The year is 1605, and it is a time of gunpowder, treason, and plot. A few days ago, I headed into Tower of London vaults for The Gunpowder Plot immersive experience, which combines VR (virtual reality) headsets and an immersive experience brought to life with actors and surroundings. The creators of the experience previously brought us "The War of the Worlds" expeirence, which I previously covered: War of the Worlds Experience Review.
Our experience started off with food and drink. I purchased the expensive VIP tickets, and this includes lunch with a drink, photographs, merchandise, and a drink in the bar. We received two coins for the purchase of the interval drink in the Drake and Duck bar, which is about half the way through.
We both had the house wine and food. Some of the food options were not available on the visit, but we were able to have the pizza and burgers.
I paid extra for the dessert, and we had ice cream. I had The Gunpowder Sundae, which was served with salted caramel syrup and popping candy.
I also tried the cocktails. There was Trick or Treason, since it is close to Halloween, This cocktail contained fruity liqueurs and jelly beans. The second cocktail I had was Toffee Apple, and it included toffee-infused vodka, apple juice, and caramel. I also tried the mocktail, Royal Gala, which tasted like apple juice and ginger beer.
We received The Fuse cocktail at the bar inside the experience. This was made with Prosecco and topped up with orange juice and grenadine.
The experience starts in the Tower of London, where we were currently located in the UNESCO heritage site vaults. We were Catholics imprisoned in the Tower, and we are freed to help the king's loyalists take down a rumour of a plot. Along the way, we meet several characters, both on the side of the plotters and on the king's loyalist side. We help a priest to escape and help escort barrels of gunpowder underneath the Houses of Parliament via the river. There's a lot more that happens, but I'll leave that as I don't want to spoil too much.
Overall, I thought that the experience was fun, but I felt that it fell a bit short of the first visit to the War of the Worlds experience; the second was too rushed. I liked the thought of being transported "back in time" to London in 1605, though I think it was a little difficult for us to get into the theme or mood. I felt that it needed a little bit more of an introduction...as we were playing "Catholics", perhaps having prison guards shouting at us about that as well as perhaps a sense of the injustice between the two religions to help us fit into 1605 London. I think a better introduction would have helped.
There were three VR sections of the experience, and these were rushed with the videos playing before my headset was on. The headsets are always too large for my head, and they seemed blurry; I had to hold them in place.
The group had to choose whether to help the loyalists or the plotters, and we opted to help the plot. I believe that regardless of this, the experience is the same except for some different dialogue.
Overall, I thought it was good, although they need to stop rushing the VR before everyone is ready, and there needs to be more of an introduction to help you "time travel" to a year that is so different from our own. I do think that this expeirience could be made better, and I do think that it will appeal to tourists.
Note: I am not paid to write this review and paid for the experience myself.
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