Decided to give the videos a watch, will only comment on the new things. Again, these are on the videos and not based on actually being there:
- The Depths looks like your typical KSF maze. The set design is elaborate and detailed BUT doesn't look realistic. Has all those round edges like you're walking through a cartoon instead of a real place. I don't know what that's called, as I'm not an artist, but this is the one thing that takes me out of the element in every KSF maze. [Disney does these on purpose in something like ToonTown, but can also provide a realism aesthetic for their more grown up fare, while Universal mostly employs this, even on stuff like the Despicable Me zone.] Also, it seems low on scares, but provides a great environment and mood. I guess that's the shame, for me, is they have all this dread and dark tone to work with and it's simply just people shouting in corners or in very noticeable hiding spots slamming their hands against the wall. A couple cool puppets but again, like every KSF maze, gets super random and far beyond unrealistic by the time you reach the climax of the maze. I just feel like the creators have no restraint, which is a good thing or a bad thing, depending how far they go.
B-
- Dark Entities looks AMAZING, definitely one of the absolute best mazes they've ever done, probably in the top 5 for me, I just love aliens and stuff like that. The sets look far more in the tone of realism and there's freakin' robots, man, what's not to love? The lighting in this house is bar none the best work they've ever done, that's for sure, and fully immerses you into the scare. The monsters look a little stupid, but oh well, what are ya gonna do, at least they finally got some realistic look dead mannequins. Also looks like there's a lot of interactive elements that play on your senses and some creative scares. Everyone in the maze seems to be providing something towards the story and the finale doesn't go too overboard. However, I do wish the finale room and climax had a bigger "oh crap" moment. It resorts to the "giant thing coming at you" that a lot of KSF mazes employ. I gotta say I'm very impressed with that one and can't wait to go through it next year.
A+
- Paranormal Inc's new ending looks like it starts off promising but then it does nothing with that premise at all and just resorts to the ending it always had. I think I prefer the old ending from a scary standpoint, BUT I do like this one more from a storytelling standpoint. It's a toss up. I do want to comment that this maze is still rocking after all these years and I find that to be pretty amazing. Usually there's a lot of stuff broken or getting lazy with by now, but they're still all playing their part to make this a great maze. Maybe they could be more aggressive, it also was the first night, so who knows, but this is still way better at this many years in than it has any right to be! I think this has one more year left in it.
A-
- Shadowlands' new opening scene is preferable, in my opinion. I never thought the pre-shows worked and I'd rather it just get started and I think the new room is pretty beautiful. The rest of the maze still looks in top form, although I think this should probably be it's last year as something about it seems a bit more tired than usual. It's not something they could easily rebrand, like Paranormal Inc could easily be something different, but this will always be Shadowlands.
B
- The Red Barn... *sigh*, ya know I do like the new barker out front, good idea. It doesn't add much, but at least it's something. The rest... WHY OH WHY is this still around? It was garbage the first year and still is. Didn't see much that was new. Heard a few reports saying it looked unfinished... uh, no, this is how this maze has always been, just pure junk. Boring, bland, derivative, unscary and tiresome with an annoying soundtrack and annoying characters. Nobody has liked this maze, ever. So how has it even lasted 3 years? They should've buried it deep after year one and pretended it never happened like a few other KSF mazes. It's so sad that they keep this up, too, each year trying to give it new life of some sort. JUST STOP!
F
- Special Ops' new ending is pretty underwhelming. There isn't much to get excited about, unfortunately. However, the experience as a whole is still pretty cool and novel. I still say this is the most fun you'll probably ever have at a Haunt. And it looks like there's more zombies than ever. This needs to be rebranded completely. I definitely want the idea to stay, but the maze needs to go next year.
B+
- Trick or Treat was supposed to have new scares triggered by the light? Didn't see any. Look, I loved this maze when it debuted so many years ago, but this is now ridiculous. It's the same maze, and the flashlight gimmick is fun and all, but just end it. I feel like every year it just gets further and further away from it's original point of the whole Green Witch and Tricksters stuff also. I'll be sad to see it go, but it's time.
C
From what I can tell, they have better maze signs this year to tell you where the line starts AND how long the line is. How accurate that is is probably a whole different story but I'm glad to see they're trying.
Overall, I'm not too sad not to go this year. Looks like the same thing. One really good new maze, one super overrated new maze, last year's new mazes still good but not quite as good as before, some great classics, some old classics dwindling into sadness, and some old crappy mazes that just keep coming back -- this is the same thing year after year. For $42, you'll definitely get your money's worth especially if you hit some rides, but man, KSF sure needs to change things up.