Zombiexperience; The final ever show
Editor's note: When we visited the latest version of Zombiexperience, the event already had gained notoriety due to a vindictive campaign across the media and other horror news sites. Without investigating the claims against the company, reports made out that they had been trespassing on previous sites and that their contract for an abandoned hospital site in Central Birmingham was illegal. The truth here was that the firm subcontracted from a military training firm that legitimately runs out of the hospital site. Once it became apparent that a zombie style event was going to be held in a hospital where local residents had seen loved ones die, the NHS trust insisted that the event be moved. Ironically - the blood splatters that can be seen in the two pictures below are from the training firm that legitimately runs events at the hospital so it's clear that their scenarios also include a lot of blood and gore!
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Zombiexperience quickly responded to this issue and set up a new event at a disused facility, set in woodlands in nearby Warwickshire. This turned out to be the last show the company ever did. Unfortunately - unbeknown to the team actually running the events on the day, the owner of Zombiexperience had been involved in completely unrelated criminal activity and was sentenced to several years in prison the day before the actual event. As sole owner of the company, he effectively wound everything up leaving loads of guests, staff and other debtors extremely unhappy. The fact that the staff even bothered to put the show on for us is a testament to the dedication of the team working the event.
It's been several weeks since this happened and out of respect for those who have lost money we had decided not to run our review of the event. Since then though, we have been persuaded by some of the staff working that day (who incidentally never got paid) that we should run our review but with a full disclaimer.
Therefore attached is our review as if nothing had happened and the event was still fully functioning. We do not condone anything that Danny Hatton has done, nor the way the company has been wound up leaving so many people out of pocket. We also don't have any answers so please do not contact us regarding potential refunds or compensation. As we have stated - we visited the event completely oblivious to the situation surrounding the company:
It's been several weeks since this happened and out of respect for those who have lost money we had decided not to run our review of the event. Since then though, we have been persuaded by some of the staff working that day (who incidentally never got paid) that we should run our review but with a full disclaimer.
Therefore attached is our review as if nothing had happened and the event was still fully functioning. We do not condone anything that Danny Hatton has done, nor the way the company has been wound up leaving so many people out of pocket. We also don't have any answers so please do not contact us regarding potential refunds or compensation. As we have stated - we visited the event completely oblivious to the situation surrounding the company:
3 seconds later everyone in this picture was running back down this corridor chased by hungry zombies!
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Hey Stupid zombie - we're over here!
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Damn! Cornered in a dead end again!
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There was an enticing array of weapons!
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When we last visited a Zombiexperience event, we were blown away by the impressive opening where a SWAT team descended upon us as unsuspecting guests. This really created a feeling of tension and excitement and set the mood up for the rest of the event and as we waited outside the old RAF Honiley training base in Warwickshire, we were expecting something similar. Instead, we were just led up the track to the complex where the event was being held.
Once parked up we were led into the main "armoury" and given a detailed and thorough briefing on the use of our weapons and the need for safety throughout. As with most zombie airsoft events - only shots aimed at the torso would count and of course we were all issued with our safety goggles.
At this point we were led into the site without much other info about what we were trying to do. We had been given a briefing sheet while getting ammo'd up but it didn't really replace a full back story of the source of the infection, what we were doing and effectively what we were looking for. We just headed into the dark compound to try and find out more for ourselves.
The facility was an abandoned factory with numerous out buildings, ladders, multi level rooms and multiple hiding places and we were free to roam just about anywhere we wanted. Obviously a few areas were cordoned off for health and safety purposes but generally we were left to roam wherever we wanted and it wasn't long before we experienced our first startling zombie attack in the confined corridors. Once shot, there is always something disconcerting about stepping over a "dead" zombie knowing that they may regenerate at any time. Certainly several times we found our selves trapped by a zombie coming back to life once we had cornered ourselves in a dead end and the poor actor had to be shot several more times just to keep them down!
One issue we noted early in the game was that we had been advised that 1 or 2 shots would take a zombie down and so with limited ammo - it was annoying that several of the zombies decided to play by their own rules. Ironically a blonde lady zombie in a torn Superman t-shirt must have clearly been channelling some super energy, as she chased us completely out of the building and into the woods despite being shot about 15 times. Later on, a fellow zombie was intent on not just catching us but forcibly tripping us up and throwing us to the ground and rubbing our faces in the dirt. It was unnecessary and actually aggravated an existing injury in one of the team.
