It’s no surprise to anyone here at Nerd Reactor that -without a doubt- Amazon Prime was the top event at Comic Con this year. The Activations they served to visitors, along with the great immersive storytelling, all set the bar for future ones to come. As Amazon readies themselves to release the sci-fi series The Expanse, con-goers got a taste of life as a “Belter” in their incredible experience that made everyone an instant fan.
Briefing
As you enter, you are ordered to stand against the wall as a Captain from the UN begins to brief you on the situation. A shipload of “Belters” (natives of the asteroid belt), have slipped past their scouting vessels, and have built a squatters camp on the surface of a new civilian planet.
As the scouting vessels landed, an “incident” had occurred, and 23 lives had been lost. As a result, they have detained a Belter that they believe is responsible. Our job: explore the surface of the planet and talk with the Belters to find out the truth.
The Surface
Once on the surface, we are then instructed to split into groups and converse with the locals, asking if they had seen anything suspicious happenings. We were sent to speak to a young man who mentioned how difficult it is living with the UN coming to their homes like bullies.
Accusing the UN soldiers of restricting their rights, he tells us a tale of how his brother was killed in a previous battle. Upon telling us, he mentions that we can help if we offer a coin to him. Once handing the coin over, he was gracious enough to give us a trinket that had belonged to his late brother.
All of a sudden, a woman comes by to tell the man that we need to head back, something was happening. We were rushed back to the square where words had begun flying back and forth about the treatment of the people. It looked as though people were beginning to get into a panic.
The Protest and the Knife
Once we got back to the rest of the group, both members of the UN crew and some of the Belters had begun yelling at each other, and soon, a chant began to grow: “Let him go! Let him go!” The crowd’s voice started to join in, as the UN officials were trying to deescalate the situation. From out of no where, a woman from the crowd pulled out a knife, waving it in the air in a stance of defiance.
As quickly as she held it up, she was subdued and held to the floor. From a distance, gun fire began to fill the air, then out of no where, what sounded like a bomb went off not too far from where we were standing.
Both the Belters and the UN began to tell everyone to get down low to the floor, and duck for cover. Immediately we began to evacuate, heading towards a corner home that lead to the outside. As we were walking briskly to the exit, the Belter that was detained was brought out to evacuate as well. He, however, had wounds that seemed not to be caused by the blast, but maybe by torture or malicious actions.
The Activation was a great one to experience, even with limited knowledge of the series. The ability to explore an alien planet’s “surface” and speak to locals was fun, and the actors were phenomenal! Amazon Prime’s choice to use immersive storytelling this year was a smart one, as it paid off in dividends.
Check out the latest trailer of The Expanse on Amazon Prime, as the season debuts December 13, 2019.
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