Zombie Infection – The Complex – Basingstoke
It’s been a busy few weeks at Scare Directory HQ so this review is a little later than we would have liked. The upside though to a delayed review is that we have had a lot more time to digest everything that happened enabling us to give our detailed thoughts on the event.
Zombie Infection The Complex is different to many of the other Zombie Infection events in that it’s in a relatively modern setting. In a building that is still being used for its intended purpose during the day. The venue of choice for the complex is a leisure centre and at first I wasn’t sure how well this would work but, very quickly, it was clear that this venue is well suited to a zombie experience.
The venue has a number of floors and rooms to explore. Your experience takes you down into the changing areas for the pool all the way up to the gym rooms complete with exercise equipment.
The story starts with a bang as you are thrown straight into the excitement. Not a second wasted the team get everyone up to speed with the back story and the evenings proceedings. We start with our first zombie attack leaving us running for the stairs trying to catch our breath as we dart through the various areas of the complex. One section we have to sneak past the zombies unarmed and vulnerable trying our best not to disturb them.
We make it, just. We get kitted out with pistols. My preferred weapon for these kinds of events as they enable swift movement and are easy to carry. Then the hunt begins, roaming the building on the lookout for biohazard cases needed to help the cause.
The zombies were on point stopping us heading in certain directions and really chasing us at times. The use of space was great hiding and jumping out as if from nowhere. The zombies really had us running all over the place. This was quite possibly the most I had run in any Zombie Infection event. This is no bad thing as it really adds to the immersion where the zombies just don’t give up the chase. Personally I try to conserve ammo preferring to use it only as a last resort. I feel this adds to the experience trying hard not to get caught.
There isn’t much to fault this event. I feel that the shorter running time actually worked quite well it made the experience that bit more fast paced which I personally liked. My only recommendation would be to attend a little later in the evening when the sun has set. This is due to the venue having a number of windows meaning in certain areas the light made scares a little less impactful.
Overall though a really fun event in the centre of Basingstoke. Keep your eyes open for tickets to future events over at the Zombie Infection Website.
Zombie Infection – The Courthouse 2.0 – Manchester
While this is the second incarnation of the Zombie Infection Courthouse event it is the first time we have had the opportunity to experience it. The event takes place in Accrington in an old abandoned courthouse and police station. This made for an impressive location to fight some zombies. Just note if visiting this venue you will need to wait outside the door at the back of the venue where you will be met by one of the Zombie Infection team.
Once everyone has arrived you complete the standard waiver and once inside you are fully immersed from start to end. From the initial ‘security check’ to the finale the actors led you through an engaging storyline with innovative moments along the way.
The first scene was simple yet incredibly effective, dropping the participants straight into the action. This continued into an escape room-like moment where we had a number of puzzles to solve. I particularly liked this touch and would like to see this explored further in other Zombie Infection events.
The event continued to build in intensity with us being handed our weapons for the evening ready to battle the undead. We were led by our capable guides around the building. I particularly liked how the team slowly introduced new areas of the courthouse so you always had new spaces to explore. The use of the court rooms was a nice touch and the way they were used was really effective getting the participants to interact with the space.
The glass box in one of the courtrooms was used to great effect adding to an already impressive storyline.
The setting was great for a zombie event with lots of dark corridors and rooms with only one way out. The actors really worked well together helping add to the intensity at one point the group was trapped with no escape from the undead horde just outside the door.
Out of all the Zombie Infection events we have had the chance to experience, this one felt the most polished with a solid narrative, engaging scenes and a well paced storyline that kept you entertained from start to finish.
Zombie Infection – The Workshop – Somerset
As Steven and Ashley have now visited a number of Zombie Infection events we thought it would be beneficial giving the perspective of Josie the last member of the team to experience one of their events. What follows are her thoughts on the award winning Zombie Infection: The Workshop.
This was my first experience of Zombie Infection or anything like it so I wasn’t sure what to expect. In reading the website I was somewhat expecting escape room style sections with something along the lines of laser tag but with zombies. The zombie element most definitely delivered.
After arrival we entered the workshop of the jail where we were shown a video about Biotech before our tour of the facility began. Some of the framing of the video implied there might be clues to our survival; I’ll return on that point later in this review.
We are led through to the depths of the facility by our tour guide and right away we’re introduced to our first zombie. We were shown around the various areas with some great interactions with the characters and yet more zombies. The actors were fantastic at setting a tense scene with added subtle humour that was really effective.
