Surprised at all the positive reviews, I just went tonight and was really disappointed in comparison to last year. For what's supposed to be the 20th anniversary, this year felt very watered-down, to say the least, nothing at all like a "celebration" of HoS. Wouldn’t be surprised if maybe budgets got cut this year due to Iron Gwazi.
new house "The Residence" was honestly lame and by-the-numbers, plus most of the returning houses from last year were basically neutered. Missing effects from Insomnia that were there last year, no screaming "SIMON SAYS DIE" in slaughterhouse, just little atmospheric things and details gone that really added to my enjoyment of the houses last year. Also, I need to say this, can they please, PLEASE retire Black Spot already. It's always been the weakest in terms of scares and environment and I don't understand why they feel the need to keep returning it every year when it doesn't improve at all. motel and Bayou are really the only two that stay consistently good.
Overall, while it wasn't entirely bad, I've been going every year since 2015 and this is definitely the worst year by far. Sad because I've started preferring HoS to HHN in recent years; i feel there needs to be a big shakeup in offerings next year or maybe i'll just start going to screamageddon instead.