These couple of niggles aside - most of the zombies played their roles perfectly and we had a number of challenges to over come . We met up with a trapped human scientist who gave us tasks and missions to find particular items. Like previously - some of these items were really well hidden and took some time to find. Aiding (or should we say hindering) the mission, the event marshals would build up the atmosphere by lobbing a few smoke grenades into the building and several times we had zombies appear directly out the smoke and attack us unexpectedly!
By the end of the three hours we had explored the whole of the facility, the outbuildings and the woodlands and completed a number of missions. The pesky zombies kept coming and so with a final flurry of bullets we used up the last of our ammo and went down firing!
The event itself was not really any different to any other zombie airsoft games we have experienced, but was tremendous fun and was made by the varied terrain and buildings of the site. Also, unlike other events where we have always been issued with a pump action shot fun it was fun to have the choice of a pistol. It certainly made it easier during the enclosed sections and during close combat fighting, but felt a bit less powerful than a big weapon!
Once parked up we were led into the main "armoury" and given a detailed and thorough briefing on the use of our weapons and the need for safety throughout. As with most zombie airsoft events - only shots aimed at the torso would count and of course we were all issued with our safety goggles.
At this point we were led into the site without much other info about what we were trying to do. We had been given a briefing sheet while getting ammo'd up but it didn't really replace a full back story of the source of the infection, what we were doing and effectively what we were looking for. We just headed into the dark compound to try and find out more for ourselves.
The facility was an abandoned factory with numerous out buildings, ladders, multi level rooms and multiple hiding places and we were free to roam just about anywhere we wanted. Obviously a few areas were cordoned off for health and safety purposes but generally we were left to roam wherever we wanted and it wasn't long before we experienced our first startling zombie attack in the confined corridors. Once shot, there is always something disconcerting about stepping over a "dead" zombie knowing that they may regenerate at any time. Certainly several times we found our selves trapped by a zombie coming back to life once we had cornered ourselves in a dead end and the poor actor had to be shot several more times just to keep them down!
One issue we noted early in the game was that we had been advised that 1 or 2 shots would take a zombie down and so with limited ammo - it was annoying that several of the zombies decided to play by their own rules. Ironically a blonde lady zombie in a torn Superman t-shirt must have clearly been channelling some super energy, as she chased us completely out of the building and into the woods despite being shot about 15 times. Later on, a fellow zombie was intent on not just catching us but forcibly tripping us up and throwing us to the ground and rubbing our faces in the dirt. It was unnecessary and actually aggravated an existing injury in one of the team.
These couple of niggles aside - most of the zombies played their roles perfectly and we had a number of challenges to over come . We met up with a trapped human scientist who gave us tasks and missions to find particular items. Like previously - some of these items were really well hidden and took some time to find. Aiding (or should we say hindering) the mission, the event marshals would build up the atmosphere by lobbing a few smoke grenades into the building and several times we had zombies appear directly out the smoke and attack us unexpectedly!
By the end of the three hours we had explored the whole of the facility, the outbuildings and the woodlands and completed a number of missions. The pesky zombies kept coming and so with a final flurry of bullets we used up the last of our ammo and went down firing!
The event itself was not really any different to any other zombie airsoft games we have experienced, but was tremendous fun and was made by the varied terrain and buildings of the site. Also, unlike other events where we have always been issued with a pump action shot fun it was fun to have the choice of a pistol. It certainly made it easier during the enclosed sections and during close combat fighting, but felt a bit less powerful than a big weapon!
The first person to make a Charlie's Angel joke about this picture gets shot in the head!
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The latest look on the catwalks of Milan. Oversized goggles and a machine gun!
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Having experienced two different versions of Zombiexperience we found they both had their positive and negative points. This version certainly had a more varied location, whilst the Sheffield event had the impressive addition of the Swat team. Either way - both events were truly memorable and a great way to spend three hours for zombie and airsoft fans alike!
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