The day has arrived where after 8 years of lying dormant the Nemesis Sub Terra ride at Alton Towers has officially reopened to the public. Here’s our Nemesis Sub Terra review.

For those who don’t know Nemesis Sub Terra was a drop tower dark ride at Alton Towers that opened in March 2012. Its story focused on the discovery of an egg in a network of caves which painted the backstory around the Nemesis roller coaster ride that was designed by John Wardley and opened in 1994.
Due to limited operations by the park in the wake of The Smiler crash in 2015 the ride was closed down along with six other rides.
Fast forward to 2023 and the ride reopened to the public on May 27th, 2023.
Nemesis Sub Terra consists of a pre-show where guests have been invited to the Phalanx (a research team who are investigating the egg) research facility for a tour but all is not as it seems. Guests would enter a lift down to the facility and take their seats upon the ABC Rides manufactured drop tower.
An egg would be in the centre of the room and after walking through themed caves to get to said room you were surrounded by good theming and atmospheric lighting you would be locked in and the show would begin.
The drop would be similar to that of the Drop Dead ride at Blackpool Dungeon and the drop tower ride at the London Dungeon being the exact same ride system. It packed a punch and would immerse guests with water effects, leg ticklers and even back pokers as the creature within the egg broke free.
Guests would be evacuated from the facility and back into a lift that would shake vigariously as the creature tried to attack the guests and you would exit through a small scare maze style experience and back outside to collect their belongings after the experience has ended.

The initial response from the public wasn’t an entirely positive one when it opened so the park tweaked the ride and added a variety of changes and the response when reopening was much more positive before its eventual closure.
With the Nemesis rollercoaster in the process of a retracking and reimagining for the 2024 season Nemesis Sub Terra reopened and has added a new experience to the Alton Towers line-up and brought more life to the lifeless construction site area that is now Forbidden Valley.
Nemesis Sub Terra ReOpens

The ride reopened on May 27th, 2023 and the crowds were gathered around the Phalanx building at 9:30am to watch the official opening of the facility by the head of the Phalanx Corporation.
Characters were dressed in lab coats and were holding clip boards before the attraction was opened only for a researcher to exit the facility with a bloodied mask and collapse in front of the crowd. A cheesy yet quite interesting introduction to the rides opening.
We were reassured that the building was safe to enter still, all the same, the ribbon was cut and guests entered the newly constructed queue line and watched new footage on the screens dotted around the queue before entering.
A new logo and signage has also been added to the ride with a new black and red colour scheme which is consistent with the colour of the new upcoming Nemesis rollercoaster track.

The pre-show videos around the queue line and in the first section of the building remain similar to the original but with some new footage taken from the marketing videos and some extra B-roll shots thrown in there for good measure but the storyline remains identical to that of the original.
Brave New Beast filmed the footage for the Nemesis rollercoaster closure in addition to the preshow and queue line screen footage. They’ve done an incredible job of stepping up the aesthetic visual quality of the ride and enhancing the feel of the experience to one likened to a sci-fi movie or similar. It’s got a grand scale feel to it that it never had before.
Keeping the storyline exactly the same is certainly a confusing one for Alton Towers fans as the Nemesis creature was born from that egg but if they’re researching and investigating nemesis (the reason why the ride is closed as per the story) then there’s now another egg. It’s confusing. I’m sure all will be revealed with Nemesis reopens in 2024 and I have a feeling the station building will play a big part in bringing these two storylines together.

Where once upon a time the Phalanx operatives were quite aggressive towards guests in regards to getting them inside the building they’re now welcoming and friendly. This ties more into the story as you’ve been invited to tour the facility as opposed to the feeling of being caught trespassing within it.
Having friendly Phalanx operatives makes sense and friendly they were. Staff were having a great time on opening day and they were some of the nicest group of staff members I’ve seen on any ride at Alton Towers Resort.
One detail that took me by surpise was a series of videos released by Alton Towers (see above) from a group who are looking to ‘Seek the Truth’. The videos depict a Phalanx operative who is sneaking footage of the facility and the companies operations as though undercover in an attempt to ‘Seek the Truth’ about what is really happening within the facility.
 
