Just got back from Towers today and gave Hex a go after nearly 2 years... ehh...
The audio is fantastic, much better than how it used to be. Looks like they were using Ohm speakers, good pick.
Glad they kept the original story, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I think them splitting the portrait scene from the queue was a good choice, making the experience feel more personalised.
Hated what they did to the generator in the octagon though, the old effect really had a magical look to it, now it seems very uneventful with the spark box beneath it. Hope they'll reconsider fixing the original effect. It looked a lot more professional as an effect too.
Now... the lighting... oh boy I've got quite a bit to say about this... I don't like it aside from a few small effects that sync with the lightning in the preshows. Personally, the scenes all having this cold, in your face lightning 24/7 really takes a lot of character from Hex, which before was very dark and subtle with warmer lighting, but this seems more... generic spooky-like. The worst offender was the vault though. Geez, the lighting from the colours to how bright they were didn't fit in with the tone of the ride at all. I hate that you can see the new lighting just plopped on the arms of the madhouse, not even bothered to hide them.
Liked the smells though. It does make the place feel like an old construction site.
So yeah, Hex 2.0. As a whole. I've learned that multicoloured, constantly flashing lighting should NOT be used in this ride whatsoever, and the colder lighting should be used sparingly. I feel like they turned a pretty mature theatrical ride with subtle lighting into a miss mash. A mature story, with very over the top, fantastical/spooky lighting that doesn't tonally fit in.
All in all, 6.5/10. I actually prefer The Haunting to this now, and you may strike me down for saying so