My crew change flights got delayed a couple of days from Tuesday to Thursday so decided to head down to Thorpe for the first time in a decade to see what's what with this new shiny toy.
Walking into the park it's undeniable the ride has presence. It towers over the rest of the park and can be seen from the moment you pull into the car park.
Once you walk into the Valley of The Fearless area though things go downhill quickly.
We have a saying/long running joke in the RCT community. "Brown Is Not A Theme".
It would seem Merlin hasn't got the memo though as this new area is just a load of boxes and cage like prison fences painted browny gold with some plastic looking wings.
I suppose the prison fences are some sort of theme thing right? This is what living in fear is like. Giant brown cages as if you're in Belmarsh. Break out and Live your fearless (or whatever the slogan is)
I'd describe the theme as "Icarus but we failed to get the Icarus IP".
Hyperia is to Icarus what Flight Deck is to Top Gun.
I've read reviews that say the new area is alright but in my opinion it's just rubbish and a huge downgrade on what was here before. It has no soul.
It's like someone's done a first pass of a new area in RCT (yea that again) with boxy buildings and the queue but never went back to add the all important details. The finishing of the area is poor too with some weird design choices and things like bright blue sprinkler pipes just sticking a foot in the air from the plant beds.
A great example of the lack of common sense is picking this type of fence support with plastic caps. It's very obviously a really stupid idea. Of course the plastic caps have gone missing from half of them already and now they are stuffed with fags and crisps packets. Brilliant work Merlin.
Anyway onto the ride.
In short it's good. Very good. But it's not great. It probably suffers from the fact I recently rode Kondaa and Ride To Happiness, Hyperia is good but it isn't anywhere near the level of those two rides.
The first drop is astonishingly good and the next three elements are all great but then it slams into that water splash brake run (the water wasn't working today of course) and it's basically over. The last couple of hills are ok but nothing special.
I can't help but look at Kondaa another hyper with zero themeing around its main layout but with it's beautifully themed station area, it's enless variety of elements and it's full use of the potential energy it's given and think Hyperia is a massive missed opportunity for the UK.
Is it the best ride in the UK? Not even close, Nemesis may be short but it uses it's available speed to the max and overall with it's wonderfully themed area and lore is a much greater package as a whole.
Its not even the best ride in the park when it comes to the complete package but it is probably the best ride there when it comes to just the ride in isolation. Just a shame really thats it's only half a great ride.
It could have been so much more.