The War of the Worlds Immersive Experience London Review

Jeff Wayne’s musical version of The War of the Worlds immersive experience is currently being shown by dotdotdot London. I recently visited with a group of bloggers from Love London Pop Ups.

Dotdotdot London love bringing their audiences augmented reality VR experiences. The last experience they had was called Somnai. The experience is a mixture of actors, and virtual reality as you explore through classic locations from the War of the Worlds.

The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel written by English author H. G. Wells, written in 1897. Jeff Wayne’s version of The War of The Worlds is a musical debut album, retelling the story of The War of the Worlds. This was also made into a movie in 2005 starring Tom Cruise.

The welcome bar

Upon arriving at the bar we all sat down to wait for our time slot. The bar had a steampunk theme, with pictures on the wall which changed colour – one of them showing a spaceship landing. The large Martian above us let us know when it was time to begin our journey by letting of some steam and revealing a red coloured light, the same colour as our wristbands.

The immersive experience

Greeted at the door by a well dressed Victorian man we were led into The War of the Worlds. We stepped into a dark Victorian alley and then stepped into a theatre displaying Victorian London and the Martian attack.

We were then met by a professor who showed us to the Royal Observatory where we could each view planets and stars through his telescopes. At the end of this experience was saw a strange object heading to earth. The professor then rushed us out of the observatory and into Horsell Common, a woodland area. We could see movement in the corner so the professor went to see what it was. Sadly the professor didn’t make it out alive as he ventured too close to the Martian.

We descended down some stairs to George’s house, we knocked on the door but there was no answer so we clambered in through the window. We were then greeted by the homeowner with some sweets, she was telling us about her son and then started singing and got everyone to join in but then we were plunged into darkness. A flash of light came on but the owner had been grabbed by a Martian who had entered through the fireplace.

After this we were then led through the streets of London, where we put on our virtual reality backpack and headset. We had to march forward in a line and when you look around, everyone in the group had been transformed into a Victorian man or woman. We could see a bridge and river and we even came face to face with a huge Martian.

Next up we were placed in boats to flee the attack from the martians. We bobbed along with the waves and saw other ships being destroyed by the Martians but we managed to escape them.

It was now time for a 20 minute break in the red weed themed bar. I got a red weed cocktail, which was great!

After our break we made our way to a graveyard to mourn all the loss we had seen. We made our way to a confessional booth where we put on our VR headsets. After this we got to slide down to an engineer’s workroom where we found some blueprints to help destroy the Martians. Eventually all Martians were destroyed and houses and hospitals where rebuilt. Our last adventure was on a virtual hot air balloon where we soared into the sky looking down on the world below us. Upon landing we were taken to the Steampunk bar where we had begun this adventure. At the bar you can order cocktails, beers or food such as pizza.

Overall Review

I had a great time at War of The Worlds London, I loved adventuring through the different locations, my favourite part was the hot air balloon, it really felt like we were soaring through the sky. George’s house was also brilliant, when all the lights went out it was pretty scary and seeing the Martian tentacles pop out was creepy.

As this was a preview stage, there were a few glitches from virtual reality characters freezing and some sound issues. At Horsell Common a few characters were floating around instead of walking. When the Martian appeared, one of the actors was shooting the Martian, I think it would have been great if we could have had guns to shoot at the Martian too. This would have made it a bit more interactive. I liked that we could walk around though, it was crazy walking around but not knowing who you were next to as we had all been transformed into Victorian people.

The boat ride was brilliant, there was a chill in the air and it really felt like we were moving up and down with the waves.

The staff were great and stayed in character throughout the whole experience and it really did immerse us into the War of the Worlds. I would recommend this experience and hopefully some of the technical glitches can be sorted out.