Once the initial tour was over we were led to the basement to go through decontamination and within moments the event really took a turn. From then on we were faced with intense zombie scenes, fun team work and lots of running for our lives with some puzzle type elements.
My only critique of the event is that the framing on the website gives the impression that there will be more puzzle elements than are actually included, this is possibly something to be considered for future iterations of the event.
Overall the actors were brilliant, the make up and effects were really incredible. It was a fun and thrilling experience that I would recommend to anyone interested in scare attractions or zombie experiences.
Zombie Infection – The Prison Special ‘Vampires VS Zombies’ – Somerset
This was the first visit to a Zombie Infection event for Ashley with Steven coming along for his 5th event with the ZI crew. This event was a one off special with a twist. Rather than the usual fight with the Zombies we had two sides to choose Vampires or Zombies.
The event took place at Shepton Mallet Prison and unlike The Workshop event from Zombie Infection this event gave the team access to the full prison site including all the old cells. The venue couldn’t be faulted; it was absolutely huge with lots of dark corners for the vampires and zombies to hide. The space was used incredibly well with zombies and vampires appearing as if from nowhere throughout the night delivering solid scares time and time again.
We arrived at the event early and we had already joined a group of around 30. We signed the usual waiver and were offered an upgrade at a reasonable price. This entitled us to weapon upgrades and a torch. This was useful and would be recommended for future Zombie Infection events. Note they did run out so arrive early. You could probably get away with one between two if you had to but it made some of the tasks throughout the night easier.
From the moment we entered the prison site it was clear we would be immersed from the very beginning with ominous characters in white suits and masks guarding the entryway as we met the host of the evening. This character was entertaining and helped set the narrative of the event completely in character explaining how the night would run and what we might expect along the way. We were marched towards the building and led into one of the cell blocks.
This is where the evening really started as we chose the side of the vampires or the zombies and were led on our way by the guide for the chosen side. We chose vampires as something a little different from the usual zombies. The night unfolded with a cohesive narrative joined by a number of tasks. We felt that these tasks became a little repetitive towards the end of the evening and we would have preferred a little variety, maybe throwing in some escape room-esque elements to mix things up a bit. We also found a number of people cheating in the tasks but when noticed by an actor they were stopped completely in character which was good to see as it kept you immersed through to the end.
We were grateful for a break midway through as it’s quite tiring running around for 5 hours. Again in character the actors reiterated that people shouldn’t cheat and belongings should be put in the lockers provided. From this point it felt that people behaved a lot better.
The acting quality was truly superb as mentioned previously the actors all stayed in character throughout the evening even when dealing with non scripted elements the actors played along and improvised really well.
The game mechanic of the evening was also really good. The weapons provided were solid realistic pieces of kit and made the experience shooting a vampire or zombie all that more fun and immersive. It was good how you had limited ammo though saying this some people in the group were a little trigger happy.
The storyline progressed in intensity building up to a grand finale. The team worked incredibly hard to deliver a really fun and enjoyable evening. We would recommend giving this event a go if it returns as it’s great fun running round an old prison having free rein to try and avoid the creatures round every corner. The special nature of the event and the narrative really changed things up and provides something different if you’ve been to one of the more normal events.
Zombie Infection run events throughout the year and around the country so do check out their website for more information about an event near you.
Zombie Infection – The Forest – Nottingham
My third visit to Zombie Infection post lockdown took me to a pitch-black Forest north of Nottingham on a very warm Saturday evening. The Forest is the second instalment of Zombie Infection’s shared universe of stories and since I’d already participated in the first at The Factory in Sheffield and the third, The Dungeon at York, I was keen to see what I’d missed in between the two.
The location for The Forest, is unsurprisingly, a forest. More specifically it’s at a paintball / airsoft style activity centre. This provides some great sections where the familiar zombie survival tasks can be carried out, moving from one area to another as the story progresses. If you’re familiar with these sorts of venues then you’ll have an idea of the type of arenas you’ll find yourself in.
As is usual for a Zombie Infection event, when you check in and sign the usual waiver you also have the option of buying a face mask, snood, or t-shirt, as well as optional weapon upgrades. In this event’s case you potentially had the option of having a torch/laser attachment to your rifle. These had sold out when we arrived, despite being there half an hour beforehand.
The Forest storyline kicks off with the usual impactful impressive opening before you get time to catch your breath. You’ll be tasked with helping the soldiers find something from a crashed satellite whilst not only avoiding zombies, but also some nearby human villagers living off the grid. They make an early, very funny appearance.
