Vardøhus Fortress — Attraction in Vardø

An odd experience. I was expecting it to be quite sunny. There I was, stuck in the intense snowdrift at nighttime. I tried calling for help with my cell phone, but no signal.

So there I was again, inside the basement of a shack with 19 other people wearing Napoleonic-era clothing, resembling that of the Swedes. Are they paid actors? I thought so, until there were these... Cannibals eating someone.

Goodness, eating someone? It's almost as if they were zombies. They quickly dispatched the cannibals with their sabers, going through their decaying chest. I was horrified—I did not want to be a part of this!

I called the police on my cellphone when a cannibal had tackled me and tried to bite my arm! I crushed my phone from the debacle. Shortly after, a kind man (note, wearing some sort of priestly outfit) stabbed it to death and gave me some sort of "blessing" to stop the infection.

Some other kind chaps went ahead to lead me outside and help dig up the snow blocking the door. Dig up the snow?! With those things outside?! Were they crazy? I could not think so after seeing dozens of cannibals pouring out the walls.

I dug frantically to get the gate out, when I heard someone scream. Dear heavens... Someone has been mauled to death. But I pressed on along with these other fine chaps to get the gate open.

Boom! The gate had burst open, and we trekked through the thick snow. Some builders, or sappers, whatever that means, fell behind to stall the cannibals. Passing through a shack and digging up more snow, we went downwards a ladder, full of cannibals below.

Not a surprise anymore knowing them and being dispatched by the chaps. I thought it was a good idea to stay outside and relieve myself a bit (I could not hold it in anymore!) When I had seen my fingers frozen in place. Goodness me, time to head to warmer places!

I paid some sapper to let me climb on his back while he climbed the ladder with 25 dollars.. He said he only accepted "francs." Where does he think he is, the Napoleonic times?

Nonetheless, I just so happened to have 150 Francs from a museum I visited somewhere in Paris, and he did let me climb on to him. So, there we were, 18 people and one utterly confused man. Me. Now waiting inside a church. Beside. A grave. Very comforting.

Now, at this point, I would like to remind you that I speak English. You may wonder how I understood Danish (since these men only spoke Danish and loved screaming "Di kommer, hjælf os!" It gets really unnerving.).

I did not. I was frantically shouting at that sapper man and waved money, and gestured his back and that ladder. The only English he knew was "Francs money."

As I was saying, they were building for whatever unsmart idea these men had in mind, when they discussed something in Danish. They looked at me. Why me? They asked me to ring the bell. Are they crazy?! Beside a grave? Who came up with this fantastic idea? Well, couldn't argue with 18 other men with Napoleonic-era muskets.

So hesitantly, I set my grip firm on the old rope connected to the bell, and rung. Then I heard them again—cannibals! They were going at us in droves, from the doors to the windows! I frantically rung it harder when the sapper lad told me in broken English, "ring ring faster!"

Those three minutes were the longest minutes of my life, yet I was FINALLY told to stop. So far, unless you somehow agree to take a shady route to Vardohus fortress from an unlicensed person named Bubbles and have you black out and wake up in the same exact situation I was in, I would recommend going here.

Now, where was I? Ah, right. The cannibals finally stopped flooding in. I got up when I noticed my leg had sunk below the floor, and a moderately large-sized chunk of wood slipped into my leg. Argh!

Thankfully, there was this surgeon within their ranks and treated me. I think he said "let yourself heal." Don’t ask me how I know, my guts tell me, as the smell of blackpowder seared in the room so, i'm now waiting on the docks, with two bars of signal. Hope I make it home. I'll tell you what happens if...

