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Scarefest 2024

From the video they just released, it doesn't exactly look very Escape-Roomy, unless I'm missing something.

More like an extreme treasure hunt?
 
Britford said:
This is my review of "Daz Games, Reloaded, Panic"


The Preshow,

First, the things I liked,
- I really liked the new premise And the cage effect was cool (if predictable),
- Everything else was fine.

And now the things I didn't like about the preshow,
- Firstly, the scare compilation they used felt a bit more cringy this year, especially with the strobes (though maybe thats just me),
- The preshow lacked the same building intensity as last year's and seemed to just flip from 0 to 10 at random,
- The cage effect can be obstructed by scenery if your by the entrance.


The rest of it,

when you first go in, instead of an immediate free for all like last year, (despite the preshow setting up for one), you get herded into a central area by the monsters, (its very unintuitive) then after a set amount of time, a set piece happens but in all 3 of my runs, not everyone was in the designated area before it triggered (the third run being such a disaster that the actors couldn't ever perform the set piece).
If your wondering what happens, I don't know, I think that anty vi does something and...I don't know, it doesn't seem to affect anything but maybe its supposed to be some kind of holding cell to protect everyone from the virus purge?
Without wishing to spoil, just walk whichever way the actors aren't blocking then stand still in the big central area.
The main issue with this set piece is that its just so unintuitive as to what your supposed to do, and the preshow gears you up for the opposite.

That set piece aside, the only othe real change is that they removed the exit corridor making the staff member manning the exit much less intrusive and making it a bit easier to clock in your time while staying in the maze, the rest of the maze plays out the same, just with a slightly different layout, its still fun and thats good enough for me.
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I had no idea what was going on at the start of my run through everyone just stood there like 🤷
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I'm hoping to go next week (still not 100% certain for reasons).
As someone who hates escape rooms, is there any point in doing Daz, or will it just annoy me?
(My general attitude to such things is that unless you let me fully role play and throw you some curve balls, I'm not interested. Would rather be a passive observer than be restricted. I think I've played too much D&D).
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Its not really an escape room.
Imagine a big freeflow strobe maze where you are given two symbols to find, simply as a way to get you to explore the maze, a maze full of blind corners, scare actors and scared guests who are going to make each other jump constantly, its really fun.
Besides, is you click the accessibility option then it will (presumably) only give you symbols that aren't locked by any challenges, so just try it!
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I'm hoping to go next week (still not 100% certain for reasons).
As someone who hates escape rooms, is there any point in doing Daz, or will it just annoy me?
(My general attitude to such things is that unless you let me fully role play and throw you some curve balls, I'm not interested. Would rather be a passive observer than be restricted. I think I've played too much D&D).
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Considering seemingly everything other than the beer selection at the park (which even that does you no favours) annoys you, then yes, it will most likely annoy you.

😉
 
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Mick said:
One small thing that I’ve picked up on in the number of photos and vlogs I’ve seen relating to this Scarefest, is just how much improvement has gone into the park lighting over the last year or two. So many areas look absolutely stunning in the dark now.
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And yet it's still "the worst Scarefest ever" in some people's eyes; as they conveniently overlook all the positive things they've improved from last year's "worst Scarefest ever" (like lighting) just to join in with the popular trend at the moment of slagging off Towers for every minute [wrong] detail while Thorpe can't put a foot wrong (in their eyes - we all know there's things wrong with Thorpe as well!).
 
Steve74 said:
And yet it's still "the worst Scarefest ever" in some people's eyes; as they conveniently overlook all the positive things they've improved from last year's "worst Scarefest ever" (like lighting) just to join in with the popular trend at the moment of slagging off Towers for every minute [wrong] detail while Thorpe can't put a foot wrong (in their eyes - we all know there's things wrong with Thorpe as well!).
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When you say "some people", do you mean youtubers? Or anyone else who requires clicks for their living and/or side hustle?

Outside the vlogersphere, it seems that in general the discussion has been more balanced. I don't think I've seen anyone claiming it's the best Scarefest ever, but for the majority it seems like their opinion has been that COMPOUND, amongst other things, is definitely a step forward but there's still some way to go to get the event back on track.
 
Squiggs said:
When you say "some people", do you mean youtubers? Or anyone else who requires clicks for their living and/or side hustle?

Outside the vlogersphere, it seems that in general the discussion has been more balanced. I don't think I've seen anyone claiming it's the best Scarefest ever, but for the majority it seems like their opinion has been that COMPOUND, amongst other things, is definitely a step forward but there's still some way to go to get the event back on track.
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Primarily yes, but I have seen comments in vloggers videos and other Tweets etc where others agree that it was rubbish/not as good as previous etc.

Agreed overall its balanced, especially on here and yes it's not the best Scarefest there's been but considering the effort (and money) that has been spent on this year's I do think it is unfair of people to say it was the worst or one of the worst. I was there last weekend and had a great time, in and out of the mazes.
 
MaxPower said:
It's the inconsistency that's the problem, one day everything could be working out brilliantly and the next day it could be the complete opposite.

It's been the story of the last few seasons unfortunately, all or nothing.
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Isn’t that just how things go though? Outside of the noticeable lack of maintence teams, ride breakdowns are not predictable. No two days will ever be the same.

I didn’t visit the park in the 90’s but I can guarantee you no two days were the same ride availability wise.

Towers really need to step up the maintence game. That’s a fact. But to say no two days are the same is a recent thing is plain wrong.

