Scorpion & Raptors venture to Zed - The Mall

[GrammarNazi75]

Sunday just gone was my first ever game at the mall and have been putting it off for 4 years of playing just due to the horror stories, I went with Russ which was his 8th time there, just to see what it was like and how it compared to what everyone else said.

 

We arrived in pouring rain at 7:30 in the morning hoping to jump into the 20 walk on spaces they had available as when we tried to book, it was fully booked. We walked into a narrow room with knee height benches to put all of our kit on and were about 11th and 12th in the queue (yes at barely the crack of dawn). At this point the car park wasn't open so everyone was parked in a bus lane hoping they wouldn't end up with a £40 fine on top of their £36 for walk on fee. We started booking in and paying at about 8:00 and as I had just handed in my disclaimer the person sat at the desk got up and said to others in the queue that there are only 8 spaces left for walk on and if you were not within 8 places unfortunately they couldn't tke them. It was very polite, but stern.

 

We set up and before we had a chance for a coffee they were ushering people in for chrono (which was fair given 100 people turned up) we done all our mags batteries and went for a Maccy D's breakfast. At about 9:30 we were moved to the main hall for the brief with all our kit, yes, I was warned about the brief. About 35 minutes passed until the owner turned the piece of paper over and said "Right, that's the health and safety out the way" it went to about 45-50 minutes, but after, we cracked on with the first game.

 

I was starting with 7 others as 'the infected' and the idea was a simple virus game, when you shoot someone they're on your team until there is one person hiding in a corner. I didn't do as well as I wanted in the first 10 minutes, I had my GoPro go down on me after 5 minutes and a Scorpion flapping at my leg the entire time. The main hall was full auto as well as the shop units running along it and upstairs, the basement and other backways were all single shot only. The game took about 25 minutes and most of the action was in the main hall. After that we had a 5 minute break and onto the next game.

 

It was a simple 2nd game, but for the life of me can't remember what it was, so i'll go straight to lunch! It was typical hot dog, can of Coke (diet or reg) packet of walkers crisps and chocolate bar. So pretty standard and with good brands. After about 30 minutes we got ready and went out for a longer game. For those of you who have played there before, it was the Terminator game (Skip to paragraph below) If NOT then 9 people on each team had either a red or blue armband and each team's main objective was to grab laptop bags scattered around the site and get them to a secure transport vehicle (definitely not a bunch of trolleys cable tied together) oh but there was a catch, the Terminator who was the only player allowed full auto, was a passive player until he saw you with one of his laptop bags, or saw your coloured armband. Each person shot by the terminator with an armband had to hand it over to him.

 

I was one of the unfortunate ones with an armband on my team, but managed to escape him by running around a metal wall when his torch was inches from me, hiding my arm whilst he was about and simply running away at the sound of someone shouting "he's here!!". I have to admit this game was fun, adrenaline filled when you know on single shot the Terminator will just mow you down with his full auto gun. Toby even had fun hiding in a room for 20 minutes whilst he was about as Jack had an armband too. The whole atmosphere and scenario created put people in a good mindset straight after lunch.

 

The final game is difficult to explain, but the last 15 minutes of the game included Russ, Raptors, a couple others and I run, charge, kamikaze, whatever you want to call it, towards the enemy. Dual pistols, crazy fast shotguns and me dumping a drum mag from my MP5 in a couple of bursts. Yes it got to that part of the day. Not sure if any team did the objectives, it just looked like a free for all in the main hall, but the marshals let us get on with it.

 

I think the teams drew at the end of the day, so the teams were made fair from the beginning with a mix of experience and non experienced on either team. At some points there was stalemate, but eventually got past it and pushed back. It was a good turn around on games and liked the objectives in the afternoon. The marshals were all different from last time Russ went there except from the site owner, which in his mind was good as the marshals before were, I quote 'Creepy and weird'. I liked them all and the guy who ran it was very good at getting to the point of things, being clear and wasn't afraid to tell people they couldn't get in, as well as banning someone that day.

 

The shop wasn't too bad, had everything you needed, but like most retailers in the UK it stocked mostly (if not all) ASG, however the link to the shop and the site is below.

 

Shop: http://www.airsoftarmoury.co.uk/

Site: http://www.zedadventures.co.uk/

 

Gameplay: 4/5 - Some games we got bottlenecked, but was brilliant otherwise

Players: 4/5 - Some people were taking the p**s with colour challenge

Marshals: 4/5 - Excellently run by Luke (I think) but brief wasn't 'to the point' enough, I think they like that reputation

Site Shop:2.5/5 - had nothing really special, but had a selection of pistols and shotguns ideal for CQB

Organisation: 5/5 - Ran so smoothly and was a brilliant day in my eyes.

 

Overall - The day ran well, very organised, friendly & helpful marshals, good gameplay as I didn't really see many cheat and is a premium site. The car park should be open from when people start to arrive as there is always a risk of getting a fine parked on the bus lane. In the safe zone after everyone arrived I felt like I was a sardine and trying to get all my kit on as well. I felt sorry for the guys who were forced to set up their kit on the floor or on the cinema chairs. Safe zone needs more room and safety brief was so long winded with about 4 examples for each point made and getting distracted with jokes etc. Last point, by the looks of it, for some people the Mall is just a place to dress up in fancy dress and have a gun (I was this close to putting my hawaiin shirt on too!).

 

Would I go back? - I would go back, however Its not something I could play regularly and wasn't 100% comfortable there like at Xsite. For £36 its a good 'once in a while' site.

 

[jay83]

I thought the same thing its a good once in a while place, the actual site is amazing and the people that run it are very friendly, i just didnt like all the breaks after the almost 1 hour rules meet you wana play Airsoft!! when you do 30mins worth then stop for another break it kills the momentum. That Terminator game is fun though, when you see the red eyes in the dark its a funny moment, fight or flight kind of stuff. Nice Review mate