Firefly is a great show. An epic show. One of my
favorites, in all honesty. Shepherd Book, played by Ron Glass (God rest
him,) gave this quote in the episode “War Stories:” “Did you ever read the works of Shan Yu?...
He said, ‘Live with a man 40 years. Share
his house, his meals. Speak on every subject. Then tie him up, and hold him
over the volcano's edge. And on that day, you will finally meet the man.’"
Now, I don’t have anything in common
with dictators or madmen. Not that I am aware of, at any rate. This
quote, however, is a very true statement. People can talk a lot of game,
but until you put them through the ringer, you won’t know if they are made of
the metal they claim to have been forged by or if they will turn into every scared
and sniveling character that Rick Moranis ever played. With the exception
of the FBI dude in My Blue Heaven. He was freaking scary-cool in
that movie, people.
Do you have a friend that you know
is made of strong stuff and you want to see them in action? Do you have a
friend that you is talking a lot of smack and you want to put them in their
place? How do you “meet the man?” These simple words:
Live-Action Zombie shoot-out.
The reality of a zombie apocalypse
just doesn’t seem like a feasible thing. Sorry, folks. For all
those that believe in the possibility, I just don’t see it. And yes, I am
a Zombie Fallout and Walking Dead fan, but that doesn’t change my
personal opinion. Everyone can be proven wrong, however. This is
why you want to know what you can do if things go splat. Forewarned is
forearmed and all that. These games are the perfect thing for fun, jump
scares, a crap load of exercise, and finding out if your friends would scream
like a girl or trip you when a real zombie came along in the future.
Every geek of every age wishes that for five minutes that
they could step into their favorite show or book. It’s just what geeks
do, no matter the age. It’s why LARPing exists, people. So zombie
shoot-out larping? Seriously, how cool is that. Games are set up
all over the world and they vary in size, range of scare, the weapons used, the
purpose of the game, etc. I’m going to talk about a few of them here so
you can get an idea of just how interesting (no, let’s face it…the word is
“awesome”) these games can be. But first, a disclaimer. And no,
this isn’t just to cover butts on the site; this is from personal
experience. Pregnant, heart conditions, high blood pressure, or (and this
is VERY VERY important) a sufferer of anxiety and/or PTSD and/or Acute Stress
Disorder…stay clear of these games. Watch the videos online, but do not
participate. These are fast paced, high intensity, and unsafe for any of
you with the above-listed conditions. Trust me on this one.
In Reading, England, a condemned mall was on its last legs. What on earth does a bustling part of England, only an hours’ train ride from London, due with such a public eyesore? Why they convert it into a Zombie LARP, of course. This building was bought and renovated, cleaned up to city code, but made to look as post-apocalyptic as possible. Actors hired and gear bought, and lo…the zombie game was born. Have you seen the video floating around Facebook of someone wearing a bodycam while running through a building from zombies, parkour jumps galore, while a friends gets eating at the foot of a ladder? This was shot in that building. Groups are organized in this building, told in the story mode that they are to retrieve pieces of the virus antidote for the Doctor that resides in the mall’s foyer where you all initially gather. You are to go through the building, locate the antidote, and take it back to the Doctor. All during the search you are bombarded with zombies that will either chase you down the mall hallways or jump out behind doorways and plastic sheets. When you take everything to the Doctor you are bombarded with huge zombie standoff as a horde comes shambling down the hallway, you are your team against a throng of the undead. The sheer scale of this location is enough to make any die-hard want to try it out. There is so much to explore and so many places for the zombies to hide that it makes it all the more realistic and more of a necessity to come up with a real plan or a real static or dynamic sweep and clear strategy to get through this place. There aren’t just shamblers that slither through slowly on a busted leg, either. Some come barreling at you, screaming like maniacs. Running down hallways and up and down staircases as you shoot zombies closing in on your tasty looking six? Say it with me now…cardio.
Here stateside we have a traveling
zombie game that I personally have tried. It’s called the Zombie
Apocalypse World Tour, and it is worth every penny you spend. A traveling
group, they work with either laser-tag formatted gear on the zombies and guns
to match or air soft pellets. The guns are designed with the exact weight
and design of am M4 Assault Rifle with roughly one third the recoil, so if you
are not used to a real gun you can get a feel for the heft, but not destroy
your shoulder or screw up your shot in the process of being rattled by
it. Many of the zombies are part of the troupe, but they also hire local
actors whenever they role in to town to fill in some key positions.
