It’d been a while since I’d attended any kind of scare event and it still felt like too long a wait until Halloween season, so on the spur of the moment I found myself planning a trip up to Sheffield to attend Zombie Infection’s Factory event for their afternoon session the next day.
I’m a relative newbie to scare attractions, but my introduction to these events, like most people started with Theme Park Halloween nights, here in the UK and in the USA. Over the last few years I’ve also dragged some like minded friends to a few different types of Zombie experiences, such as ZED Events Zombie Shopping Mall and Wasteland experiences, 2.8 Hours Later, Escape from a Room with a Zombie, and a superb pop-up to promote the launch of the HTC Vive. This time I was to experience Zombie Infection on my own.
Zombie Infection run a few different experiences dotted around the country, each one with a different story and style to help keep things fresh. This was my first experience with them and their website makes it very clear with a good back story of what types of things lie in wait for you after arrival and I will try to keep this as spoiler free as possible.
The venue for this event is the now dilapidated former Stanley Tools factory in Sheffield. It’s set in over 120,000 sq. ft. over four floors in two buildings with a sky bridge connecting the two. A perfect venue for a post-apocalyptic zombie experience. At 4.30pm on the dot the intimidating soldiers with big realistic guns arrived and ushered us in to the car park area, split us in to two groups ready to enter the first building.
We weren’t waiting long before the event began in earnest with impact and a lot of noise before we were led conga-style in to the first pitch black room where we were searched and then ushered in to the second room where the briefing began. Initial briefing over we were split in to 4 groups of 7 to 9 people, had to sign our waivers and were given our safety goggles.
Next up was the range training to ensure we could use the standard pump-action airsoft shotguns safely, more specifically the main rule drummed in to us was not to aim at the head. Completely understandable from a safety point of view to ensure no potential PJ and Duncan incidents from occurring, but it does slightly take you out of the Zombie killing style of event. Personally I prefer the sophisticated ‘laser-tag’ style weapons that ZED Events used at Wasteland.
Last part of the prep before the main event involved heading to the armoury to pick up our guns. Since I’d already used the standard pump-action shotguns before, I went for the £10 upgrade for a realistic G36C automatic rifle. All of us had limited number of airsoft pellets though to enhance the immersive style. Discretion is the better part of valour and all that. Finally, we assigned a team lead, who would be pushed down a lift shaft if they did a shit job; a medic, who would be able to revive us if we got bitten by the undead, and two crap flashlight holders. I mean that the flashlights were crap, not their performance.
This prep took up about half an hour, and from there we were to go in our groups with our designated soldier on a series of search and fetch type scenarios, but just before we set off in to the Factory proper, there was a fun set piece that didn’t do my tinnitus any good. That done our squad of seven went off exploring.
We, and each of the other three squads, did a number of different tasks with random zombie encounters throughout the whole factory. Since ammo was low, it was always best to avoid if possible and only engage if necessary. Props go out to one particular female zombie who had the most blood curdling, loud scream that I’m sure could be heard from anywhere in the two buildings.
At about the half way point there was a major set piece, and all four squads were ushered in to the pitch black basement and told to get in specific formations. My safety glasses were fogging up at this point and the anticipation was built really well. What happened next was pretty much pure panic in this dark foggy environment, with me just blind firing when I heard the words “Contact Front!’ shouted out.
After the panic and subsequent exhaustion escaping from the basement it was on to the second half of the event with similar search and fetch scenarios, however this time we had a new type of zombie enemy, the unstoppable juggernaut which had T-Rex style reaction to movement. One of them somehow had managed to master how to use a chainsaw. Probably the most memorable encounter involved one squad member getting close to the chainsaw zombie whilst the rest of the squad distracted, ran and hid. I spent most of my time cowering crouched behind half-partition wall every time I heard the unmistakable chainsaw noise getting closer.
After all the tasks were successfully completed there was one final set-piece before heading to the evacuation point knackered and still pumped with adrenaline. We then handed our guns back in at the armoury and had a final debrief before meeting all of the excellent actors both zombies and soldiers alike. A few photos and then I was out just about 3 hours after starting.
Overall I had a good, fun time, most of that was due to being in a nice squad of 7 with great actors on both sides of the zombie war doing an excellent job. I feel that you’ll probably get good consistency with the actors, but obviously your mileage may vary dependent on the squad you’re in. If you’ve enough people in the group to make your own squad, then you’ll have a ball.
I felt that it was reasonable value for money and would like to visit other Zombie Infection events but probably wouldn’t revisit Factory as it is a bit too similar to other experiences I’ve done for my tastes. My only real criticism is that I felt that there was occasionally an issue with pacing and crossover with the other squads which led to some downtime between tasks. It’s still a minor criticism and I’d heartily recommend Zombie Infection to anyone that wants to try a zombie survival experience with shooting.
Zombie Infection – Factory costs £79.99 with the option of upgrading your weapon for an additional £10 with limited availability although Zombie Infection run several other events throughout the UK.