If you’ve been to another Zombie Infection event, you’ll probably be familiar with the core aspects of the story and experience, but not the detail. One aspect of this for me was during the early ‘training’ section, after our session had been split into three different squads, we rotated through different sections to complete all aspects of our training. This helps to change things up if you have been to several events and for most an unexpected experience.
It probably comes as no surprise to read, but hats off again to the team at this event. The actors as usual were on top form, whether infected or uninfected. All provided us with a variety of scares, laughs, terror, and encouragement throughout, never breaking character. One memorable zombie was still marauding around the car park, long after the usual photos had finished and many had already left. It’s great that this vital aspect of Zombie Infection events is of a very consistently high standard, along with the quality of the costumes, props and make up. Clearly a dedicated and passionate team.
There were about 20 to 25 people, I think, at our later timeslot. I believe it was a sold-out event, so a lot more people attended than my previous post-lockdown ZI events. Given that we were in a massive outdoor venue and had been split into three groups, I was hopeful that the event would retain the feel of one with fewer people.
Sadly, this didn’t quite work in practice. It was fine when we were properly split up into three different groups doing different tasks, unfortunately there were more occasions when all three teams were marauding around the same areas meaning that it always felt more crowded than perhaps it should.
On that note people mostly kept to the usual COVID precautions. The actors all did, it was some of the other guests that were occasionally an issue, despite the best efforts of the ZI team to police. This is no different to any other public space, event, venue, shop, etc. that you may go to, there’s always the risk that people won’t or can’t keep to the precautions.
Another aspect that was more bothersome at The Forest, more so than any of the others we’ve experienced was around the upgrade of torch. Normally I wouldn’t bother with upgrades at any event, personal choice, as I’d still expect to get the full experience without feeling that purchasing an upgrade was necessary. Sadly, at times, especially during search and fetch quests, the lack of torch made it feel almost impossible to do well and diminished the impact of these segments as it quickly became a bit old hat, fumbling round in the dark.
All that aside, I still had a fun time, and personally perhaps need a bit of a break from zombie events, especially with Halloween season in full swing. Can’t fault the team at Zombie Infection for the story, set, location and most of all the acting, which is always top notch. If you haven’t done one of their events, or indeed a zombie style event, then you should definitely check out one of Zombie Infection’s many experiences dotted around the country.
Zombie Infection – The Dungeon – York
As I was in York, it was time for my second visit of the day to the Dungeons. This time however it was in the evening and for an altogether different experience. A few weeks back I attended Zombie Infection’s Factory 2.0 experience and having enjoyed it so much, decided it was time to experience a different one of their events.
Rather than recap all of the detail from the Factory 2.0 review, I’ll focus on the differences between the events and as always try and avoid as many spoilers as possible. As such this will be a relatively short review, but if you want more details about Zombie Infections experiences and Factory 2.0, in particular, check out our review here.
If you have done a Zombie Infection event previously, you’ll be familiar with the general idea of what will happen, the sort of gameplay you’ll encounter, etc.. Naturally it will involve a precarious situation after an outbreak of ‘Zombieism’ and there will be missions and mysteries to be solved during the course of the event.
As with other events you have the choice of purchasing optional upgrades before the event. At York, these ranged from a face mask, snoods, pistols with torches, and branded T-shirts, which have the dual purpose of acting like a zombie beacon. Expect a lot more attention from the undead if you choose to wear one of these.
Zombie Infection’s – The Dungeon experience is different from most of their other events in that it is shorter at around 75 minutes and has a lower age limit allowing kids aged 12+ to attend with a responsible adult. Despite my elderly bravado, I don’t think I’d have been able to do this in my youth, so hats off to the youngest member of our group of 12.
Earlier in the day, I visited York Dungeon in its usual state, and was happy and comfortable with the additional COVID precautions in place and was pleased to see Zombie Infection doing similar, as they also did with their Sheffield event. The only real difference was that this time, you were expected to provide your own mask, which let’s be honest, is pretty much a no-brainer nowadays.
York Dungeon itself is a much smaller venue than the Magna Science Centre and in the rooms where the more theatrical scenes played out, social distancing between the different household bubbles was much easier to maintain, with the actors doing their utmost to ensure we all kept a safe distance, didn’t pass items, etc..
