London's Tomb Raider Live Experience: Talkthrough & our Thoughts - SteveOfWarr

[@steampunkangel5699]

Good news, I did the experience with a friend a few days ago and the photo stuff is all working now. They have adjusted prices now so on certain days like weekdays and stuff depending on demand it will be cheaper- me and my friend paid £35 each which we thought was pretty good. There were a few pacing issues where they did rush us a bit in some areas but it wasn't too noticeable and didn't take away from the experience. Thankfully it seems that they are trying to improve things to make it more enjoyable for the audience and we had a lot of fun xxx

[@SteveOfWarr]

That's great to hear! I'm glad they're taking on feedback and adjusting the prices to make it better value for money 💰

[@HelenFaulkner-b8d]

I came across this video because I did the Tomb Raider Live Experience last month for my husband's birthday, got on a bit of a Tomb Raider kick, then KZbin worked its algorithmic magic and voila! Assuming you haven't been back since your video, I can tell you that photos, bar, and gift shop were all fully operational when we went (gift shop was a bit lacklustre though, would have preferred more trinkets). We also paid less than you did, (£62 per person) and the price included a drink and photo for a Saturday afternoon slot so I feel we got a good deal. I didn't think about it at the time but I agree I would have preferred more theming in the ‘holding pen’ area. It’s not a very exciting place to sit and couldn’t easily have been themed as a museum or even an old temple/ tomb. It also seems that they have reduced the number of characters you meet since it opened (you see Winston on a TV screen but don’t get to meet him in person). I assume this is to streamline it a little more but all you got to meet were your main ‘guide’ and the zipline guy, which feels a bit lacking. And you still don’t get to meet Lara ☹. Also, they appear to have got rid of the ‘leap of faith’ part you mentioned, as it was nowhere to be found. As you mentioned, you still often feel like you get ushered onwards before you had time to get your head around some of the puzzles, and as someone who loves escape room style puzzles, I found this disappointing and I felt short-changed (I would have preferred to solve puzzles to find the relics instead of the ‘easter egg hunt’ thing you do near the end). Also, like yourselves, I feel there could have been a lot more Tomb Raider easter eggs, which I don’t think would have compromised the experience for non-fans (assuming you didn't require any specific Tomb Raider knowledge to solve any of the puzzles) while it would have meant a lot to big fans of the franchise. However, like yourselves, we also had a great time. The actors are fantastic and both hubs and I are huge fans of immersive experience so this one really scratched that itch. I just wished it had lasted longer (maybe they could have extended it and put a themed ‘interval’ in the middle, for refreshment and toilet purposes, like I’ve seen at other immersive events). On a personal note, one thing they get a big thumbs up for is that, when I emailed beforehand to tell them that my husband was disabled (visually impaired/legally blind) they told me what sort of things to expect, and advised me on the best way to go about completing the experience, and on the day, there was a lovely sense that the staff, including the actors, were keeping an eye on him and his safety without compromising the story. Big ups to them for that! All in all, while there is room for improvement, I’m already planning on taking another friend for her birthday. Sorry for the long comment, but nobody ever wants to listen to me blather on, so I thought I’d take advantage of the captive audience. Peace!

[@suliboytellem8330]

Sarah is HILARIOUS! We're gonna need her to be a TR fan so that we can see more of her. Work on it Steve.

[@SarahOfWarr]

Aw thank you 😊

[@The13thElysium]

Really sounds like they haven't fully finished the experience yet! Such a shame that half of it wasn't working for you guys but at least you had a laugh together! Hopefully the experience will be improved as it continues onwards! :O

[@CroftCrazy31]

7:33 im just imagining Lara on a dramatic escape down a zip line for it to get stuck on a branch or something lmao

[@SteveOfWarr]

Yeah thank god that didn't happen to us mid flight 😂😂

[@CroftCrazy31]

@@SteveOfWarr also thank you for this honest review! Me and my partner are planning a trip to London the same week as TR26 and were thinking about getting tickets, but I think we will leave it and go when it’s more fleshed out (and has a gift shop because me want TR merch🤣)

[@SteveOfWarr]

@@CroftCrazy31 yeah that's possibly what we'd recommend doing too. Unless it goes down in price by a lot or you're going with a group of friends I'd go to see the statue and that's it for now 🤣

[@videogamenostalgia]

It sounds like they should have divided it into a clear escape room-type experience and an action obstacle course experience. Blending the two and trying to keep pace sounds like an immersion-breaking logistical nightmare. Also not wild about having a ton of actors in these things - it’s always a bit embarrassing having to interact with them IMO, since it's not a roleplaying game and you and your friends would never be 'in character'. .

