killswitch22's review (will continue)

[killswitch22]

So the first night I went was Thursday the 22nd. I'll start of by saying that Universals customer service is garbage. I bought my frequent fear pass from publix this year because it was more convenient. I go up to the line and my ticket doesn't go through. They send me to the general ticket line and when i finally get to the front after about a 45 minute wait they tell me I need to go to the guest services line to wait another half hour. As you can tell I was very upset and annoyed. By the time we got in it was about 9pm. And i needed to hit as many houses as possible.

House of Horrors: This one was pretty good. I liked seeing the classic monsters in their original form but it wasnt as good as they were back in 2009. I got a couple of good scares. Especially in the Dracula segment and the finale. I dont have too many complaints about this house, overall was very well done. I'll give it a 7.5 out of 10.

Alice Cooper: I had been hearing poor reviews about this house but i dont understand why. I really enjoyed this house. Eventhough it wasn't all that scary, I enjoyed all there was to look at in the house. They used the lyrics well and I enjoyed what they did with the rooms. I'll give it an 8 out of 10.

Silent Hill: I want to say I was incredibly skeptical about this house along with the Walking Dead. There are a few issues I have with this house. First off it is way to bright. You can see every hide hole, every actor way before they come to you. Also the first half of the house is completly empty. Aside from the facade i dont remember any actors in the first 3 or four rooms. No doubt it would be the best house of the year if they fixed both of these issues. Not too many scares that night and I hope this one improves because it has so much potential. 7 out of 10

EDIT (10/11/12): Last nights run through was great. The house did seem a bit darker and the scareactors seemed a lot more aggressive. I saw a lot of improvements and will boost this house to an 8 out of 10

Gothic: This was the best house of the night. So many good scares and the effects in this house are great. No complaints or anything special just a good solid house. 9 out of 10

EDIT (10/11/12) Had a bad run through of this house last night. It seemed like we just missed all the scareactors and all of the effects. Hopefully it was just due to a cast change but I'm going to have to drop this down to an 8.5 out of 10.

The Walking Dead: I was extremely skeptical about this house being it was a PA house and what people consider the overall "theme" for the event. I was pleasantly suprised however. A lot of good scares and lots to look at. I was also suprised at how long the house was, which is a good thing, the longer the better in my book. I'll give the Walking Dead an 8 out of 10.

Penn and Teller: At the beginning of the event this was the house I was looking most foward too. Im a fan of their act and wanted to see what they can do. I also have a soft spot for the 3-d houses so I was also excited for that. This house was very good lots to look at as well as lots of good scares. It kind of reminded me of the Chucky house back in 2009 with a lot of the actor placement and effects One of the best scares of the night had to be in this house and for a mini spoiler I love the buffet room a good different touch that I havent really experienced at the event yet. I'll give my boys a 9 out of 10 this year.

Dead End: When the big reveal for all of the houses came out I predicted that this would be house of the year. And boy I was right. The mixture of great effects and all of the scares practically had me running out of this house. So many misdirection and other great past effects that still get me after all these years. It felt like every room there was an actor out to get me. Good work guys. I'm giving this one a 10 out of 10 for being the best house of the year.

Now to the Street Experience: I have mixed feelings about these. When you do hit an area where there are actors its great. The actors on the streets this year are phenominal props to you guys. But there is so much dead space. They say there are no safe zones but it feels like the majority of the park is a safe zone. I manage to see all of the hoardes and as of right now the Traditionals and the Prisoners are my favorite.

In general this wasn't a bad year at all. This year I was very wary of how it would turn out and it exceeded my expectations. I do believe however this year is a bit understaffed there seems like too much dead space in the streets as well as in some rooms of the houses. Also we NEED an 8th house mainly for crowd control. Last night was the first night I can remember where all of the houses were over a 75 minute wait. Also overall the finales in the houses could be better, the only memorable ones are Silent Hill, House of Horrors and Alice Cooper. I miss the finales where there are 3 or 4 scareactors in a room. But as bad as some of my house reviews sound I am very pleased with this years event.

Thanks for thaking the time to read guys!

Edited October 12, 2012 by killswitch22

[Cody]

Funny enough, there's really LESS dead space than previous years. While there's a smaller general population, actors are no longer concentrated in relatively small areas (especially around the front of the park). As far as I know, there is literally no location in the park that remains 100% untouched by actors except the house and ride queues (and even then, you never know.) It's up to the actors to have the necessary speed and gumption to move around and target as many people as they can to make up for the larger areas they need to cover.

Edited September 30, 2012 by Cody

[LV-426]

I wrote it in my review, but I really like set zones a lot better than roaming zones. any time they go in front of MIB they get lost among all the people. It doesn't really work well everywhere. set zones are nicer because they can decorate that part of the park with the theme of the zone so it works better. I Love the costumes in the streets this year and I love the actors in the streets but I have to agree it ends up feeling dead just because there is nothing around the actors to add to the zones, so in some places they feel out of place. or you can barely notice them sometimes.

I know UNI wanted to try something different and see how it went. and it went good. but I rather have scarezones back. they are much more enjoyable

[killswitch22]

Edited as of 10/12/12 completed reviews. Thanks guys.