In the narrow corridors and in the other dark rooms, the more free-flowing gameplay mechanic of the event meant that social distancing was more self-policed. Thankfully I was with a good group of people who were mindful throughout. Which isn’t easy to do when you have a ‘panic’ situation where you have to exit a room quickly to escape the zombie hordes. Similarly, you might end up out of ammo and can get trapped by one or more zombies in a room or corridor and unable to do much until they shamble off.
I felt that York Dungeons was a really cool venue. I could essentially free-roam through all areas of the Dungeon throughout most of the event and as part of our mission occasionally crossed paths with my fellow civilians who were similarly forging their own path. The Zombies as with Sheffield were pretty relentless and you always had to be on the lookout for many of their number coming from all corners.
The actors, Zombies and Humans alike were on top form again greatly helping with the sense of immersion of the precarious situation that we found ourselves in. Given the space and the shorter running time, there were fewer theatrical scenes, but it did give a nice amount of time to explore the Dungeons and the 75 minutes flew by.
All in all another fun and entertaining event from the Zombie Infection team, and even with the smaller space of the York Dungeon it still felt safe for a post-lockdown event with everyone, staff and guests alike wearing masks throughout, and any reduced social distancing was rare and fleeting. Due to the shorter length, and lower cost, the Dungeon event is definitely a good one to try as a ‘taster’ to the Zombie Infection world if you’re on the fence if it’s for you or not and obviously is suitable for braver youngsters.
Full details of all Zombie Infection events can be found on their website or you can find them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch.
Zombie Infection – The Factory 2.0 – Sheffield
Around a year ago I kicked off my first proper year in scare, and whilst planning for Halloween I felt the need for some more immediate excitement. That quickly led to a trip up to Sheffield for Zombie Infection’s Factory event and somewhat unexpectedly, my first review for Scare Directory.
It feels kind of fitting to be writing this review of Zombie Infection’s Factory 2.0 event, not too far from the previous event’s Sheffield location, now at the Magna Science Adventure Centre just outside of Rotherham. As well as being a sort of anniversary, it was also Zombie Infection’s and my first post-lockdown scare event, and I was obviously keen to see how it would work with additional safety measures and social distancing. I was less keen on seeing how it would work on the hottest day of the year so far.
The Factory 2.0 as previously mentioned is in a completely new location from last year’s event, and what a stunning location it is. Even from the outside, the sheer size of the venue impresses. I made my way to the main entrance and was met by our ZI representative and the rest of my fellow civilians/zombie fodder. I was the last to arrive and joined 6 other random people each in three groups of 2 and all maintaining social distancing.
COVID-19 Precautions
Obviously the biggest changes we’re likely to see in events for the foreseeable future are going to be how they deal with new rules and regulations around COVID-19. Zombie Infection has information on their website so it’s clear to see what they have done to improve people’s safety and it was great to see these being taken seriously from the start.
After the initial introductions, waiver signing, etc., we were given new unopened face masks, which needed to be worn throughout the event. These had to be given back at the end, but you could purchase one for £5 or a cool skull face snood for £10. You also could bring and use your own face mask if you prefer. At this point, you also have the option of upgrading your weaponry to either a rifle with torch and laser sight or a pistol with a torch for £10 each. The torch will help out in the very dark areas, and there are plenty of them, though you can’t use it too much as it attracts zombies.
Once done we were taken to a separate entrance and had our final safety briefing which now includes additional guidelines about the use of masks for everyone throughout the whole event, social distancing, use of hand wash, etc.. All fairly standard stuff nowadays, but nice to see it incorporated and monitored throughout the event. Given the nature of the experience, the one that I was most interested in was the social distancing aspect and I was pleased that throughout the event, given the size of the spaces in the venue and our small group size everyone, civilian, soldier and zombie alike were able to keep respectful distances the vast majority of the time and when not it was only for a fleeting moment.
Clearly it depends on the other members of the public that you are with, but the Zombie Infection team and the groups I was with used their common sense throughout, something that I’ve not seen day to day in shops. For me, I honestly felt more comfortable and safer at this event, than I have done going to the supermarket.
Story
So what about the event itself? Well after all the necessary safety and instructional information, which was delivered well and very clearly from our Rep, we were led into the building, into a dark room and told to wait. We didn’t need to wait long before the experience opened with a bang, both figuratively and literally. This opening section does a great job of unnerving you and instilling a sense of panic and fear right from the start, leading to some rushing around and eventually a brief moment of much-needed respite. During this rest, amongst the confusion, we were already down to five civilians. At first, I thought it was part of the story, but sadly one couple felt that this wasn’t the right event for them and had left.