[@BethGoth15]

Best birthday present EVER!!! But it's a real shame you couldn't have a picture/video on the zipline. I would love to see what I looked like on that thing. I screamed all the way down! 😂 And funny little detail....I was wearing my Dumbo T-shirt and the guide practically yelled at me, "Have you got your magic feather? SHOW ME YOUR MAGIC FEATHER!" 😂🤣🤣

[@audi0078]

Steve you bring so much joy with tomb raider. Keep it up 🏋️

[@RybatGrimes]

Definitely sounds like they should’ve just made a few escape rooms themed after different games. Imagine a Temple of Xian themed room? Would def cut out the issues of having people catch up other groups and would condense it way down.

[@xRocketzFighterx]

Thanks to you Steve and Kai Morgan (Ink Ribbon) i've gotten back to tomb raider. Idk if I wanna spend £77 on this event but I've paid more for less before.

[@jurassicjam2156]

The thing that sticks in mind is no gift shop, clearly can't be finished yet. The idea of it all is good and with some tweaking it will be great.

[@smashlara]

Really surprised to hear they still haven't finished it and nothing worked. When I attended the preview, they told me it would be finished once it was open to paying customers. Also, we used cheap bow and arrows, not crossbows... that also didn't work and nobody could use, so I guess they replaced it with something equally bad. And I was disappointed by no gift shop too. I'd only recommended it if you had a good group. Sad!

[@yohnnyjames]

"what if they ask me nicely" 🤣

[@Dragonsamuari]

Nice use of the TR3 promotional Lara in the background

[@croftrider5191]

Finally. I went yesterday... And ... I agree with your review at 100%.

[@IrishKeshiHead]

I recently went to this when i was over in london for a few days, i got to it and got into the place for £35 all thanks to a cheap offer online and got it at the venue, having a photo of myself on the zipline. I even got to be the captain of the run i had. To be fair the jeep chase should have been worked better if it weren't for the fact we had like broken arrows mixed in and the crossbows weren't to janky. But it felt great solving problems and such. Granted I would love to made a new version but kept the same story. Like for Finland you had to search not only inside but outside the cabins looking for the air stones, then on the jeep chase you had to defend against the attack, but the weapons would be locked inside lock boxes like pistols and shotguns, you have to find the right keys to open the lockboxes and ammo creates to get to shoot at the baddies. Then the ship level where rather than spinning handles to get the pressure at the correct amount, have the idea that you need tools to undo the security panels or use cranks to bring an elemental piece out. Then once we get to the caves we just have new codes and new formats to the cave challenges, after that with the jungle itself, having to not only climb around, there would be elements hidden inside crates or in vases we have to stick our hands into. Everything else would stay the same until we get to the end, rather than placing all the elemental stones into place, the enemy gets their goons out to apprehend the students, taking all the stones and locking them into a massive structures to free the stones, with the help from lara who gives us some tools to use to open the contraptions freeing the different stones and then placing them on the right columns, if not done, the tomb doors would gradually close in, eventually having lara come to our aid have her place the stones correctly. something to freshen the experience up.

[@vectorbrony3473]

The obstacle course just reminds me of ITV's Jungle run

[@krk0445]

Thanks for the review. I think I will wait a bit more before I travel to England just for this. I hope they will sort out the issues.

[@burtie80]

When it was announced I was excited but sceptical at the lack of any details. Then I seen a few lack luster photos and I kind of guessed what type of thing it would be. Actually happy I didn't book the most expensive package for the opening. I'm definitely not going now 😂

[@MightyJonE]

I was at your stream when you were talking about this, and it does indeed seem as if the Experience needs some fine-tuning. Not keen on the Lara statue, though, she’s far too thick-set - not the leaner cat-like gymnast and acrobat Toby Gard originally envisioned

My wife wanted to gift me a trip to this Experience, but from both this review and Raidercast, I'm skipping it. It's 77£ (90€) for a generic adventure thing that is not physically demanding? No thank you. Ditch the escape room mechanic and make a "Ninja Warrior" type course with relics positioned at the end of climbs and stuff like that. Have a shooting gallery with light guns and a big screen (maybe we're looking out through a window of a crashed plain and raptors are coming at us), a long corridor with light rays that when you cross them activate sounds of blades and spikes to jump scare you and you have to restart and only get three attempts, and have the score of the games up to Angel of Darkness playing... you know, fun and action packed, and full on Tomb Raider.

