Secret Weapon
TS Member
I went to Scarefest for the first ever time yesterday (I’ve never been to Fright Nights at Thorpe Park, or any other scare event, either).
As a first-timer, a few things stood out to me (apologies if these have already been discussed); there are some minor spoilers below and so I have used the 'spoiler' tag to be safe:-
As a first-timer, a few things stood out to me (apologies if these have already been discussed); there are some minor spoilers below and so I have used the 'spoiler' tag to be safe:-
1) If you walk too closely to the person in front then this ruins the jump-scare surprises; I tried to pace myself by deliberately waiting at some of the entrances, although this seemed to cause some of the actors to move out of position (they wrongly assumed that the corridors were empty and so accidentally revealed themselves).
Compound seems to have somewhat solved this problem (intentionally or not) by holding people at gates at specific intervals.
2) This might just have been me, but it took me nearly 5 minutes to work out what I was supposed to do in Daz games; the intro video mentions that there are symbols next to everybody’s name, but I didn’t realise that you have to scan these specific symbols in order to complete the maze! I’d initially assumed that the symbols were for anonymity, or to identify individuals in case multiple people had the same name (which was the case during my run-through). Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention to the video, though (or maybe it was deliberately left unclear in order to encourage people to go through again!).
3) If you purchase the Early combo ticket (as I did) then you only have 2 hours to complete all 4 mazes; I managed to complete them in time, but there wasn’t much time to spare and so 3 hours might have been better (although this may have risked overlapping with the late ticket holders).
4) This is only a minor point, but I ended up going the wrong way several times – particularly in the Mine maze, whereby the entrance confusingly states “No Entry” (this was probably for effect, but I mistook it as a literal instruction).
5) This is probably my fault, but I didn’t realise until afterwards that there are free scare zones available as well (Burial Grounds); I couldn’t find details or directions to any of the scare attractions on the Alton Towers app (unlike the Thorpe Park app, which has a dedicated Fright Nights section), and so I had to rely on asking staff and checking the map near Spinball Whizzer.
Compound seems to have somewhat solved this problem (intentionally or not) by holding people at gates at specific intervals.
2) This might just have been me, but it took me nearly 5 minutes to work out what I was supposed to do in Daz games; the intro video mentions that there are symbols next to everybody’s name, but I didn’t realise that you have to scan these specific symbols in order to complete the maze! I’d initially assumed that the symbols were for anonymity, or to identify individuals in case multiple people had the same name (which was the case during my run-through). Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention to the video, though (or maybe it was deliberately left unclear in order to encourage people to go through again!).
3) If you purchase the Early combo ticket (as I did) then you only have 2 hours to complete all 4 mazes; I managed to complete them in time, but there wasn’t much time to spare and so 3 hours might have been better (although this may have risked overlapping with the late ticket holders).
4) This is only a minor point, but I ended up going the wrong way several times – particularly in the Mine maze, whereby the entrance confusingly states “No Entry” (this was probably for effect, but I mistook it as a literal instruction).
5) This is probably my fault, but I didn’t realise until afterwards that there are free scare zones available as well (Burial Grounds); I couldn’t find details or directions to any of the scare attractions on the Alton Towers app (unlike the Thorpe Park app, which has a dedicated Fright Nights section), and so I had to rely on asking staff and checking the map near Spinball Whizzer.
