Sub Species: The End Games

Descending deep underground to a post-apocalyptic sewer system that had been infested by a species from another world, guests became contestants in The End Games, a feeding ritual to appease the creatures’ hunger that had been twisted into a sick contest over time. The sewer-dwellers would sacrifice innocent people from the surface, betting on their survival as guests chose their own route in an attempt to avoid the creatures that chased after them.

The concept of Sub Species: The End Games, was a spin-off from that of Nemesis, the Resort’s iconic inverted rollercoaster. Unlike the Resort’s past mazes, the maze’s inhabitants could touch guests and would work to separate individual guests from their group.

Guests queued for the maze in Her Ladyship’s Gardens, with the very last section of this where guests were batched into groups being covered. Guests were then directed down a flight of stairs and into the Towers where they were instructed to listen to the maze’s safety spiel.

It was then time to enter what was the pre-show room, where guests contestants met the Controller on screen, who welcomed them to the sewer. The Controller explained how the sub-terranean community was made up of those who had been left to rot by the rest of the world, and those that were remained were those who had managed to avoid either infection or consumption by the aliens lurking within the sewers. The contestants would function as both food for the aliens as well as entertainment for the underworlders.

The valve lock would then open, with contestants directed inside in order to head down to the “traps” ready for the race to commence. While some contestants would be instructed to stand with their backs against the walls, others would be selected to stand in front of the three “traps” doors. As alarm bells and sirens sounded, a short countdown would play, with guests then being periodically plunged into darkness as one-by-one contestants would be dragged through the doors and sent off into the sewer alone.

Contestants would firstly face a disorientating labyrinth, before needing to follow a rope through a black-out section, where underworlders would appear temporarily illuminated amongst the darkness, sometimes even removing guests from the rope.

After this section, contestants would make their way across what was actually a temporary scaffold bridge and tunnel, to continue the maze experience beyond the Towers themselves and into a number of shipping containers on the nearby plaza.

There were two sides to the bridge, with a sliding door determining which way contestants would have to go. In the maze’s first year, this determined which ending contestants experienced.

One of the endings saw contestants stumble upon the aliens’ nest, with a final scare provided by a giant alien animatronic lunging towards them as they escaped from the maze. Unfortunately, the temperamental nature of this effect meant that this ending didn’t return with the rest of the maze from 2016 onwards.

The other ending, which became the only ending for the majority of the maze’s lifespan, required contestants to crawl through narrow tunnels. They then emerged into a lab where a chainsaw-wielding underworlder awaited, chasing guests out from the maze. The positioning of this exit, especially once the containers which housed second ending were removed when the maze returned in subsequent years, provided a spectacle for other guests who wanted to watch contestants running out from the sewer.