My observations at HOS Williamsburg, HOS Tampa, HHH at Uni, and Haunt at KD lead me to believe that none of them have really broken the code on path scares. I am increasingly coming around to the view that the costs, terrain, and logistics make effective scares zones out in the open untenable in most locations.
I, personally, wish that BGW would focus on atmospherics, rather than immersive storytelling or startles. One of the best park Halloween event experiences I have had was at KD several years ago. They did have scares zones, of course, but that wasn't what the most effective for me. What I remember the most was that the paths were dark and foggy, and there was creepy, moody music playing almost everywhere. The result was that the outside environment successfully maintained the tension, as I traveled from house to house.
Over the years, I have experienced several approaches to path scares at BGW, and none of them worked very well for me. I'm not saying the concepts were bad, but implementation appears to be a perennial problem. They have tried scare zones with startles; Terror-tories, which were more about immersion and story-telling than scares; and "the scare is everywhere," employing roaming hordes. There were of course specific nights and locations that worked fairly well for all of these approaches, but none seemed to me to be universally effective.
I think in the aggregate, I would personally prefer that they focus their resources on the houses, and rely more on atmospherics on the paths.
