where an event had happened, New is about seeing it, hearing it, and feeling it happen. This whole project feels like Merlin’s first step into the modern era of theme parks, if this is the new quality bar for Merlin there’s a lot to be excited about.

Towers' continual commitment to street theatre helps the area shine as well. I’m not under the illusion there will be this many characters out all the time, but knowing you’ll see at least one of them is a lot of fun and helps the area feel alive. I’m particularly fond of the Mushroom Cloud Tour Guide, hope you find your bus king!

This isn’t to say everything’s perfect of course, the “school perimeter” fencing is ugly and the gun in the queue line screams “We tried to move the old one but it fell apart, so we threw this together” But what’s wrong is pretty minor and fixable, after seeing the tweaks Alton Manor got last year I wouldn’t be surprised if we *actually* saw this stuff worked on.

But yeah, really impressed with it all, Forbidden Valley truly feels like it belongs to Nemesis again. I’m looking forward to spending more time in the area throughout the year and seeing how it evolves over the coming years, they cooked!

That's pretty much all the eye does. It's given life by the claws around the eye moving up and down like its in anger. There was already some dead pixels so hopefully its an easyish fix.
 
I was very excited for the return of Nemesis and I'm very happy that it's already running incredibly well, pretty much picking up where the old OG left off. I was concerned it might run slow but it isn't. I think it's a success and the energy around Nemesis was electrifying. Managed 6 rides including a front row and a back row and I'm happy. 

Have some in-depth thoughts about Nemesis Reborn and the new Forbidden Valley, entirely about the new theming, as you all know the ride itself is excellent - It’s Nemesis!

Been looking forward to this a lot, but had some reservations regarding Forbidden Valley and its theming, I do think it’s a real shame that Forbidden Valley has lost its Post Apocalyptic, Mad Max-y vibe, but what’s been done with the new theme is - regardless of personal taste - very impressive.

Almost every major set piece moves, every set piece has sound, the station and shop have their own small show sequences, the theming is dynamic in a way that Merlin hasn’t really attempted before. The area makes you feel like you’re in a bombastic monster movie, if old Forbidden Valley was about exploring where an event had happened, New is about seeing it, hearing it, and feeling it happen. This whole project feels like Merlin’s first step into the modern era of theme parks, if this is the new quality bar for Merlin there’s a lot to be excited about.

Towers' continual commitment to street theatre helps the area shine as well. I’m not under the illusion there will be this many characters out all the time, but knowing you’ll see at least one of them is a lot of fun and helps the area feel alive. I’m particularly fond of the Mushroom Cloud Tour Guide, hope you find your bus king!

This isn’t to say everything’s perfect of course, the “school perimeter” fencing is ugly and the gun in the queue line screams “We tried to move the old one but it fell apart, so we threw this together” But what’s wrong is pretty minor and fixable, after seeing the tweaks Alton Manor got last year I wouldn’t be surprised if we *actually* saw this stuff worked on.

But yeah, really impressed with it all, Forbidden Valley truly feels like it belongs to Nemesis again. I’m looking forward to spending more time in the area throughout the year and seeing how it evolves over the coming years, they cooked!

Have some in-depth thoughts about Nemesis Reborn and the new Forbidden Valley, entirely about the new theming, as you all know the ride itself is excellent - It’s Nemesis!

Been looking forward to this a lot, but had some reservations regarding Forbidden Valley and its theming, I do think it’s a real shame that Forbidden Valley has lost its Post Apocalyptic, Mad Max-y vibe, but what’s been done with the new theme is - regardless of personal taste - very impressive.

Almost every major set piece moves, every set piece has sound, the station and shop have their own small show sequences, the theming is dynamic in a way that Merlin hasn’t really attempted before. The area makes you feel like you’re in a bombastic monster movie, if old Forbidden Valley was about exploring where an event had happened, New is about seeing it, hearing it, and feeling it happen. This whole project feels like Merlin’s first step into the modern era of theme parks, if this is the new quality bar for Merlin there’s a lot to be excited about.

Towers' continual commitment to street theatre helps the area shine as well. I’m not under the illusion there will be this many characters out all the time, but knowing you’ll see at least one of them is a lot of fun and helps the area feel alive. I’m particularly fond of the Mushroom Cloud Tour Guide, hope you find your bus king!

This isn’t to say everything’s perfect of course, the “school perimeter” fencing is ugly and the gun in the queue line screams “We tried to move the old one but it fell apart, so we threw this together” But what’s wrong is pretty minor and fixable, after seeing the tweaks Alton Manor got last year I wouldn’t be surprised if we *actually* saw this stuff worked on.

But yeah, really impressed with it all, Forbidden Valley truly feels like it belongs to Nemesis again. I’m looking forward to spending more time in the area throughout the year and seeing how it evolves over the coming years, they cooked!

I think I made a logo like that for my A level graphic design project in 2008.

As I said a while back, in my humble opinion...

We’re not gonna have the same antics with when the project would go vertical here are we…
 
If if see this post edited when the ride opens I am most certainly not going to be pleased 😂

Bring back the giant head branding.

I would sell my soul for Exodus to open tomorrow just so we never have to listen to this nonsense ever again. 

I don't think you can blame the public for misunderstanding this one, Thorpe Park themselves market it as one of the most terrifying experiences out there.
 