Things broke just as much 10 years ago as they do now. The problem is the turnaround time and numbers of staff to get those issues fixed quicker.
 
AltonLover123 said:
Isn’t that just how things go though? Outside of the noticeable lack of maintence teams, ride breakdowns are not predictable. No two days will ever be the same.

I didn’t visit the park in the 90’s but I can guarantee you no two days were the same ride availability wise.

Towers really need to step up the maintence game. That’s a fact. But to say no two days are the same is a recent thing is plain wrong.

Things broke just as much 10 years ago as they do now. The problem is the turnaround time and numbers of staff to get those issues fixed quicker.
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Rides like Corkscrew and Black Hole were considerably easier to maintain and quicker to repair than say Thirteen and The Smiler. Also flat rides of which there were many in the 90s are quicker to get up and running first thing and require less staff to run. No one would bat an eyelid if one of the coasters went down and we still had the likes of Enterprise, Ripsaw, Wave Swinger, Astro Dancer. Energiser etc to go on instead. They don't seem to want to run the rides they've got all day everyday so what hope do we have when we expect new flats for each area?
 
Mick said:
One small thing that I’ve picked up on in the number of photos and vlogs I’ve seen relating to this Scarefest, is just how much improvement has gone into the park lighting over the last year or two. So many areas look absolutely stunning in the dark now.
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I have never been to Scarefest before this year and so I have nothing to compare the 2024 event to, but I definitely agree with you that the lighting looked great - especially: (A) the area between Gloomy Wood and Forbidden Valley (where Compound is), and (B) the Haunted Hollow walkway.

I unfortunately was not able to take any photographs to share, though, because I was busy trying to run to the queues before the park closed, as I had only had 90 minutes of darkness!
 
Judging by AT new FB post they are getting raving reviews for this years Halloween event but obviously this is good marketing.

However You could argue the main hub area on the laws was never there years ago this definitely is a significant upgrade? With its huge stage, high production value set lighting and pyro techniques. This adds a tremendous value of atmosphere? Alongside this all the bars and food outlets with lots of seating, lighting, theming all in one place. I think because they recycle this area for each event, we as enthusiast are used to this setup and may take this for granted. But for casual visitors this is a great asset and would assume it’s really appreciated amongst family’s! If you haven’t been to Scarface in a while, this certainly is a big step up in my opinion as there lawns were pretty much empty years ago.

They brought back a scare zone last year which they have kept for free this year but because Scare fest is marketed more towards the whole family which understandable as that’s the route AT have been trying for do do for the whole park in general , I can understand why they it isn’t suitable for these intense scare zones they used to do on public path ways. However they still have roaming actors around the park and intense scare mazes like compound.

As mentioned above lighting has been significantly improved.

My only slight criticism is I do miss the ghost projection near the sky ride and the skeletons in the Grand Hall. I would love to see them bring in more themed animations/singing props for Halloween in future events. The new Herse with all its effects on towers street is definitely a step in the right direction!

So in my opinion alongside everything Ive mentioned above plus a new scare maze, new spook maze for the families and the new forbidden valley with all its effects and lighting package + Hex open. I would strongly argue it’s steps forward and not backwards.
 
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RIPCorky said:
Rides like Corkscrew and Black Hole were considerably easier to maintain and quicker to repair than say Thirteen and The Smiler. Also flat rides of which there were many in the 90s are quicker to get up and running first thing and require less staff to run. No one would bat an eyelid if one of the coasters went down and we still had the likes of Enterprise, Ripsaw, Wave Swinger, Astro Dancer. Energiser etc to go on instead. They don't seem to want to run the rides they've got all day everyday so what hope do we have when we expect new flats for each area?
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I don’t understand why people keep saying Merlin/towers don’t “want” to keep rides open.

Of course they do. Ride availabilty is one of the top factors for guest satisfaction.

In no world would a company like Merlin take a relaxed view on downtime and actively not care about it. They certainly have a choice in how much they pay their maintenance teams and could be far more competitive with thier pay to attract more experienced teams and retain the ones they have.

Anyone who’s ever worked for Merlin could tell you that any time downtime is consistently pushed for a fix as quick as possible.
 
AltonLover123 said:
I don’t understand why people keep saying Merlin/towers don’t “want” to keep rides open.

Of course they do. Ride availabilty is one of the top factors for guest satisfaction.

In no world would a company like Merlin take a relaxed view on downtime and actively not care about it. They certainly have a choice in how much they pay their maintenance teams and could be far more competitive with thier pay to attract more experienced teams and retain the ones they have.

Anyone who’s ever worked for Merlin could tell you that any time downtime is consistently pushed for a fix as quick as possible.
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I don't think they "don't want" to keep rides open.

I think they want to keep rides open spending as little as possible. I'd say that's common practice for a lot of companies outside of theme parks to spend as little as possible for maintenance.

I think that's the key distinction with Merlin's approach to downtime.
 
Just a quick one, we have a load of other topics to discuss ride availability, where it has and is being discussed in more detail.

Please utilise those topics to discuss it rather than the dedicated Scarefest topic :)
 
TBoy535 said:
My only slight criticism is I do miss the ghost projection near the sky ride and the skeletons in the Grand Hall. I would love to see them bring in more themed animations/singing props for Halloween in future events. The new Herse with all its effects on towers street is definitely a step in the right direction!
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Don't worry the Skeleton Band and dancers still live(?) on and make an appearance in my front room window every Halloween. No idea how though, they just appear.

View attachment Band.mp4

View attachment Dancers.mp4
 
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