The War Of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience was a high-tech, effects-laden walkthrough theatre experience that blended virtual reality with live action for a thrilling take on a classic story.
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What Was The War Of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience?
What Was The War Of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience?
The War Of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience was an immersive attraction based on The War Of The Worlds, an 1898 sci-fi novel written by HG Wells in which aliens from Mars invade planet Earth using giant three-legged walking war machines.
You may be more familiar with The War Of The Worlds as an (excellent) musical by Jeff Wayne, and also as a radio broadcast featuring the voice of Orson Welles that caused hysteria in 1938 by being so realistic that some listeners genuinely thought aliens were invading.
The immersive experience was inspired by both of these existing versions of the story, as well as the original source material. The attraction was based in central London, and saw audiences moving through a number of special-effects-filled scenes where they were directly addressed by actors as though they were survivors fleeing the alien invasion.
As well as live actors, the experience also made use of holograms, and of motion simulators paired with virtual reality headsets. There was also a hidden bar with themed drinks for the interval.
It was generally very well-received… right up until the company running it unexpectedly went into administration in 2026, citing legal and insurance issues as the reason. A shame, as they’d just completed a massive upgrade to what was already a very impressive and long-running immersive experience.
The Good Stuff
➕ It had great production values. The sets were detailed, the actors engaging, and a variety of special effects were used in a seamless and genuinely interesting way. Everything was well-maintained, and it gave the impression that no expense had been spared in its creation.
On top of that, at the time of closure, they had just upgraded it even further! As far as long-running immersive attractions went, it was top-tier.
➕ The story really worked on a narrative level. Some immersive attractions have to jump through hoops in order to tell a story where the audience feel like they’re part of the action but can’t actually affect anything. Not so here: in fact, The War Of The Worlds is the perfect source material for an immersive attraction like this.
The audience are placed as refugees fleeing an alien invasion. They are powerless to fight back against the aliens, and so it never feels frustrating for them to observe without being able to interact.
➕ It tied in well with other War Of The Worlds media. This immersive attraction was distinctive enough to be its own thing, but didn’t forget the classic story from which it was sourced. It also made use of some banging tunes from Jeff Wayne’s musical version, ensuring that fans of The War Of The Worlds in general were well-catered-for.
➕ It was something new and different. In a world full of remakes and experiences based on popular franchises, choosing The War Of The Worlds was a bit of a bold move. It was delightful to have a big-budget immersive attraction based on something that wasn’t already totally mainstream.
The Bad Stuff
➖ The virtual reality bits were kind of janky. There were several points where the audience donned virtual reality headsets. These were sometimes combined with motion simulators or other real-world physical sensations (like being grabbed by an alien claw).
The virtual reality graphics for these sections were developed in 2019, and weren’t ground-breakingly realistic even then. Many visitors reported the VR glitching or looking terrible by modern standards. It was good enough, but not spectacular, and in some ways felt like the weakest part of this experience.
Practical Information
The War Of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience has now closed forever, and is unlikely to be resurrected. As such, you can’t visit it. If you want to experience something that has a bit of the same magic, though, you could try and get to Jeff Wayne’s The Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds, Live! The Concert Experience!
(This is a live musical version of the original story. It existed before the immersive experience was ever dreamed of and continues to go strong today.)
Fun fact: Jeff Wayne, the composer of the Concert Experience! actually made a bid to save the Immersive Experience when it went out of business. It didn’t pan out, ultimately, but he did cover payroll expenses for the attraction’s staff during an interim period. Thanks, Jeff!
If you were able to go back in time and visit this attraction, you’d need to be aware that some parts were a little intense. There was a little bit of clambering, crawling and sliding – all of which could be circumvented if you weren’t physically able to take them on.
There’s a little bar at the midway point of this attraction, but you only hang out there for about 15 minutes, and you can’t take your drink with you into the show – so be prepared to chug your beverage when the interval ends!
The actors employed in The War Of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience were excellent. They would do a fair bit of audience interaction, but were very good at leaving you alone if you didn’t seem to be into it. That said, you would generally have a much better time if you committed to the bit and played the role of a fleeing survivor!
The website for this attraction is now defunct, but you can see what it looked like thanks to the magic of the Internet Archive.