Professional makeup artists are on staff to give good old fashion Walking Dead realism to our undead friends. You have an option of taking the short game if you feel it’s too much for you to take, or you can opt for their “Black Ops Package” which gives you an entire extra special game/room to play in plus 500 extra rounds of ammo. I highly recommend this package for the full experience.
Professional makeup artists are on staff to give good old fashion Walking Dead realism to our undead friends. You have an option of taking the short game if you feel it’s too much for you to take, or you can opt for their “Black Ops Package” which gives you an entire extra special game/room to play in plus 500 extra rounds of ammo. I highly recommend this package for the full experience.
Depending on the location they set
up, the layout will be different for the game. Ours was set up in a
standing haunted house fairgrounds in our state. You go through at your
own pace in their game, and as you pass by the zombies will jump out of
nowhere, and I do mean nowhere. This game is all about the jump
scares. It isn’t story mode survival set up; this one is set up to scare
the crap out of you. Zombies will bust through closed doors, from behind bar
counters, a child zombie will slither out from underneath a swing while
screaming at you…it never ends. And the worst part is that double-tapping
is completely necessary in this game. Scenario: You shoot a zombie
that jumped out a door at you. It crumples to the ground and you keep
moving. Five seconds later as you round the corner of the hallway you
hear a scream from behind you, and the same undead runner is barreling at you,
arms outstretched. You never have a moment to catch your breath in this
game and the only story mode is survival.
In a small town just outside of Madrid, Spain, roughly
one thousand people turn the entirety of their quaint town into ground zero for
the zombie outbreak. The game is called
Survival Zombie, and it is by far and away the creepiest, longest, and most
frightening concept that I have seen for a live-action zombie game so far.
Created by Diego De La Concepcion, Founder of World
Real Games, the game is a mix of scavenger hunt and zombie action/survival
horror. The game starts as sundown and
ends at sunrise the next morning. You
are roaming the streets of this town, looking for clues and trying to simply
survive until daybreak. This game has
set and broke records for the most participants and has different storylines
regularly to work with. Loudspeakers,
blanks going off, fireworks being shot, and a stampede of thousands of people
launching into the city all at once to run from the zombie horde. The adrenaline rush is immediate and
intense. The video I have seen of this
game is enough to make ones jaw drop, but picture being out there. You have an entire town to canvas of roughly
20 kilometers, which you do all night long, dodging zombies while ducking into
buildings and through alleys, risking losing your party or not finding all the
clues that you need to. And the jump
scares are only increased due to the fact that you have so much ground to
cover, so many places the zombies can come from, and so much uncertainty if
your hiding spot is even a safe one.
There is no plan of “Okay, you will wait for them here and then just go BOO!” They are everywhere. You are everywhere. And hiding just because almost impossible.
I’m providing the direct websites or social media links to these games. People, I highly recommend you look into playing one at least once. If you don’t think you can handle it then at least watch the Youtube videos of some of the sessions to get a feel for just how intense they are. You run, you scream, you shoot, you plan strategies, and you do it all in a controlled environment. For the scare enthusiast this is, as Mikey Mason says, the “best game ever.”
Braaaaiiinnnnssss…
Christina Sizemore is trained in only four
things: writing, fighting, paranormal
investigating, and being a mom. At this
point in her life she truly feels that she is not qualified to attempt to learn
any new field. A twenty year martial
artist, mother of three, and writer who is working on the publication of her
first book titled “Finding Your Way: A Guide To Your Path In The Martial Arts,”
she spends her days working out, writing, making fanvids, going to DragonCon,
and playing board games/video games/out in the yard with her kids and husband
who are just as geeky as she is. She is
convinced that one day her skills will be of assistance in the Zombie
Apocalypse and that while she is of no use in the kitchen, she can Buffy that
zombie for ya or teach you the best way to get the blood stains out of your
clothes (Psst…the secret is mixing Crown Cleaner and Shout. Just sayin’.)
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