Review - ICombat Apocalypse World Tour
The zombie shoot ‘em up style of events are becoming more and more popular within the scare community, and with The Walking Dead still going strong on TV, the genre shows no signs of abating.
Interestingly – the ICombat Apocalypse World Tour had already been to these shores before in the shape of the Walking Dead Apocalypse. Based on the comic book franchise as opposed to the TV series, the tour was dogged with poor reviews, so we were keen to test out the apocalypse for ourselves.
There were two different experience levels, and naturally, we chose the premium package, which included a scare maze before the main shooting experience. At the start, a guide informed us that to ‘earn’ our rifles, we had to negotiate our way through. Without any other real story, we ventured through the maze, where we encountered a number of crawlspaces and tight corridors. We were also greeted with a number flesh-eaters ready to devour us without a moment’s hesitation. Even though we arrived as a pair, we were bound with an additional team of six, which did mean we were quite a large group in such a confined area. The actors achieved a number of good scares along the way, but due to the group size, we did miss several jump scares that were aimed away from our place in the group.
As we made it out of the maze, still waiting for one of the team of six, we were issued with our firearms and were herded into a briefing area. At this point, the six were prepped separately, while we were teamed up with a solo player who appeared to have been waiting from the group before.
Without clear instruction other than “to make it to the checkpoint” or why, we were sent inside as our team of three to shoot zombies, deciding among ourselves who would take the lead through continuous rotation.
Unlike Nakarian Contagion, which used iCombat technology in the past, there was virtually no story behind why we were entering this area other than to be gung-ho and shoot zombies. It really was great fun, but even as we reached our checkpoint, two ushers wearing Hi-vis jackets took our weapons from us, reloaded the magazines and then told us to continue, again, not knowing where or why.
As for the weapons, the guns issued by iCOMBAT are replicas of the M4, lightweight and easy to hold with the added bonus of being a CO2 powered magazine, designed to give you the feel that you are actually firing a real gun. The targets were on the zombies themselves. Each had a specially designed headpiece that was activated by the gun (i.e. when you aimed for the zombie's head, a shot is confirmed by the zombie’s headpiece lighting up, indicating the target was indeed hit). Although it took a few hits to take them down, this added to the feel that not all zombies were the same, with some requiring more effort to put them down.
The location for this leg of the tour was Bunker 51 in South East London, which has already been used for zombie experiences in the past. Therefore the sets and props helped to create, an intense experience with plenty of hiding spaces. The venue, acting and weaponry all made the experience an exciting one for us, although at times , the administrative side of the process felt rushed, as if we had been on a conveyor belt ready to be moved from one location to the next.
We genuinely had fun; however, with the whole experience lasting just over half an hour, we had sympathy for those who only had the option of firing at zombies instead of the additional maze. Considering this had been advertised as a world tour, we had hoped for something with a little more bite to it - especially as many other zombie events in the UK run to 2 hours or more.
At the time of writing, the tour looks set to move onto Glasgow before continuing across the US – for all the details and dates – check out their website below…
Interestingly – the ICombat Apocalypse World Tour had already been to these shores before in the shape of the Walking Dead Apocalypse. Based on the comic book franchise as opposed to the TV series, the tour was dogged with poor reviews, so we were keen to test out the apocalypse for ourselves.
There were two different experience levels, and naturally, we chose the premium package, which included a scare maze before the main shooting experience. At the start, a guide informed us that to ‘earn’ our rifles, we had to negotiate our way through. Without any other real story, we ventured through the maze, where we encountered a number of crawlspaces and tight corridors. We were also greeted with a number flesh-eaters ready to devour us without a moment’s hesitation. Even though we arrived as a pair, we were bound with an additional team of six, which did mean we were quite a large group in such a confined area. The actors achieved a number of good scares along the way, but due to the group size, we did miss several jump scares that were aimed away from our place in the group.
As we made it out of the maze, still waiting for one of the team of six, we were issued with our firearms and were herded into a briefing area. At this point, the six were prepped separately, while we were teamed up with a solo player who appeared to have been waiting from the group before.
Without clear instruction other than “to make it to the checkpoint” or why, we were sent inside as our team of three to shoot zombies, deciding among ourselves who would take the lead through continuous rotation.
Unlike Nakarian Contagion, which used iCombat technology in the past, there was virtually no story behind why we were entering this area other than to be gung-ho and shoot zombies. It really was great fun, but even as we reached our checkpoint, two ushers wearing Hi-vis jackets took our weapons from us, reloaded the magazines and then told us to continue, again, not knowing where or why.
As for the weapons, the guns issued by iCOMBAT are replicas of the M4, lightweight and easy to hold with the added bonus of being a CO2 powered magazine, designed to give you the feel that you are actually firing a real gun. The targets were on the zombies themselves. Each had a specially designed headpiece that was activated by the gun (i.e. when you aimed for the zombie's head, a shot is confirmed by the zombie’s headpiece lighting up, indicating the target was indeed hit). Although it took a few hits to take them down, this added to the feel that not all zombies were the same, with some requiring more effort to put them down.
The location for this leg of the tour was Bunker 51 in South East London, which has already been used for zombie experiences in the past. Therefore the sets and props helped to create, an intense experience with plenty of hiding spaces. The venue, acting and weaponry all made the experience an exciting one for us, although at times , the administrative side of the process felt rushed, as if we had been on a conveyor belt ready to be moved from one location to the next.
We genuinely had fun; however, with the whole experience lasting just over half an hour, we had sympathy for those who only had the option of firing at zombies instead of the additional maze. Considering this had been advertised as a world tour, we had hoped for something with a little more bite to it - especially as many other zombie events in the UK run to 2 hours or more.
At the time of writing, the tour looks set to move onto Glasgow before continuing across the US – for all the details and dates – check out their website below…
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Salt Lake Zombie Apocalypse World Tour
Mildly scary- The event was not worth the money. The equipment was in poor condition and malfunctioned and didnt work through the attraction. The tagger served as a 5 lb weight to carry around. The facility that was used was not made for a zombie shoot. Hallways were too narrow and made it difficult to maneuver with 4 people. This event is over priced and they need better equipment.
Mildly scary- The event was not worth the money. The equipment was in poor condition and malfunctioned and didnt work through the attraction. The tagger served as a 5 lb weight to carry around. The facility that was used was not made for a zombie shoot. Hallways were too narrow and made it difficult to maneuver with 4 people. This event is over priced and they need better equipment.
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