NEVER EVER go to the Vardøhus Fortress. That hellish place is infested with people who are infected by the so-called Blight. Shortly after my soldiers woke up from a dreadful, cold night, we were ambushed from all sides by the infected which sadly killed off some of our men. The rest of the company woke up as we quickly grabbed our weapons consisting of muskets, flintlock pistols, pikes, axes, blunderbusses whatever we had. I quickly reached out for my pistol and saber as I rushed out to my soldiers to assist them with killing those devils. With me and another officer from another regiment of my nation of the glorious Motherland, we quickly deduced that we had to alert a nearby ship and depart from this place at a light speed pace. Afterwards, I then gave orders to my soldiers to go down in the basements of one of the sheds to fire a conveniently placed cannon at a gate which stored all the shovels. Afterwards, one of my brave men launched a firework into the sky to signal for help, thank lord a ship was nearby. All of this happening while we were constantly being attacked by those spawns of satan who we were able to kill easily thank god. Due to it being Winter, the snow was blocking off the path with it reaching the height more than our sappers and they were our tallest and most intimidating men. While our sappers were building barricades to keep those infected out, the other soldiers were digging the snow to clear a path for us and we were digging like hell. I remember my arms being so sore that they were just on the verge of giving up when we finally dug all of the snow which lead to a church which was positioned right next to a small graveyard. We then noticed a wooden gate that was unfortunately locked. My soldiers tried to barged through with their sabers, handaxes and even the sappers with their axes but to no avail. In a stroke of luck, the other officer from the other Russian regiment dug up the graves and found what took the shape of a key. We were able to open the gate with it thank god. While all of this was happening, I entered the church to pray to the lord, however, I stumbled upon what seemed to be a priest from my homeland of all places judging by his green robes and the large bearskin he was wearing. I informed him about the situation about the infected and that we were escaping from this damned place and to say he was happy was an understatement, he was in pure euphoria, filled with childlike joy knowing that there was an escape from this location afterall. He begged me constantly to join whatever was left of my company to leave with us and I accepted it afterwards as he cried with tears of joy. After we unlocked the gate, we were finally at the dock with a lighthouse to the right and two cannons on the left. However, that time of relief was short-lived when we heard the snow behind us with the sounds of what sounded like something rising. One of my brave line infantryman from my regiment went to check the source of the sound and came back running as he shouted that those rascals are back and this time in larger numbers. We wasted no time as our sappers quickly set up defenses with majority of whatever we had left of our soldiers stationed at the back of our defenses while a few brave minority manned the canons while a young brave soul managed to light up the lighthouse and ran back to the rear of the defenses to alert the ship. I was one of the brave few who was in charge in giving the right time to fire the cannons at those demons. It was a long fought battle with few yet brave and sadly young souls losing their lives to the Blight infected, however, at long last the ship had finally come with it donning the British flag. Regardless, my soldiers quickly ran to the ship once the plank had been set up. As for the cannon crew which included myself, we made a charge towards the dock bridge and onto the ship with no lives lost luckily. Finally, we were out of this place from hell once...

Players spawn within the basement of a residential building within the main fortress compound, with a large pile of snow blocking the player's progression. The players are required to open a locked cellar containing Shovels in order to clear the snow path. Players will have to search through several buildings throughout the fortress in order to find Round Shot which can be loaded into the cannon using Swabs found throughout the map. Players must load the Cannon positioned in-front of the cellar door, and fire it to destroy the door.

Upon obtaining the shovels, players must proceed to the blocked path, and clear the way while defending themselves against a continually spawning horde of Zombies. Once players clear the layers of snow blocking the gate, they will be forced to proceed through a wooden barracks and clear another pile of snow before making their way into the abandoned town of Vardø. Players descend through a dock which has frozen over until they can make their way across the ice and to the nearby Church. Once the players arrive at the Church, they must begin ringing the bell in order to signal a nearby ship.

While the bell is being rung, the players will be forced to hold-out for several minutes until the HMS Undaunted signals back. Zombies will continually spawn in the graveyard, and from just outside the church. Once the players have rung the bell for several minutes, the HMS Undaunted will signal back, and the players will be able to proceed further. Players must clear another pile of snow in order to open a locked gate leading to the nearby lighthouse and pier, with a set of cannons nearby. Players must ascend to the top of the lighthouse, and wind the clockwork, and then ignite the lights in order to guide the ship to their position. Once the lights are ignited, the final holdout sequence will commence. Players must hold-out for several minutes against an intensifying horde of zombies until they are rescued.

Once the HMS Undaunted arrives to rescue the players, all dead players will respawn as United Kingdom sailors. The ship will sail directly past the dock, and players must immediately board the ship to avoid being left behind. Once the ship passes by, the players will...