The Traitors Live Experience feels like the TV show, even if the tasks feel a little rushed
With Friends, Race Across The World and Squid Game live experiences currently on in London, it was only a matter of time before The Traitors became less than faithful to their televisual format and hopped over to screw more of us over IRL.
First up, a confession: I tend to find the forced-fun element of live and immersive experiences exhausting. I’m just not competitive enough about gaming to run around looking for clues and most often, would rather let performances wash over me than be a part of them.
So I doubted whether The Traitors Live Experience would be for me. But, thankfully, I only had to feign interest in looking for things hidden behind doors and in cupboards for a little while. Lots of this Traitors Live Experience doesn’t require much by the way of cerebral thinking, which is just the way I like it: lots of time to rot in my chair, sit back and enjoy the spooky lights going up and down and watch the other contestants as they fascinatingly try to outwit one another.
The Traitors Live Experience: the lighting and décor feels like the TV show
The private games rooms within The Traitors experience
That’s the interesting part. It did feel like we were filming an episode of the TV show, with contestants fully getting wrapped up in the concept and trying to throw one another under the bus. There were clearly some very clever people around my table, but we disagreed on who the traitors and faithfuls were. I suspect this would be really good fun with a group of friends or family.
The order of the evening goes like this: there are Traitors-themed cocktails when you arrive, and then you’re sent downstairs into a corridor that’s dressed like the Traitors castle on TV, but it’s hardly the most immersive set I’ve ever seen. Then we’re sent into our own little games rooms, each with our own games master, where a group of people play together (each table has 14 players, you can book a whole private room or if you’re a smaller group you’ll be paired with other players but you’ll always be sat with the people you came with).
Some of the games aren’t easy to quickly decipher. They’re fairly complicated challenges asking you to work out the meanings of weird words on tarot cards or align astrological signs. But the gamesmaster, who is clearly keeping to a ruthless time schedule, ends up basically helping you through some of the tasks anyway, and everyone cheers along when they’re rewarded with a load of gold coins. This worked for me, because strategy games aren’t my thing, but I wonder if for others it might grate that some of the tasks felt confusing and tricky to complete in the time frame.
Anyway, the lighting’s cool and décor looks great, and I did find myself wrapped up in the human psychology of the whole thing. Was I a traitor or not? I’ll keep that under my hat: I might need to rely on the same tactics if I’m enrolled again.
Tickets cost from £29.50, book at thetraitorslive.co.uk
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