 
 

Got another go on Ghost Train today and thought it was great, the changes from my go in June were subtle but really made a world of difference. I think if you let yourself buy into the attraction and expect a little goofiness, you can have a lot of fun. The “Soul Redemption” line is wonderfully cheesy.
 
Actors today were also stellar, some of the best I’ve seen in an attraction full stop. Train full of screaming guests says to me that when on good form, the ride does work for people. Still have some lingering concerns about replacing temperamental technology with temperamental human beings though.

Sorry for the double post.

Some YouTuber mentioned it and as such it's gone overboard as people jump over themselves to present opinions as facts as to why its a FAILURE OF AN ATTRACTION rather than a simple solid addition to the park.

[Citation Needed]

[Citation Needed]

I've had a look around all the archives I have access to, and I don't have any images or videos of the game, or even of the minisite.
 
I can give a bit more detail though...
 
-The game was called "Disciples of Saw", and indeed was how you described. The objective said to do the game in as quick a time as possible, but as long as you completed it, you were entered into the Ride it First competition (fun fact: I was a winner of the Ride it First competition!)
-The minisite for the ride was originally called ProjectDylan.com. When the ride name was announced, it changed to SawTheRide.com
-There was a really nice blog / developers diary on the minisite...I've tried looking on Wayback Machine to get some stuff, but no luck with any visuals.
 
I do hope there's some images somewhere - the minisite in general was pretty cool, and got 14 year old me excited!

I like the use of Imagine Dragon's Believer, in that it adds that little bit of humour. That smirk across your face when you hear it and put 2 and 2 together. However, you usually walk straight through this room; maybe held for a few moments at most. But it's not something you'd be hearing a lot of in any case. Being held in that room and hearing it a lot probably does detract from the vibe a bit.
 
Ghost Train does well at blending the scary bits and the humour, a bit like with the Dungeons, but it has to be careful that to hit the mark each time. It's easy to go too far on the humour, or for it to just not work if the timings are off.

So I’ve just done Ghost Train (Sitting in Last Call as I write this) and have some thoughts.
 
I liked it! As a story led attraction this works far better than DBGT ever did, the experience here is relatively cohesive.
 
Actor led attractions can be difficult, as you really have to hope that the actors are giving it their all at any given time, which can’t always be guaranteed for a number of reasons. My actors today were great, but is the experience going to be consistent for everyone that rides it? Parts of the experience can be a little bit goofy, and if you’re not on board with that I can see why you might come out of this thinking it was a poor experience.
 
Some scenes have relatively scant audio, so parts that are meant to be creepy or scary may not land for some people, I think more carefully directed audio would really improve certain sequences, as without it you can sometimes just have actors awkwardly writhing with nothing giving it any impact. 
 
Nun on the train - good scare in theory and certainly got a few people, but the costume looked a little.. cheap? Some more work could be done on this, I think a better costume would go a long way, at the moment it’s like a man running at you in his Halloween costume.
 
See it, say it, sorted got the biggest reaction from my group. It’s a great joke.
 
Exit shop is another scene that doesn’t have the impact it could, I think some work on the audio could really lift this.
 
I think this is a good attraction with great potential and a little work could go a long. I thought the same things about DBGT, but that would’ve taken a significant investment in order to release that potential, this is so close.

Plenty of talented creative people at Merlin who are often hamstrung by decisions made by money men, let’s not forget that John Burton was the lead on TWD (Poor guy) 
 
Best to wait and see if Ghost Train is any good instead of passing judgement based on who is and isn’t working on it.

Plenty of talented creative people at Merlin who are often hamstrung by decisions made by money men, let’s not forget that John Burton was the lead on TWD (Poor guy) 
 
Best to wait and see if Ghost Train is any good instead of passing judgement based on who is and isn’t working on it.

Plenty of talented creative people at Merlin who are often hamstrung by decisions made by money men, let’s not forget that John Burton was the lead on TWD (Poor guy) 
 
Best to wait and see if Ghost Train is any good instead of passing judgement based on who is and isn’t working on it.

Never liked how often the discussions on RAP devolve into trying to guess who is and isn’t disabled, as if you could ever know. 
 
There are definitely some people who abuse the system, but the fundamental problem is the system is massively mismanaged. It needs to be rethought completely.
 
On paper it’s a virtual queueing system but it rarely operates like this. There needs to be a real investment into the system to get it up to scratch, but who knows if they’d ever spring for that.

Never liked how often the discussions on RAP devolve into trying to guess who is and isn’t disabled, as if you could ever know. 
 
There are definitely some people who abuse the system, but the fundamental problem is the system is massively mismanaged. It needs to be rethought completely.
 
On paper it’s a virtual queueing system but it rarely operates like this. There needs to be a real investment into the system to get it up to scratch, but who knows if they’d ever spring for that.

Never liked how often the discussions on RAP devolve into trying to guess who is and isn’t disabled, as if you could ever know. 
 
There are definitely some people who abuse the system, but the fundamental problem is the system is massively mismanaged. It needs to be rethought completely.
 
On paper it’s a virtual queueing system but it rarely operates like this. There needs to be a real investment into the system to get it up to scratch, but who knows if they’d ever spring for that.

Good on them. The pay for engineers and almost any high level role outside of corporate at Merlin is shocking.