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Thorpe Park | Derren Brown's Ghost Train | VR Attraction

rich210uk

Mega Poster
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

Managed to get on the Ghost Train last weekend, despite a sign out front saying it wouldn't be available. Its wasn't great and there were plenty of "eh, is that it?" comments at the end. The sound on my headset didn't work unless you pushed and pulled the cables about and the quality of the VR was poor. At some points you were thinking "just get on with it" I've no desire to go back on it and neither didn't any of the 5 people I was with.

Towards the end of the day there was hardly a queue but Nemesis and Stealth were both over 1 hour wait...
 

Ben

CF Legend
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

I haven't done it yet but the floating train and pre-show sound like they don't actually fit the narrative?

Like, why floating Victorian Train then Tube carriage?

I'm doing it tomorrow - I'm not excited ha.
 

Ben

CF Legend
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

I liked the pre show.

The rest of it is an abortion. It's absolutely God damn atrocious.

I have no words.
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

I did think your quote on the CF Twitter was extremely diplomatic.
 

davidm

Strata Poster
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

^ thats a good write-up there.

To think we could probably have had a Skyrush and an RMC for the cost of this thing!

Its very pretty, but not, I think, what we go to theme parks for ; to sit watching phones strapped to our face. :(

(I've not ridden it ; I've seen it all, but not the VR)
 

Chris Brown

Mr CoasterForce 2016
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

This is just a quickish write up for me after I attended the media evening launch party last night. I’m going to explain the experience first and then summarise my thoughts at the end. If you wish to avoid the experience feel free to scroll down past the embedded photo.

Just a warning that this will probably contain spoilers however the ride itself isn’t particularly surprising or shocking so I’m not going to be spoiling a huge amount to any potential new riders.

First impressions of the queue was the pretty tight cattle pens but these are broken up by two photo ops, the first of which is an interesting concept and works quite well. You smear yourself against a glass window and you are later super imposed inside the train itself, you can do this in groups so these are going to sell pretty well. The latter is a lone photo op where your face is scanned for any signs of virus, this results in one of the worst mugshots known to man. (can’t see many of these being bought). After these there is a big faff as you are grouped in a holding area by the bag drop and ushered inside to the pre-show area…

Pre show.

You are ushered into a decent sized room that isn’t too cramped (take note London dungeons) and as everyone settles Derren appears through projection mapping inside the room with you, various mini scare jumps happen as Derren explains the concept of fear and why we enjoy it. The tension is built quite well and I was left feeling very optimistic about the rest of the ride based on the quality and build up in this area. I did think the narrative dragged on a bit and had a lot of waffle but the tension kept everyone interested for long enough. Unfortunately all this tension is lost as you enter a holding room where the ride host actually tells you to ‘talk amongst yourselves’ whilst you wait to enter the warehouse. This room is very bright and at the front is large emergency exit with an illuminated sign, it looks like you will be going through this door but instead you take a left into the warehouse. Tension is still there but it’s dwindling at this point.

Section 1.

As you enter warehouse you can see the train suspended by chains in the middle. You get very little time to really appreciate the surroundings as you are constantly being rushed and hounded by the actors. You board the Victorian carriage which turns out to be a very good replica of a tube train. It feels authentic although once again you don’t get a chance to appreciate your surroundings as you are quickly told to put your gas mask on. The next scene that unravels is very well done in my opinion, the train moves to the next stop (it genuinely feels exactly how a train would) and a tramp and his dog board the train and sit opposite you, this is genuine actor VR which immerses you well in the experience. He tells a short story which I couldn’t hear properly and exits at the next stop. I can’t fully remember what happens next but after some jump scares a pretty terrifying ghost starts to break into the train, this is also done very well. You escape the ghost as the train starts moving again and you are asked to ditch the gas mask and get off the train.



Section 2.

You are ushered into large underground maintenance style shed. There are various actors playing tube workers down there as you are asked to congregate around an obvious jump scare. You stand around by an unfinished railway line and a train comes ‘hurtling’ round a corner and stops right in front of the group. Soon after this a live scare actor comes round the back of the group dressed as the ghost from the previous VR section. At this point I was a little nervous as it looked like we would have been walking down a smoke filled tunnel, however we didn’t and were ushered back up to another holding room.

Section 3.

