2.8 Hours Later - 2011 Review
When 2.8 Hours Later debuted at Bristol's Interesting Games Festival last year, it introduced a whole new style of Scare Attraction to the UK. Utilising a whole city, a bunch of zombies and some very devious set pieces, audiences were wowed by the sheer realism and frights that assaulted them. It's no surprise then, to hear that the 2011 event is bigger, and bolder, and its popularity was borne out by the fact that it was completely sold out weeks before opening.
So, on a slightly cool and damp Saturday evening in May, we got in line with over 300 other victims and signed up for the ultimate "zombie chase game". After being given a very strict and important safety talk, we left the starting point with nothing but a small map of the city and our team mates as comfort. Our aim? To get to resistance headquarters, the only safe house in the city!
Within seconds we've met our first contact who guides us to a potential address. We have quite a long trek across the city and as we walk away from her past pub loads of oblivious punters enjoying the football match, we are suddenly surprised by two very fast and very vocal zombies. Our group of 8 scatter in panic and we run as fast as we can until the zombies are far behind us. We're two minutes into the game and we are sweating and breathless already. The next three hours are going to be tough!
Now, every corner, every tree, every post-box is a potential zombie hiding place and nervously we make our way to the first rendezvous, constantly wary and nervous of what is going to happen next. At each rendezvous a small vignette is played out to enhance the zombie invasion story and clues are given to the location of the next point. The sets are impressive and very realistic and range from a shrine to missing people through to a "doctor" who had found his own inimitable way of dealing with zombies in a blood splattered room!
The first few rendezvous points are easy to find and despite a few zombie appearances along the way, are not too difficult to reach. It’s clear at times that some of the early zombies have a "patrol zone" and as you work out their pattern, you can take advantage and head for your intended destination. That's not to say, you can just amble there - one scene in a church required us all to split up and run hell for leather just to get to the gates!
About an hour into the game and with all original team members uninfected we hit our first real mass zombie invasion. Chaos is probably the best word to describe our attempts to find the rendezvous point and stay safe. The zombies here were so fast and numerous that we all ended up scattered across a very dark park jumping at every noise around us. Every attempt to find a way through saw casualties and at least two of our group succumbed to infection. Using stealth, speed, mobile phones and even Facebook, 3 of us got to where we needed to go and learnt our next destination - a name that immediately filled us with dread. Our next connection was INSIDE the nearby shopping mall!
So, on a slightly cool and damp Saturday evening in May, we got in line with over 300 other victims and signed up for the ultimate "zombie chase game". After being given a very strict and important safety talk, we left the starting point with nothing but a small map of the city and our team mates as comfort. Our aim? To get to resistance headquarters, the only safe house in the city!
Within seconds we've met our first contact who guides us to a potential address. We have quite a long trek across the city and as we walk away from her past pub loads of oblivious punters enjoying the football match, we are suddenly surprised by two very fast and very vocal zombies. Our group of 8 scatter in panic and we run as fast as we can until the zombies are far behind us. We're two minutes into the game and we are sweating and breathless already. The next three hours are going to be tough!
Now, every corner, every tree, every post-box is a potential zombie hiding place and nervously we make our way to the first rendezvous, constantly wary and nervous of what is going to happen next. At each rendezvous a small vignette is played out to enhance the zombie invasion story and clues are given to the location of the next point. The sets are impressive and very realistic and range from a shrine to missing people through to a "doctor" who had found his own inimitable way of dealing with zombies in a blood splattered room!
The first few rendezvous points are easy to find and despite a few zombie appearances along the way, are not too difficult to reach. It’s clear at times that some of the early zombies have a "patrol zone" and as you work out their pattern, you can take advantage and head for your intended destination. That's not to say, you can just amble there - one scene in a church required us all to split up and run hell for leather just to get to the gates!
About an hour into the game and with all original team members uninfected we hit our first real mass zombie invasion. Chaos is probably the best word to describe our attempts to find the rendezvous point and stay safe. The zombies here were so fast and numerous that we all ended up scattered across a very dark park jumping at every noise around us. Every attempt to find a way through saw casualties and at least two of our group succumbed to infection. Using stealth, speed, mobile phones and even Facebook, 3 of us got to where we needed to go and learnt our next destination - a name that immediately filled us with dread. Our next connection was INSIDE the nearby shopping mall!
 Our first gruesome encounter |
 Zombies are hiding everywhere! |
The Galleries is a modern 3 storey shopping mall and has everything you would expect - escalators, closed shops, reduced lighting and an army of zombies! Unlike previous missions, here the whole party had to retrieve something and then get to a certain point. I cant remember how long it took us to complete this mission but the next half hour or so involved far too much running away, hiding, running up and down escalators and trying to out trick zombies. It was the highlight of the night and to be honest - probably the highlight of all my years visiting scare attractions. NOTHING can adequately describe the sheer panic, as we lost friends, plotted escape routes, stared "death" in the eyes and ran the fastest we could to get out. In a melee of self preservation, we would hope that others around us would draw the zombie guards away, so we could escape!
By now, we were physically and mentally exhausted but the game wasn’t finished with us yet, and scene after scene led us towards our final rendezvous. We could see sanctuary, we could smell the bbq, and we could hear the music playing. We could also see (or sense) the numerous zombies surrounding the building. How were we going to get in?
Maybe we were just tired or maybe the zombies were everywhere but in this final assault we lost another 4 people to the infection (me included) and as we queued up to be processed, we could only dream of the cold beers waiting for us ahead!
Zombie processing was a fun and unique end to the game and as we were scanned to find the infected people, those of us infected were "treated" for our condition before being released into the party room! By now, with over 2 and half hours walking we finally had chance to relax and reflect on what had just happened. The mood around us was excitable as everyone discussed and laughed about the night’s events. Around about 12.30 - four hours after we signed in for the event, 8 very tired people headed home!
Now, almost a day after the event, with a decent night's sleep and a chance to rest our feet and legs, it's time to look back and try and work out why this event was so good. Clearly some advanced organisation had gone into things and from registration through to final processing, the whole thing ran smoothly with no hiccups. The citywide nature made it feel suitably epic and the talented actors and zombies were fast, efficient, and professional. The sheer scale of the venture along with the 100% believability of certain scenes will stick in our memories for years and will be VERY difficult to top. In fact I would put my heart on my sleeve and say, we have seen the future of Scare Attractions - and it is 2.8 Hours later!
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The 2 survivors celebrate the fact that they remain uninfected!
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