I prefer a combination of screens and models/animatronics, if the developer wishes to incorporate screens into the ride.
If we look at the latest major dark rides in Europe (which admittedly, is slim pickings..):
Huntik:
Very little model/animatronic effect. Ride is a more basic version of Spiderman/Transformers. Ride vehicle movement is far more limited than Spiderman, although theming is pretty good. Slightly ill-placed screens in places leave riders feeling detached from ride experience. The Curse of Darkastle also suffers this fate in places (although not as much), whereas Spiderman seems to get positioning spot on.
Arthur:
I haven't been on this yet, although screens play only a minor role in two short locations of the ride. The screens seem less designed to place riders within the action, more as a narrative tool. Ride generally relies on more basic animatronic/model features.
Ratatouille:
Seems to be based 90% on screens. Some of these appear very well placed and HD. Almost entirely lacking animatronic features.
And frankly, I can't think of another major dark ride in Europe in the past 5 years. None of the above 3 rides seem to get the balance right
- either they don't have the top level animatronics, or they don't have animatronics at all, or the screen quality isn't good enough...!
But really... we ought to be grateful we have what we do have, because very few parks are even bothering with major ones... we've had several Abenteuer Atlantis/Reset Anno Zero level dark rides which are all very well and good, but nothing on the scale of any of the above. The likes of PortAventura, Tivoli Gardens, Gardaland, Alton Towers. Efteling... these are all major European parks but they haven't added major new dark rides recently... so be grateful we even have Ratatouille and Arthur!