When we said ‘Seek the Truth’ to any member of the Phalanx staff members they would reply with ‘Seek the Truth Brother’ or other things similar clearly indicating that there’s more than one undercover Phalanx operatives or moles within the facility.
Alton Towers marketing have absolutely blown it out of the park in 2023 starting with the opening of The Curse at Alton Manor and now followed by the Nemesis and Nemesis Sub Terra campaigns. The effort that is going into these attractions is exciting and the work involved is head and shoulders over previous marketing campaigns for any new addition to the UK resort. It’s great to see! 
Nemesis Sub Terra Review

Nemesis Sub Terra has been reopened not reimagined in every sense of the word. People were expecting major changes to the ride and to the backstory that would hopefully paint the picture for what will happen when Nemesis returns in 2024. That didn’t happen.
The storyline is exactly the same and at the moment that’s quite confusing until more will be revealed by the park over the next few months.
Having the subtle changes to the queue line screens and preshow screens is a nice touch but just getting this ride reopened is very clearly the priority here. Costing £4.5 million the attraction is hardly cheap and getting it open and running again must have been a job in itself after lying dormant for 8 years.
Stepping inside the building and walking through the attraction you’d never think that the ride had been closed for 8 years which everything in there feeling fresh. I love the cave before entering the egg room and the egg room itself looks spruced up, repainted and looking superb. Sitting in your drop tower seat just looking around the room is a great space to be in, it’s very atmospheric.

I think so many people were expecting major changes to the ride but I was of the mindset of ‘I’m glad it’s reopen’. 
Opening day didn’t come without teething problems though as the ride broke down at numerous times during the day to the point where we were sitting in the pre show having being given bottles of water on a warm sunny day in May. 
It would later go on to break down many more times during the day. I believe it’s still the same old ride system and with a relatively low capacity of 40 riders at a time (now reduced to 32 for the time being for some reason) you can expect queues to form but what Nemesis Sub Terra does and does well, is embrace its filler ride role.
It takes some of the crowds away from other attractions (much like the RetroSquad funfair rides dotted around the park do) and helps to bring footfall to Forbidden Valley which has been a ghost town since the closure of Nemesis for its refurbishment.

The first lift you enter that takes you down to the facility is a little underwhelming with a little rumble and light effect but I rather enjoyed the second lift as it seemed much more intense than before.
Onboard the ride itself the water, prodding and leg tickler effects combine with the smoke, lights and emergency situation to really put you in a sense of unease. For younger riders this might be quite intense as I certainly felt an urgency to escape and that’s me, a grown ass man who loves scare attractions!
The drop is short but sweet and it packs a punch. Where the scare maze resided after the lift sequence is no more but there are actors there trying to get you out of the building quickly but it’s a shame the scare maze sequence has vanished.
Could we see it return for Scarefest? It’s quite possible but I do know this much. Forbidden Valley down to the Alton Manor area of the park will be absolutely phenomenal during Scarefest this year and I really hope they make the most of that space which now links two brand new 2023 attractions together.

Nemesis Sub Terra is around a 7-8 minute experience and has a 1.4m height restriction with the drop being a surprising 20-foot which it never feels like.
Go into the ride with the mindset of it has been ‘reopened’ not ‘reimagined’ and you’ll enjoy it. Don’t expect a world class attraction but expect a fun and quite immersive experience.
The cave section alone before the egg room impressed me, I completely forgot about this part of the ride and I instantly felt like I was back in Batman’s cave on Gotham City Escape or even on the Batman Knight Flight ride at Warner Bros World. 
I didn’t hate it. Far from, it’s a welcome new addition to the park and I’m glad it has returned. Hopefully it’s here to stay and I do hope they tweak the ride slightly around Scarefest and when the Nemesis coaster finally returns in 2024.
Merlin Entertainments are certainly smashing it out of the park when it comes to dark rides in 2023 with The Curse at Alton Manor, Ghost Train at Thorpe Park and now this. It’s an exciting time for the UK theme park scene and this is just the tip of the iceberg for projects to come in the future with the new direction Merlin are heading in.
Find out more about Nemesis Sub Terra HERE and check out our VLOG of the opening day ceremony and first thoughts on the ride below: