To be clear; Patrick Stump did the instrumental, not Fall Out Boy as a band.
So yes, it soft opened. Andy and I were at home, each eating our dinner; I saw the tweet of it getting ready to open, called him, and we immediately left.
The queue has a great look. The effects are awesome, and the new "Gamma Core" effect is 100x better than the last one. There is a bass that pulsates throughout the wait. While waiting outside, the bass of the launch can't help but get you hyped. Once inside, the tests that happen every so often pulsates lights, smokes up, and hits a hard bass that makes it feel like they are actually testing something.
Small con though; you don't know what you're waiting in. It's clear it's a Military base, but you don't know why you're there until right before loading; but you're in that area for so little time, you never get a chance to see the video that explains a bit of it. No real presence at all of any the characters either, including Ross. But this is a coaster, and while story is important, it's not a huge impact on the "meat and potatoes".
The coaster is great, and smooth like the old days. The loading area glows green and pulsates when a train is dispatched. The new launch effect is great too, but my minor gripe is that it was too "bright" and personally felt the tunnel needed a fog effect or some sort of audio cue (like Banner's old "I think it's going to work"). Either way, it's much better than what we used to have. Other than that, no complaints. The soundtrack (which is just an instrumental) by Stump adds another dimension to the ride, and you would not know it was done by him unless you read the release (Hey guys, we do have a main site that said all this....
)
Either way, it's the Hulk we all know and love, just modernized to a much better result. There are some misses, but it's still a huge improvement on what we had beforehand. Can't complain about that.