CupCakeMonster said:
BigAl said:
But for a white knuckle ride the secret will most likely be something bad. You only have to look at the giant spider thing to realise that whoever the 'MoJ' are, they probably aren't friendly.
And actual physical distance doesn't mean anything either. X-Sector is world's apart from Adventure Land and Cloud Cukoo Land.
If it were just for Scarefest then yes, but as a permanent theme? No, I don't think it can be that sinister on the outside. We have to remember that this isn't Thorpe, it is still in basis a family park. I mean no rides at Alton are particularly sinister when you think about it, there's a hint of 'darkness' but it's not all dark. With SW7 it seems if they go dark, it's going to be very dark. I just don't think the theme seems Alton enough. I don't know how the spider thing would be incorporated (i'm not very creative), but I still don't think it will be sinister. Mysterious yes, but sinister? No.
No rides at Alton Towers are serious?
What about all of the Dark Forest; a forest that's trying to kill you (hence the trapped man in Th13teen's queue, the destroyed van and the tagline "you must escape".)?
What about the top area of Forbidden Valley; a gigantic alien from another dimension that has had to be tied down with steal to stop it from eating everyone and smashing up the joint? Or the aliens in Sub Terra that have infected Phalanx personnel at the end of the doomed tour of the Nemesis egg. None of them seem friendly or light-hearted.
Then we move on to X-Sector. How could it not be intimidating or serious? Sure, the age of the area is showing (through no fault of the area, rather down to poor aesthetic maintenance) but the area remain more or less how was. It's a very cold environment with bleak buildings and queue-lines surrounded by large railings (to stop you from trying to escape your fate once you're in Oblivion's queue?) and CCTV cameras watching your every move. LoD talks of ride cars disappearing but says that doesn't put him off telling you and fellow riders that everything is perfectly safe. That doesn't sound very safe to me!
Just because something isn't smeared in blood like Saw, doesn't make it any less chilling. There are different, more subtle ways to intimidate, shock and scare people. Oblivion and all of X-Sector has always been about the colossal drop into the ground and the possibility of not coming out the other side. Of course, everyone knows that won't happen, but the scale of the ride, the screams of the people, the pit hidden in a cloak of mist. All of that suggests mystery and the fear of what's being hidden; what the people behind X-Sector aren't telling you.
What are their motives? Why are they testing a huge secret
weapon on guests? The fact that we won't know about these elements is also part of the thrill of Oblivion.
Now onto SW7. The 'MoJ' are supposedly working their way into X-Sector to take control of operations and this new ride will be a new experiment of some sort (I assume
). You can immediately say the same questions that I mentioned above about these guys. Why are they here and what motives do they have that they want to perform tests on guests. What tests? Biological? Psychological? Physical!?
The ride is a huge twisting mess of dark navy steal with dilapidated-looking buildings and a giant mechanical robot spider thing at the heart of it all. Immediately upon seeing the ride, guests will know that it all means business. What is the robot for? Is it attacking people or are the tests on riders designed to aid in its creation?
We also don't know about whether or not the robot will interact with riders or spectators in some way, so perhaps a jet of flames may spew out as ride cars pass, or the TV screen things may have eyes on them that follow the riders or people walking around. That could be pretty unnerving!
The latest marketing is also probably a clue as to the unstable nature of the 'MoJ'. An insane smile with hypnotic eyes suggests a false façade of friendliness to lure people in, only to put them into a trance and wreak havoc with their secretive tests whilst they're entranced.
It's very Joker-esque, and we all know that the Joker isn't a very nice, stable character. So then imagine a large organisation of people who are potentially as insane and evil as the Joker, potentially backed by our very own Government. If they aren't nice once we're inside the station where the secret weapon lies, we'd have nowhere to turn. You can't get the authorities because this organisation is a part of that jigsaw, so you and the other riders are basically trapped and completely helpless.
Assuming this is all sort of correct, no matter how much people (including myself) may feel about the ride being a Gerstlauer with a load of inversions threaded together, as if it had been designed on RCT, you can't deny that the theme will most likely be excellent, and intimidating at that.
