I've had some time to reflect on this over the last couple of weeks.
This is definitely not a conventional hyper. I've begun to think along the lines of a scaled up Saw; A series of short, punchy elements in quick succession, only twice the size, and with a significantly reduced risk of a splitting headache afterwards. In that respect, it's looking like a solid ride in the Thorpe line-up. It's not looking to be a head and shoulders above the rest sort of flagship, but it'll be good for Thorpe, and a worthwhile addition to the line up. Pokemaniac drew parallels with Dive Machines, and that's not something I'd considered, but it's probably quite accurate. There's something about the layout that reminds me of the El Locos, but that's probably more the look of the support structure, and the weird two rail rendering in some of the images, rather than a layout thing.
I still don't think this is a good pick. It seems to exist for the purposes of taking the UK height record, and for boosting Nick Varney's ego, rather than for being the best ride it could be. If there's not enough space on the current site for a proper hyper, or they're not prepared to commit the budget to do it properly, they shouldn't build one there. I'd forgotten about all of the space behind Swarm, which looks to be a better site for something large. They could easily have put a solid 120ft beast on this site, the ride could very easily be better for it. This is no Helix, EGF, or RMC, that's for sure.
I'm going to say this one final time, as I'm sick of making the point, and I'm sure many people are sick of hearing me say it; Just once, I want something really good from Merlin. I don't expect it, I do want it. They've owned the UK parks since 2007, they'll have owned the parks for over 15 years by the time the next round of "major" investments are complete, and they've yet to do anything to trade blows with top tier rides elsewhere in the world. The best rides in their parks are still from the Tussauds era. I'm not looking for a new number one, just something that's battling for a spot in people's top 20s, and if it misses out, it's because those people have travelled far enough and widely enough to have ridden the absolute crème de la crème worldwide. Don't kid yourselves. Merlin have the budget. They just won't spend it on the parks. That concept video for an extended layout pretty much sums up my point. That clearly shows how they could have made the ride top tier, and instead chose to cut the ride short.
Honestly, if accurate, the layout in its current form looks like it's about Icon tier. That's fine, I really enjoy Icon, and that means this is in contention for one of the best rides in the UK, and it's probably going to be decent fun. Unfortunately, it's Thorpe; It's four hours drive and an overnight stay away, as opposed to two hours and a day trip, and given Merlin's love for pushing visitor number and Fastrack, I doubt it's regularly going to be under a 30 minute queue, either. That means it's probably a must do attraction when I'm at Thorpe, but it's not going to make Thorpe a destination park for me any time soon.