Review by Rick West

Knott's Halloween Haunt hosted two new mazes this year, one of them a brand-new Brooke Walters creation - Endgames. Themed as a post-apocalyptic "Thunderdome" environment where gladiators do battle to the death, with a loose Steampunk flavoring thrown in to better fit the Necropolis (Camp Snoopy) area that the maze is located in.

Walters has been widely-hailed by Knott's Scary Farm fans and employees in recent years for such popular mazes as Terror of London and Virus Z. Arguably Brooke's most legendary contribution to Knott's - The Doll Factory - made its final appearance during the 2011 run. Continuing her mean streak of Haunt goodness, Brooke introduced Endgames to fans this year, bringing the new maze to Necropolis and giving it a home in the footprint that used to be the Peanuts Playhouse (back in the day, the Playhouse was the location as such mazes as The Inquisition and House of Maniacs).

Immediately upon hearing about Endgames, I couldn't help but think about another legendary maze that was a fan favorite for years - The Underground. It too, was a post-apocalyptic environment and was a huge success. I wondered how similar the two might be, and if they would be inevitably compared to one another.

Beside the loosely similar theme and a pounding, loud metal soundtrack, Endgames was actually quite different than what I expected. And that's a good thing.

I'll say right up front that the subject matter isn't really my cup of tea when it comes to an environment that I would choose as a haunted attraction. Gore mazes are fine - I just don't find the whole post-apocalyptic thing to be all that frightening for a setting, and I really am not into the whole Steampunk thing, no matter how hard they're trying to make it work at Knott's. However, even though I am not a fan of the whole Necropolis thing, I give Brooke kudos to making Endgames at least cohesive with the area - even if the subject matters are apples and oranges; the feel of the maze - its creative styling and palette - they do blend in and work overall with Necropolis, so she did execute that very nicely, and I respect that.

Endgames is definitely a gore fest; loud, overtly violent and completely in-your-face. The soundtrack consists of very hard core metal music, including tracks by local artists Winds of Plague (very cool of Brooke to include them). Dimly-lit, Endgames seems like a surreal nightmare into some alien landscape where everyone and everything is extremely aggressive and hostile. Only at the end of the maze do you feel like it's any type of gladiator arena situation, and even then, it's not extremely clear to those not paying attention. That said, it's still a strong maze from beginning to end, regardless of its somewhat murky storyline.

The true beauty of Endgames does not lie in its theme, general look or sound. The thing that immediately caught my attention is how long it seems, considering the fairly small footprint it has within Camp Snoopy. Years ago, we praised Haunt designer David Ortiz for coming up with such a brilliant layout for Dia de los Muertos in the Bumper Cars area. That torch has been passed in a big way to Brooke - even though I have been through Endgames many times now, it still is boggling that she was able to fit so much into that space! Early on in September, when Endgames was just starting to go up, I mentioned the space to Brooke and she told me that I would be really surprised by how long she was able to make it due to lots of switch backs and tight corridors. She was right; I was beyond blown away by the layout of Endgames.

On top of the use of space, the aspect I love how dimensional it is; one scene looks into another through holes in the wall, or chain linked fencing. It really is brilliant.

Endgames also employs the use of streaming video technology as has never been done before at Halloween Haunt. Through a series of infrared cameras set throughout the maze, fans can sit at home and watch live streaming video of Scary Farm guests experiencing Endgames; that's really neat and an absolute first for Knott's. A clever addition to the live streaming video is the integration of an Endgames "commercial" that introduces some of the characters in the maze and really helps set the spectacle-like feeling. I'm all for back story - and the commercial used for that purpose is really cool. Not only does this stream feed go out over the Internet - guests in the queue are shown what's going on inside the maze as well via monitors that continue inside the attraction; it's all very interesting and techno-geeky goodness!

The props in Endgames are a combination of things we've seen before as well as brand-new pieces that Knott's created in-house for the maze, which is always something we like to see. So kudos to the team on a job well done with the special props for Endgames.

Last but not least is the talent in the maze. This year, they were fired up and definitely hit the mark. Some were spooky, others were extremely hostile, which you will see in the flow-through video below. Brooke gave this team a really nice environment to work off of, and most of them absolutely did, which worked really well.

Do I think Endgames is "legendary" material? No. However, between the layout and the innovative streaming video aspect, I'd say Endgames is one of the most creative mazes ever at Knott's Halloween Haunt, and Brooke and the entire team should be very proud of it. I'm quite sure Endgames will be around for at least several more years at the Scary Farm, and deservedly so.

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