[@LongTimeAgoNL]

As I mentioned in the previous video: NO GIFT SHOP?! No chance to buy overpriced (yet maybe limited run) items?! So the biggest cash cow they could put down and bring down the price of the experience with... They didnt put up?! What a massive missed chance. I love the video Steve & Sarah and the way you 2 talk about it all! Too bad nothing like this is in The Netherlands was put up. But I guess the fandom of Tomb Raider is slightly bigger in England than it is in the rest of the world due to Lara being from England and such.

[@SteveOfWarr]

Thank you! (And thank you for the repost) ✌️😉

[@slaxxxer]

It must be managed by DICE!

[@twitchfixer1344]

I wasn't going to listen to Spoilers until you said "£70"

[@SvobodovaEva]

77£+1£ tax 😂

[@amymiddleton1480]

That’s such a shame, sounds super unpolished. I’ve been wanting to do this for ages but the price put me off and it definitely sounds like it isn’t even remotely worth the money. So disappointing though because done well, this could’ve been really fucking incredible!!

[@lilhanhan]

Ah, seems that it's a bit of a let down to be honest especially for the price it currently is. I've noticed from all the reviews (even the ones included on news publications, etc), that pacing is the main problem... Why move you along half way through an activity if no one is behind you?! You'll probably get a more authentic tomb raider experience by going to a GoApe or Ninja Warrior course for easily half the price; granted there's no puzzles but from the sound of your session there, there wasn't much puzzle solving to begin with... 😓

[@dopey473]

It has such great potential but none of it has been realized yet, hopefully the people working on this see your video though it is unlikely.

[@starcuesatmidnight]

so uhh off topic but when are you gonna do the tomb raider 2nd reboot retrospective? or did all of us hate tr2013 so much that we just..

[@Planetdune]

Not sure if 77 is "way too much", if I get this right there were multiple live actors guiding you through the adventure. That is pretty expensive stuff. Over here we had a "walkng with dinosaurs" adventure. They asked over a 100 and in the end all it was are some animatronics in a forest. You seem to have gotten the far better deal.

[@SteveOfWarr]

It was at the time considering how small scale the production was and also the fact that there were a lot of things that were broken. Since then it's gone down to £35 and that is a far better price for everything. If they had animatronic dinos in as part of the experience here that would've also been amazing to see

[@Baroness12]

Another solid TR review - what a shame for all the original fans - IMO the whole thing should be all about the old skool elements that made it what it is today. Will be swerving, but thanks for giving us a true insight!

[@sascha495]

No Macho Broccoli? 😭😭😭

[@liveyourdreammedia]

77 pound is kinda steep. seems to be trying to cash in on the IP, without doing it right. i mean no open bar or merch of any kind?someone dropped the ball there. still it seems kinda disappointing though. outside of some references it could have been any other prison/escape/adventure game. hope they will change it. doesnt sound very Tomb Raider worthy atm. time will tell....

[@frogradar]

the thing is, is that they probably have to cash in on the IP... they'll have copyright to pay back on the IP and the music.

[@videogamenostalgia]

The lack of gift shop/themed bar and the sparse direct references to the Tomb Raider games suggests to me that this started off as a generic Indiana Jones-type adventure thing and they only acquired the Tomb Raider licence later. Maybe they planned it to be generic because they weren't sure if they'd get the licence when they started work, or maybe it was genuinely supposed to be something else and they only changed it to be a Tomb Raider-themed thing later?

[@SvobodovaEva]

We had two med kits, gave one to the wounded soldier and never figured out what to do with the other? 😂 so you gave her both of them?

[@SteveOfWarr]

Nah just the one, we literally have no clue what the other one would've been used for 🤣

[@AlexBatistaCamargo]

🇧🇷 Seus vídeos são incrível Steve pode colocar tradução em português

você pode activar os subtitulos automáticos e na configuração mudar para PT-BR. Não é perfeito, mas funciona.

[@disel28-u6t]

The french man with the builder Pierre the builder

[@Aceimus1066]

Permission? Ooft. 😬

[@CreativeWM_Personal]

First

[@DJPoprocks]

Sorry, but if shes not even a TR fan why do a joint review? dull, and complainy and just ruined this vid for me. Usually love your content Steve.

[@SarahOfWarr]

I like TR, I'm just not as much of a fan as Steve is. But as non Tomb Raider fan, pointing out the lack of Tomb Raider links surely shows how much the event could have had a little but more thought into it. Ps. Sorry you thought I was dull and complainy, I'll try harder next time 😅