Nightmare Combat at Fear Columbus
Date of Visit: 6/22/24
Visited By: Team Zombillies & Team Lone Wolf
“I am the guardian of this nightmare realm!” a malevolent voice booms from a source we can’t see. “I will stop at nothing to keep the gateway between our worlds open – so my minions can wreak havoc on the living world!” Our fingers tighten on the handles of the weapons we’ve been issued and our eyes scan the room, searching for the unearthly creatures that will inevitably descend on us shortly. “I promise,” he snarls, “you will not make it out of here alive!”
None of us are quite sure where “he” came from, or who he even is. But it’s obvious that some terrible and powerful being has arrived with his own frightful army to take over the scary worlds that exist within this haunt. Our mission? Clear them all out and save Fear Columbus!
Fear Columbus– a high-tech haunted attraction located in Columbus, Ohio– offers a few seasonal events throughout the year to match their annual Halloween season show. One of the most popular is Nightmare Combat, FC’s annual lasertag event that’s held on multiple dates between the spring and summer months. Equipped with your trusty laser gun, you and your group must battle your way through the haunt to earn as many points as you can – while trying to avoid being defeated by the monsters along the way!
Ticket purchases for Nightmare Combat are online only and signing up for the presale is recommended; this event can and has sold out. (Tip: have one person grab all the tickets for the group so you can ensure you get your preferred time slot!) Multiple ticket options are available – you can either do just a normal ticket, or get add-ons like a souvenir photo or a dog tag. We opted for General Admission at 5:20 PM with no extras, which came out to $56.33 apiece. Parking is free and plentiful on site. If you arrive early, pay attention to the announcements so you know when it’s time to queue up!
Speaking of those announcements, one of the first things we heard upon getting out of the car was a voice summoning groups in a sort of military fashion. Great way to set the tone early! While FC usually has roaming actors and other fun things to ease the wait, the time slots ensured the line remained short and negated the need for any extra entertainment. (I snuck a peek at the dog tags while we were outside – they were kept in what resembled an ammo box. Another nice touch in keeping with the theme, and I wish I’d bought one because they looked cool!) When it was our turn to enter, we queued up within their fenced waiting room. A staff member directed our attention to the screens on either side, which all groups must watch to find out how the game works and learn what they should expect.
Once we were led in, more staff helped us collect our weapons and prepare for battle. Each customer was given a laser gun with unlimited ammo, which would auto-reload but you could press a button to speed up the process as needed. Throughout the experience, the gun’s internal scoring system would keep track of how many points, kills, and deaths we collected on our adventure. Yes, you heard me – deaths! Nightmare Combat is one of those shooters where the actors can and will attempt to fight back. The goal was to aim for the brightly lit collars the actors were wearing, but if we weren’t careful they could get close enough to do damage and deplete our health. If you took too many hits, that was a death on your record! There was a scoreboard waiting at the end, so we definitely didn’t want many of those. Teamwork was a must – most of our targets took 5 – 10 shots to go down, but some required as many as 50!
Full disclosure – I’m not local to this haunt, so while I didn’t pick up on much by way of show-specific room changes it was possible they added more and I was just none the wiser. There was a lot of action going on, too, which also made it hard to pay attention to surroundings. The military/survivor looks some of the characters had were awesome though and they 100% acted the part. (I did see they gave the raccoon in the indoor queue one of the guns. Too cute!) Most of the monsters we fought were random, save for a NEW themed area where they did match their surroundings. Yep, I said NEW… guests going through this show were treated to a sneak peek of some changes for the 2024 season! And it was as exceptionally designed as all of their haunt is.
Despite the monster randomness, Fear Columbus’ event did have a storyline in the form of the Big Bad character, whose name I didn’t catch but man, this guy was a real jerk. Imagine trying to take over a whole haunt with an army of creepers! We encountered him in various forms at multiple points, ending with a big, menacing animatronic at the end. There was also custom audio for each encounter and that was pretty cool.
Take this warning to heart: if you choose to participate in Nightmare Combat, bring friends and be prepared for anything! Our enemies were literally everywhere, attacking from any direction you can think of. Static foes were few and far between; this was a mostly actor-focused show. Drop panels, hidden doors, hordes, sneak attacks – you really had to watch your butt or they were gonna GET you. There was almost as much shrieking going on in our group as there was shooting!
Being in the back, I didn’t get to see a lot of what was going on with my friends beyond some great startle scares. I will drop a shout to the actor wearing the mask with a hand embedded in their face, who snuck in behind me while we were battling the opening horde. I backed up… lightly collided with someone… turned around and there they were! Never noticed their approach. At one point, I also found myself in a room helping the group fend off multiple actors. I was really going to town on this one chick when I looked over and realized all of my friends had left – I was alone in the room and surrounded by clowns! (Oh – was that a hint? Sorry.) The one with purple or blue hair was the most difficult of the bunch and unfortunately for me, they were guarding the exit! I wasn’t so sure I was getting out of there!
One small opportunity for improvement if possible: I would’ve liked to see a stronger finale. I counted maybe three actors, plus the animatronic Big Bad we couldn’t get any points from because he seemed to lack sensors. More of a “fighting for our lives” feeling would’ve been cool, but we still enjoyed the ending and the rest of the haunt was so intense! We were all a sweaty mess by the time it was over.
Crazy as they can get, we love these shooter-style haunt events and Nightmare Combat was amazing! The actors made for challenging opponents, all the visual and audio effects they added were awesome, and we even got to grab a peek at some NEW stuff their team has been working on. We enjoyed a solid half hour of gameplay, too, and with the quality of the show we got it definitely made the ticket price worth it. If you’re into battling zombies or other scary stuff, do not sleep on this event – IMO, it was one of the best shooters around!
Sadly, if you didn’t get to fight this boss and his army of minions you will have to wait until 2025 to join the fray… Nightmare Combat was the final event until Krampus makes his grand return in December. However, Fear Columbus will officially reopen for the 2024 haunted house season on September 13.
