Forbidden Quest: Zombie Outbreak 2.0 (Belfast)

Who doesn’t love Zombies?

Sector 17 is a top secret Belfast military research facility. A breach was detected in the laboratory triggering an automatic self destruct mechanism.

Your team have been tasked with entering the facility, locating and deactivating the bomb before it detonates.

Details regarding the secret project inside the facility are classified but lead scientist Dr Martins specialises in gene augmentation and there are rumours he may have been testing some new style of virus on live human subjects.

When we booked our trip to Belfast it was because of the reputation of ‘Time to Float’ by Forbidden Quest. However we managed to time our trip perfectly so we could also play their brand new game, The Collector – talk about planets aligning! Two games is never enough though, so we booked in for a bonus room, Zombie Outbreak 2.0, because who doesn’t love zombies?!

When we arrived at the Forbidden Quest venue, the same one where we had played Time to Float the night before, we thought we were there to play two games. Apparently we’re not very good at reading booking instructions as The Collector is actually at a different Forbidden Quest venue. Fortunately our GM reminded/told us about this, and we had left plenty of time between games – crisis averted!

So instead of two games, it was just the one at this specific venue, and our host, Nathan, got down to business. We stored our personal possessions away in the rather large storage trunks, and received the health and safety briefing. We then followed Nathan down a dimly lit corridor where we received our mission briefing. As we were shown into the room, our time began and we had 75 minutes to complete our mission.

It’s worth noting that this venue, nor the other Forbidden Quest venue, is not accessible. There are a number of steps to ascend when you get inside, and there is no lift. Zombie Outbreak 2.0 also has some areas where at least one (ideally two) team members will need to crawl.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

If you’ve watched any horror film, or played any horror game that takes place in a world with zombies, and a lab, then you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you may find here. Dark – but never too dark, grimy – but not dirty, and lots of decoration that could be relevant, or perhaps was just setting the scene?

The game was split up into a few areas that one would generally expect to find in a game like this. The areas weren’t huge, but equally, as a team of four we were never stepping on each other’s toes and we had plenty of space to move around, especially in the last area. Like I mentioned in the intro, there is some crawling required in this game. I think you could possibly make it work with just one person doing the crawling, but your life will be a bit easier if two of you can get involved.

I’m not sure where to add this, but I’ll put it here as it kinda fits… Is this a live actor room? Yes and no. If you don’t like live actor interaction, don’t let that put you off. There is something/someone that appears at certain times, but it’s in a way that either adds a fun little jump scare, or perhaps a little more. But the rules with regards to the ‘live actor’ are clear, and the interaction actually added a lot of fun at key moments.

PUZZLES

As a team of four, we found that we had quite a lot to keep us going. We mostly split up into twos and worked on puzzles as pairs, and yes there was a little downtime here and there, but for the most part everyone felt like they were involved throughout. Zombie Outbreak played out in a mostly linear fashion but one could solve parts of later puzzles without having everything.

Solving the puzzles resulted in combinations for padlocks, tech triggering, or perhaps the GM triggering something behind the scenes. We found the puzzles to be varied and there was at least one puzzle each where individual team members got a chance to shine; observation, teamwork, spatial relations, logic, colours, maths, wordplay, and perhaps a little skill.

The puzzles felt fair, well sign-posted, and enjoyable, with the exception of one puzzle. This one particular puzzle seemed to be glitchy, as we knew what to do but we had to wait a long time for it to actually work correctly and enable us to solve it. It’s a shame, as this puzzle really dampened the feeling and the flow for us. Fortunately after we solved that puzzle, we found ourselves in a new area with lots to explore, and more fun to be had.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Our GM, Nathan, did a good job of making us feel welcomed, and he kept our game running smoothly. I don’t recall ever actually needing any help, but if we did it would have come via the tannoy system in the room. There wasn’t much time to chat after our game as we had to rush off to the other venue (whoops), but we didn’t feel like we were rushed out of the door.

I probably could have mentioned the live-actor in this section, but oh well. Obviously Nathan had to balance running our game as a GM and being the live-actor, and I feel like he did that well. It could be because we clicked well with the puzzles, that there was never any conflict with needing help and him being in character, but the character interactions seemed to come at times where there wasn’t really much else to work on, so no conflict and clever game design.

Really the only negative was that one puzzle that was clearly glitching, and it would have been good if this was picked up on, and fixed sooner rather than leaving us feeling frustrated.

ANYTHING ELSE

This game isn’t of the same level as their two newer games, but if you’re looking for a more traditional (not full horror) escape room, then Zombie Outbreak 2.0 is a good shout. The set is decent, puzzles are fine, and it’s a good game that could start to get people hooked on escape rooms.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 4 Players

Address: 1 Bradbury Pl, Belfast BT7 1RS

Website: http://www.forbiddenquest.com/