So back on the tube again after our earlier escapades with the ghost lady? A wise idea? I think not. The train pulls away and we are quickly plagued by these funny fleshy alien zombie things. They look like something out of a PS1 Resident evil game. Disastrous events unfold as a section of the train opposite you is exposed by a monster trying to rip it open. This reveals a high level central London scene with chaotic scenes occurring on the street below you. A lorry then gets thrown at the train by 2 of these monsters and then the train then falls down a big hole with fire. The end.

Some general questions that i felt were unanswered throughout the ride;

- What themed area does DGBT fit into in Thorpe park?

- Why bother with all the theming of the carriage to the underground if the VR doesnt match the inside of the trains you are sat in?

- Why are there Ghosts?

- Why doesnt the tramp / dog come back into the story?

- Where are the ghosts when the zombies are attacking?

-Why doesnt Derren feature at the end of the ride?

-Why is the theming based around Victorian styling when there is nothing in the ride that links to this?

-Why dont the creepy dolls used in the marketing campaign feature?



So, all wrapped up the experience is certainly different to anything I’ve done before. To anyone that hasn’t done a VR style attraction before I’d liken it to being put in a 4D cinema were you watch a mini show, get up for 2 minutes to experience a tiny segment of live action and are then asked to sit back down in the 4D cinema. It doesn’t flow very well at all, whilst the first VR section is very good it just doesn’t need to be broken up for the small live action section. I feel like this would have been much better done as a VR section followed by a live action section finale or vice versa. It doesn’t need to be split into 3 sections, VR, Live then VR again just loses the immersion that was created in the first VR section.

The second VR section is truly awful. I am genuinely shocked at how bad the graphics and CGI are. Considering the standard of CGI that has been done for years in various films and TV shows this really does look like it has been produced in the early 90’s. It begs the question if you can’t do something properly why bother doing it at all? For me this last section genuinely ruined the entire experience, completely agree with all those left thinking is that it? It just doesn’t have a proper ending as such.

I’m not sure how Thorpe are going to go about improving this thing though. I have no doubt that in 2-3 years this thing will flop, it’s not re rideable regardless of how many different endings there are because all of the mechanics will be exactly the same every time. They can’t change that they can only change the visuals of the VR each time but that still have to sync with other effects and the final movement. If I’m honest I’d consider ditching the last section entirely and have people walk down the tracks of the tube and carry on the live scares and end it that way escaping the ghosts. I really don’t understand why there are both ghosts and zombies? In fact I think the zombie monsters are pretty pointless and the ghost was much scarier and better executed.

I think one of the main things is how ride differs greatly from how it is perceived prior to riding by guests that do get scared easily. It’s quite an intimidating ride when considered from the outside not knowing anything, however the ride itself is very different from this. Its perception is that it’s a scary horror style ride but this really isn’t the case. It’s not scary enough to unnerve the guests who want to be scared but it’s scary enough from an unknown to put people off riding at all. For me it either needs to be a scare attraction like saw maze or not be marketed like it’s scary at all. One or the other. Not both.

In terms of throughput this thing is incredibly slow. It also requires a staggering amount of actors and ride hosts. I would guess that there is roughly 35 people in total working on this ride? This is inevitably going to lead to cost cutting and reduced effects. After speaking to various people we also established half of the effects weren’t working. I’m not talking spectacular effects here I’m talking basic 4D cinema concepts that do not work.

To round it off I think the first half has potential, then it just takes a complete different direction for no apparent reason. The budget doesn’t help. I’ve heard £40 million bounded around by workers at Thorpe and although this is largely untrue I can’t see why they’d be proud about this figure considering the quality of the attraction. It just leads to disappointment.

As a final comparison, I’d liken it to a worse version of U-571 Submarine simulator at Movieland Park in Italy. I wonder which one had the bigger budget?
 

Rachel

Coaster MILF
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

And to think I had high hopes for this :roll: .

Still looking forward to trying it myself, think I will lower my expectations slightly though. Such a shame, as I think done well, Thorpe really could have had a hit on their hands.
 

spicy

Giga Poster
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

Chris Brown said:
As a final comparison, I’d liken it to a worse version of U-571 Submarine simulator at Movieland Park in Italy. I wonder which one had the bigger budget?
Now that thing is genuinely terrifying. A claustrophobic nightmare as I found out.

Read a lot of DBGT reviews now and it sounds as bad as we all suspected it would be when this thing was first announced. A real shame. Thought Merlin had learned their lesson after Sub Terra, obviously not.

