K-POP chimes loudly as posters are plastered across the walls advertising typical South Korean treats and fictional businesses.
Presented like a Seoul high street, Squid Game: The Experience immediately transports you to South Korea.
Presented like a Seoul high street, the Squid Game experience immediately transports you to South Korea[/caption]
Then the anticipation builds as ‘pink guards’ lurk around the dark corners, and this is all before you have even been handed your bib.
London’s Squid Game experience opened last month at ImmerseLDN on the waterfront at the ExCeL and welcomes players into the world of the hit Netflix show… but without actual violence and death.
Over the course of five challenges, players can get competitive – playing for points to ultimately win.
From the moment I received my numbered bib, I was no longer ‘Cyann – travel reporter’, I was player ‘008’.
Then after having my mugshot taken, I entered the game.
The first room is set out like the sleeping quarters from the show, with bunk beds uniformly lined next to each other.
Your host then introduces you to the experience ahead, as you prepare to enter the first challenge.
As the doors open and you move into the next room, in front of you lies four rows of glass, next to each other.
Mimicking the ‘glass stepping stones’ from the show, four players simultaneously step in accordance with a pattern memorised a few moments earlier.
The glass lights up green as you go if you get it correct.
If you don’t, it turns red and you are forced to stay where you are.
Players are then awarded different amounts of points depending on how far they reached across their ‘bridge’.
Whilst the game is one of the most iconic moments from the TV show, in the experience itself there is a lot of waiting around.
I was in a group of about 30 people and as one of the first four people to do the challenge, myself and my friend found ourselves waiting around for all the other players to complete the challenge.
Whilst watching a few groups attempt the game with some messing it up is entertaining, it wears off quickly and you are left waiting with nothing else in the room to occupy your time.
Once everyone is finished crossing the ‘glass stepping stones’, you enter the next challenge.
Then the anticipation builds as ‘pink guards’ lurk around the dark corners[/caption]
Arguably the best game for those who are super competitive, in groups of four you stand around a small table, each with a bucket of 10 marbles.
The aim of the game is to throw the marbles in the middle of the circle.
Those who achieve this, then get to take all the marbles from the table into their hoard.
If you run out of marbles, you lose.
The game lasts about five minutes or so and it’s a great way to meet other people that are in the experience or have some family/group fun.
Once this game is complete, again you scan your wristbands depending on whether you won, lost or drew.
Over the course of five challenges, players can get competitive – playing for points to ultimately win[/caption]
Then on into a dark room, lit by flickering street lamps, with a singular rope running along the ceiling and dropping down to the floor.
For this challenge, you play as a team – with another group of people on the other side of a glass door, doing the same challenge.
Essentially a version of tug-of-war, each player has five seconds to pull as hard and fast as they can.
Whichever team brings the marker on the ceiling closer to them by the end of the game, wins.
For me, this had to be the least thrilling challenge of the experience.
Whilst my team had no children, the team we played against had several – giving us a slightly unfair advantage.
Some challenges you play to get points as a team[/caption]
Whilst families on the other team may have had fun together, there were also groups of friends on the team who may have felt a little disappointed with the inevitable lose.
However, the next challenge is where the experience thrives – an icon of the whole Squid Game franchise – ‘Red Light, Green Light’.
Standing on a red line, with dozens of people either side of me, I keenly wait for the giant girl at the end of the room to close her eyes.
On green light, you go.
On red light, you do not flinch under any condition.
Guards lurk over your shoulder, waiting for you to scratch the itch on your head or even blink.
Players get an wristband which they scan to collect their points on throughout the experience[/caption]
The on green light, you can move freely and as quickly as you can to the other side of the room.
This was definitely the most fun game of the experience and makes you feel as if you have stepped into the TV series itself.
Again, if you cross the line before the timer ends – you get points added to your player profile.
The final game in the last room plays upon the iconic shapes from the series.
Stars, umbrellas and squares sit around in a circle and you move clockwise around the circle – kind of like a game of musical chairs.
When the music stops, a shape is presented on a screen in the room that you then have to rush to find on the circle.
An icon of the whole Squid Game franchise – ‘Red Light, Green Light’ – is also part of the experience[/caption]
The players that find the shape first, stay in the game.
For me this is where my ultimate competitive side came out.
I was in this for myself and I’d already not got that many points throughout the other challenges and this was my chance of redemption.
As a nimble person, I sprinted to each shape the screen presented and managed to get past the first and second round.
With just two players against me, I fell at the third – literally on my face.
The final player then goes head to head with the player that has the most points from the experience thus far.
Once you leave the experience, there is also a bar and photo opportunities to explore[/caption]
The ‘Front Man’ in a dark black cloak and mask then emerges, to conduct a game of rock, paper, scissors between the final two players.
The winner overall then gets to decide whether they want to share their prize or keep it to themselves.
Unfortunately, this is the rather anti-climatic end of the experience, as you then leave the maze of rooms and head back to the faux highstreet.
However, you can extend your stay by purchasing Korean drinks and snacks from the bar – which is well worth it – and snapping some pics are some set up photo ops.
The experience definitely transports you to the series, but the lengthy waits really prevent this experience from being the best it could be.
Whilst it cannot be helped if there are children in your booking, it would perhaps be better if the experience separates adult-only sessions and family-friendly ones.
It’s great for fans but for competitive friends, not so much.
The experience costs from £26 per adult and £18 per child.
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London’s Squid Game experience opened last month at ImmerseLDN on the waterfront at the ExCeL[/caption]
