Today at ScareLA Knotts Berry Farm announced the return of the innovative zombie hunting game with an all-new twist. Special Ops: Patient Zero will return to the rugged terrain in that corner of the park with a brand new storyline, new scares, and more blood-thirsty zombies ready to attack.

Guests can enlist to fight the zombie apocalypse in an all-out war against the undead in the interactive experience, Special Ops: Infected – Patient Zero. In 2015, the highly sought-after attraction will include more blood thirsty zombies, twice the amount of challenging missions, brand new high-tech laser guns.

While well-received and popular with park guests, the innovative theme park haunt experience, was not without a few hiccups.  There were problems with guns, pacing, and throughput.  This year the experience is back and much bigger and far badder by creating one gigantic experience that will engage and terrify while being wildly entertaining.  With a course that is twice as long, new dangers, new missions, and more zombies, this promises to be an exhilarating experience.

We spoke with Creator Designer of Special Ops: Infected, Jon Cooke about the changes and improvements coming to this unique attraction. “The first year of anything is a huge learning experience, ” says Cooke, “it was cool, but we have definitely grown from the first year.”  This year, the experience has been expanded.  It will begin and end at the front of the park where the Alpha entrance was last year. “There will only be one path that all visitors get to experience.”  Interesting! “We will be using the former space of the maze Slaughterhouse as a themed queue and use that to set up the storyline, to really get people into the scenario.”

We also get brand new guns that are far more responsive and interactive. “This year,” Jon excitedly said, “As the experience goes on, your gun will gain more capabilities.  You will become more and more powerful as you go along.”

Another problematic feature from last year was that when zombies got too close your gun became temporarily disabled, indicating you have been bitten. This lead to many players confused and thinking that their gun had actually stopped working period. Addressing that feature in the game Jon said “Last year the guns would just go dead.  This year the guns feature special lighting that indicate whether or not your gun is active or not.”  This is an elegant fix to an odd problem.

At the end of the day Knotts knew that it had something special on its hands with Special Ops: Infected in 2014.  No other theme park was even attempting something on that scale or with that level of interaction.  With the lessons learned Jon Cooke and his team will be delivering a brand new experience in that forested, hilly corner of the park.

We can’t wait to try it!

More ways to scream in 2015:

• Selling out in its inaugural year, the Knott’s Scary Farm Pass returns in 2015 and offers unlimited visits to all 24 event nights. Current 2015 Knott’s Berry Farm Season Passholders can purchase the pass at the limited time price of $70, now until Sept. 20 (while supplies last, plus applicable taxes and fees); the general public can purchase the pass for $80 (while supplies last, plus applicable taxes and fees). New for 2015, Season Long Parking passes will be valid during Knott’s Scary Farm nights. The Knott’s Scary Farm Pass is exclusively sold online at knotts.com.

• Single night tickets are $39.99 – $49.99 depending on the event night when purchased online (plus applicable taxes and fees). Tickets purchased at least 24 hours in advance at the theme park ticket booths are $49 for all nights, and day-of-event tickets purchased at the ticket booths are $69.

• Fright Lane with Skeleton Key offers priority access to all mazes and unlocks five Skeleton Key rooms filled with unnerving terrors, interactive secrets and exclusive scenes. Guests will also receive a commemorative lanyard and collectible keychain. Fright Lane with Skeleton Key passes start at $70. (Separate theme park admission required, and not included)

• Combo Tickets, offering admission and Fright Lane with Skeleton Key are an especially great value offering savings of up to $34, versus purchasing each item separately at the ticket booths. For more hair-raising information on the 2015 Knott’s Scary Farm event visit the website, join the conversation using #ScaryFarm or stay tuned to the Knott’s Scary Farm Facebook page, or @KnottsScaryFarm on Twitter.