Wonder how long it will be before this becomes Fright Nights only :lol:
 

peep

CF Legend
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

Ha, amazing. Thought it would be awful but somehow everyone saying it starts well and then just ruins it all at the end just makes it sound worse than I could have imagined.

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk
 

Jamesss

Hyper Poster
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

It physically hurts to think what else could have been done with that money.
 

Martyn B

CF Legend
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

I'm also surprised that Derren would want his name plastered all over something that is so lacklustre.

Derail your mind? Yeah right.
 

Ian

From CoasterForce
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

I was really looking forward to it. Very much so but after my ride yesterday, I left feeling disappointed. Judging by the "is that it?" comments from fellow riders, I think a lot of other people felt the same.

The pre-show set and the train were incredible, although the connecting corridors (that's what they felt like) were poor. I really liked the timing of the effects during the preshow but Derren droned on for too long to the point I became bored.

When we were rushed out of the first train into the "safety tunnel", I felt like I was in a shed. There was a control box on the wall but it felt cheap.

The next corridor, which is a bit like an unfinished NYC subway station, was a bit pants, too. I was looking forward to the train-coming-towards-me illusion but it seemed so fake. Yes, I know it's fake but it felt and looked fake. despite the actors best efforts, there was no sense of danger or drama. It all seemed a bit desperate.

Enough about the corridors, and on to the VR.

The first part was quite atmospheric. Even if I didn't get put my headset on properly, I did enjoy it. One drawback was loud chavs riding it were swearing (showing off?) throughout and it spoilt my enjoyment. I wanted to listen. VR is a cartoon, or a cut scene in a computer game. It's not real life, so again, it felt fake and I couldn't really immerse myself fully - especially with the swearing chavs. The second part was lame. I sat there bored as the world in front of me was destroyed! But again, I sat watching it passively as if it were a cartoon, displaying or feeling very little emotion. I've come to the conclusion that VR works perfectly in the cartoon world but is way out of it's depth when trying to replicate the real world. It didn't help that one scene froze and I was looking at virtual smoke for about a minute. The leg ticklers and back prodders that are supposed to have been on the ride were not operating. Maybe if they were, I might have lost myself in the cartoon a little more.

This project was too ambitious for Merlin. It felt unfinished and I blame the project management. Initially they boasted that DBGT used over "1000 industry specialists". The expression "too many cooks" is bang on point here; every chef has added an ingredient to the broth without every getting together to discuss the desired flavour.

The one positive I can give is the mixture and contrasts of Victorian/Modern, Live Actors/Cartoon VR, Impressive sets/rubbish corridors and the holes in the already-lame story added to the "spectacle of confusion", which is what Derren Brown is all about.

I wouldn't call it **** like some people have, I'd say it's worth a ride just to see the preshow illusions, the floating train and the cartoon. Just don't expect a something groundbreaking, scary and cohesive and you'll enjoy it.
 

peep

CF Legend
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

Jamesss said:
It physically hurts to think what else could have been done with that money.
Visual effects are stupidly expensive and vr being a new thing costs are super high. It sounds like they should have concentrated on one finale rather than three though. Sounds like they spread the budget way too thin there.

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk
 

Martyn B

CF Legend
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

The fact that there was an actual moving train was a nice surprise! That's the one positive I can find right now.

Also re-boarding on a different platform confused me for a sec, I assume the ride track is like: Y ?
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

The more I think of it, the more I think it's ok? It has some really really good singular elements, but it feels like it's three separate sections as opposed to one cohesive experience? It doesn't feel like the transitions between each of the elements are as ironed out as they could possibly be.
 

gavin

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

It's going to be a while - new coaster realistically - before I make the effort to get to Thorpe again to try this thing. By that time, this will have turned from a bit turd to a wet, sloppy s**t of an attraction.

Why can't Merlin do dark rides, especially on that budget? Why?

F**k, they could even get Fantawild in to provide something semi-decent on a fraction of the budget.
 

Martyn B

CF Legend
Re: Derren Brown's Ghost Train (WC16) | Thorpe Park | May 2

Lofty's sort of spot on with the 3 different sections not blending together as well as they should.

I think that's also caused by the switches from VR to actual reality, and back again. That kind of switch can never flow seamlessly, ever.

And like Gavin, Merlin should just try for a normal dark ride experience instead of always trying to be different.

I'm certainly intrigued to see what they do with Bubbleworks, if I'm right in thinking, this will be their first tradtional dark ride?
 
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