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Great concept
within itself, but the theming is diabolical. Yes, most people have said
on their reviews that the theming is fantastic, and this is true until
you actually board the car. The music played when travelling around is
REALLY corny: a 'SCOOBY DOO' style rock/horror theme.
A lot of time has been
put into the theming, but it is spoiled by the mass of lights and the
fact that there is no roof. It feels like you are seriously lost in a
Hollywood Studio for B-Movies, because the scene changes from inside a
house, to a Lab, to a Graveyard, to back in a house and then to a sewer
with barrels of nuclear waste???.
There is no set theme
apart from the disappearance of a Surgeon, but only the queue line and
one scene actually follows this.
It could be fantastic,
if they put ceilings on things (so it doesn't feel as though you are
travelling through a B&Q), use one theme, changing scenes through
doors (e.g, have a huge backdoor, with a dead corpse behind that you
travel through to get to the gravegard), remove all of the LED's and
make it so that you win points if you zap monsters (no LED's on
monsters, but have a system within them that recognised a shot without
looking like a Christmas Tree), make the inside music and Zombie effects
scarier, change that irritating ZAP noise and finally, change the name
from DUEL: The Haunted House Strikes Back to a less sentimental DUEL.
Mattmoo
.
What a ride. Brilliant music, well
made zombies and powerful strobe lights. Here are my facts about Duel
with bad points and good points.
Good points:
The spinning tunnel is good although it
makes people feel dizzy
Zombie before spinning tunnel is good
Zombies in the windows is very popular
My favourite bit is the giant skeleton that opens up
When Zombies freak out at you. The strobe lights give it atmosphere
The Zombie in the smashed window that has zombie eyes and is tilted and
has got holes in him looks very well created
Brilliant soundtrack
Nice sound effects
Bad points:
Guns are painful
A Lot of the ride goes unnoticed as you shoot things
Some strobes aren't bright enough
There should be a spiral at the other end of the spinning tunnel
Callum
..
This ride
will be nothing but a disappointment to those who hoped for an improved
Haunted House. Not only are there few changes apart from the addition of
flashing LEDs in every conceivable place, but the essence of the ride
has been ruined. Although the original ride was nothing to marvel at, it
could be forgiven for its lack of spectacular effects because it was
just a haunted house. There was nothing else promised or expected.
With the refurbishment
of the ride one expected something rather grander. Duel promises an
interactive experience and as such I expected involving effects that
would add to the interactive feel. Unfortunately not only does it not
deliver, the effects that are present can probably found in your local
fairs ghost train.
Now I don't expect to
see huge fireballs or multi-million pound 4D effects, but what I did
expect was something more than a siren and an animatronic figure fall
out of a cupboard. The only major additions I can see that have been
added to this ride are guns and lots and lots and lots of flashing red
lights. To me that does not constitute a 'new' ride.
The fact that Tussauds
have attempted to paint a picture of an enthralling and immersive ride,
with a hashed attempt at a storyline makes this something of an embarrassment
when compared to the unassuming original.
Venny
.
An improvement of the original but
lacks in some ways. It makes your finger hurt from continually pulling
the trigger of the gun. The new factor makes you not think about trying
to be scared anymore. Maybe next time Tussauds.
Andrew Jack
.
I would not beat about the bush. Duel
is quite a good ride, Although I miss the old Haunted House. The sound
track is cool, and the exterior music would be really cool for the
original Haunted House.
Nick D Daniels
.
A great addition to the
park and has given the old and tired HH an new lease of life aswell as a
re-ride factor, lets hope they maintain duel better than they maintained
the Haunted House.
Andrew Ruane
..
Some nice effects, decent trains, lovely
queue line and smashing music all ruined by the nature of this ride. The
whole thing just feels very bitty. Note To Tussauds: Zombies, gothic
horror, vampires and ghosts are great, but they don't all work when
stuck into the same scene.
The targets make sure you never have
time to focus on some of the positive special effects on the ride, and
the sheer amount of things to shoot at means your trigger finger won't
survive a re-ride without drawing blood.
Steven Whitfield
..
Whilst Duel improves the ride similarly
to Tomb Blaster, by adding a better re-ride factor, I think it is easy
to give the ride more credit then it is due simply because it is an
improvement on what it was before.
Despite all the Haunted House's faults,
it had a nice simple premise: Spooky things in a House. Whilst the Tomb
Blaster upgrade removed a complicated story, Duel has actually added a
story about zombies and a missing researcher. Given that very little of
the house has been changed, it now forms a rather nasty clash. In one
scene, you get a giant spider, a vampire, two zombies and a funny face
in the wall all appearing within five seconds. And the missing
researcher is not dealt with at all.
Of course, whilst you fire at the
millions of lights all around, you may not notice such inconsistencies,
but this is a large reason why the ride cannot be ranked alongside the
other great dark rides.
Forget the added story, it is now
simply a shooting arcade, but without looking anywhere near as nice or
grand as Tom Blaster.
It is an improvement on the Haunted
House, but don't expect anything more.
Lewis Cox
..
What a ride, what brilliant music &
a spectacular area. Duel is much better than the Haunted House. It smelt
like poo in the old HH, but now it smells cleaner & it is more misty
& dark. One foot note. It was a bit short & theming was sparse.
Daniel Baillie
..
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