Factory 2.0 is a new story for 2020 and I’ll try my best not to add any story spoilers other than what you can find out before booking. When we finally managed to find a suitable safe zone to recover more fully we’d already seen quite a bit of the inside of the very impressive interior. This place is huge and the event takes places over many different areas of the building. The whole place, despite being used for more normal activities during the day is transformed into a superb venue and is probably my favourite of all the various zombie events I’ve been too so far.
The Magna Science Centre was meant to be a secure safe zone for the protection of anyone uninfected, but somehow hasn’t been properly secured and is still overrun with infectious zombies. Could us five civilians, with the help of the few soldiers we’d encountered secure the facility and find out what happened to the team that was sent to secure the facility prior to our arrival?
What followed was a full-on two hours-ish of fairly relentless zombie encounters, alongside plenty of tension, panic, intrigue and some solid scares as we wound our way through the various areas and levels of the superb venue. As we were a small group we were outnumbered at least 2 to 1 by the zombies so there were very few instances of downtime, thankfully the story had a few more theatrical scenes that allowed for some much-needed catching of breath.
Gameplay
In this event, you don’t need to deal with the zombie hordes empty-handed and you eventually get ‘tooled up’ with a suitable zombie pacification device a.k.a. a gun. I ended up with a realistic, heavy airsoft rifle and unlike last year’s event these shoot ‘percussive’ blasts of air to take down the zombies and not airsoft pellets. Personally I thought that this enhanced the experience rather than detracted as you can now aim for the head (a big no-no when you’re shooting projectiles at an actor), you don’t need to wear protective eyewear, and no doubt an essential given the nature of the venue, there are no annoying plastic balls everywhere and there’s no risk of friendly fire.
Also, some of the mechanics, such as ‘reviving’ infected team members who had been touched by a zombie have been removed. I don’t know whether that was a conscious change to the gameplay or a convenient necessity given the lack of contact. Either way, I thought it really helped improve things.
Zombies, Zombies, Zombies
As with any event, actors make all the difference, and at The Factory 2.0 the Zombie Infection team were on top form despite the heat. I mentioned we were easily outnumbered by the zombies and they were fairly relentless in pursuing us, civilians and soldiers. As always there were great costumes and makeup even if I didn’t get particularly close to see all the detail. Each actor brought their own element to the performance leading to many jumpy, tense, and scary moments, as well as some wonderfully dramatic deaths. Hats off to one actor who took me completely by surprise down in the basement eliciting my first bit of blasphemy in months and laughs from my civilian companion at my reaction. The Zombies remained in character throughout the whole event and even at the end when we had our socially distant pictures taken with them.
Clearly a very passionate team who did a stellar job playing the Zombie horde as well as the human’s we encountered that provided the more theatrical elements to further the narrative.
Final Thoughts
Overall I thought that the story of the event was much punchier and easier to follow than last years Factory. Similarly, the gameplay was more streamlined and for me, it greatly benefited from it. Added together the whole event felt much better paced and the two hours flew by to the extent that I was sad to see it come to an end. I’d have happily carried on for longer at that pace despite the heat and exhaustion. I’m not sure everyone in our group or the actors felt the same and so was probably the right length for the experience. I feel that I benefitted more from the smaller group size we experienced, however, there’s no guarantee that it would be that small in future events.
The multi-award-winning Zombie Infection run a number of events throughout the country, so hopefully, there’s one not too far from you and each one tells its own specific tale of the wider ZI ‘universe’ which obviously helps to keep things fresh if you go to multiple events. They have also recently introduced a new ‘Zombie Infection Captain’ annual membership which as well as other benefits allows you to attend as many standard priced events for 12 months.
Factory 2.0 is the first chapter in the ZI set of events so local lockdown and travel permitting I’d love to do more to see how the story develops. As previously mentioned I felt safer doing this event than visiting a supermarket and despite running around a massive building over multiple levels, with a face mask on permanently for two hours on the hottest day of the year, I didn’t find it that much of an inconvenience or hindrance, your mileage may vary though. The venue was superb and the whole team at Zombie Infection entertained with a fun, safe, scary and non-stop slice of the Zombie Apocalypse.
I had a really good time at my first post-lockdown, socially distant event and look forward to attending more Zombie Infection events or their really cool, new for 2020 series of events Turf Wars. More details of all Zombie Infection events can be found on their website or you can find them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch.
Zombie Infection – The Factory – Sheffield
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.
