2.8 Hours Later

Zombie chase game, 2.8 Hours Later, is making its London debut in time for Halloween.

The game, which takes players on an adrenaline-fuelled roller coaster ride of zombie movie action, will be played out over three nights at the end of the month from Thursday 27^th - Saturday 29^th October.

All 1400 tickets for the London game have been snapped up in under two weeks, confirming the rise of gaming in popular culture from fringe event to mainstream entertainment.

The move to bring the game to London is in response to popular demand after two sell-out runs in its hometown of Bristol and a recent three night outing in Leeds, which was attended by a record number of both players and zombies.

Fans have since been voting in their thousands for its creators, SlingShot, to bring the game to their towns, as word of its popularity spreads via twitter and facebook.

2.8 Hours Later is a night time chase game devised by Bristol game creators, SlingShot. Players race through the streets of a city that has been devastated by a zombie apocalypse. Their aim is to find their way to Resistance HQ, the last safe place in the city. Encountering dazed survivors along the way, they get clues to take them from one secret location to the next to help them on their quest, all the while being chased by marauding zombies.

The game was premiered in 2010 at Bristol’s igfest 3, the world’s largest pervasive games festival, and such was its popularity that it was resurrected and fine-tuned for this year’s igfest in May. One thousand tickets sold out in days, and over 1400 tickets went for the Leeds game last month.

It has been well received by both players and the industry alike. It has been described as “completely fantastic and bonkers” by games review site, Beefjack.com, and fans are bidding online for SlingShot to bring the game to cities from Brighton to Edinburgh.

SlingShot’s co-founder and game producer, Simon Evans, says the surge in popularity is a reflection of the zeitgeist: “Games are massive. Everyone under forty has grown up playing them, on consoles, portables and now on phones. People continue to play into adulthood and gaming is part of their cultural DNA. You can see this impact in all aspects of culture: film franchises, marketing, new theatre. We are part of that but more physical, more exciting”.

Bermondsey’s Shortwave Cinema is helping to promote 2.8 Hours Later, and the game will be focused on London’s south east, where dense, winding streets, Victorian warehouses and an abandoned sixties housing estate provide the perfect filmic backdrop for a zombie gore fest, all in the shadow of Tower Bridge. In the tradition of the game, however, the exact locations will remain a closely guarded secret until the night of the action.

Future dates and venues are being penciled in for 2012, with Oxford, Edinburgh, Manchester and Liverpool all being strong contenders. And SlingShot won’t be confining their horizons to the UK. New York has received almost 1000 votes to host the game, with 500 of those coming in just one day. 

2.8 Hours Later will be taking place in London from 27^th – 29^th October from 7pm. Tickets are £28 (£25 conc.) and are sold out. However, SlingShot are releasing cancellations the week of the game. Follow the on Twitter @s_shot or Facebook http://www.facebook.com/2.8HoursLater

SlingShot is talking to other cities about a further tour dates and will post updates on the game’s facebook page: To vote to go : http://2.8hourslater.com/