NPF Bassetts Pole Adventure Park — Attraction in North Warwickshire

First of all, let me thank the manager assistant Alex R, who is possibly one of the best manager I had the pleasure to meet.

Now to the review... We bought one of those vouchers that seemed to me a "bait and switch" deal... You get 100 free paintballs, but you can only use them for the last game, the Hungergames. You can't go there just to play Hungergames tough... Hungergames are at 4 pm. Also bear in mind that you have to pay 100 paintballs in advance and if one of your friend doesn't show up, the policy is that you can use the deposit for a future visit. YOU WON'T BE GIVEN THE BALLS FOR PLAYING. YOU WON'T HAVE YOUR DEPOSIT BACK. A negative note is about the equipment. If you want gloves YOU HAVE TO BUY THEM! Also the protections are for the upper body only. If you want fancy weapons YOU HAVE TO PAY MORE. With our voucher we got basic guns... Forget about precision, the balls go wherever they want, they gets stuck and might shoot 5 balls at one time. To kill people the balls has to explode... well 50% of the time it does not happen...

If you are there just trying to have some fun with your friends in a relaxed way, well forget about it either. You get randomly assigned to a team of about 20 people playing against another team. Honestly, too many people.

For the entire day you play in different arenas and the objectives is different every time. Only problem is that you have only few breaks to rest and only 30 min lunch. This is a strict schedule. YOU GET TIRED. There's free coffee and free tea, unless you have some vouchers that will give you free pizza.

Despite the potentiality, we refused to play the "Hungergames" because we were surrounded by jerks, so the 100 free balls were useless after all. The staff who should monitor the game (Marshall) not always was polite and useful. There were too many people to control. And yes having 4 strangers keeping shooting you from 1 meter distance despite you have declared yourself dead is not pleasant because IT HURTS.

Be prepared to spend money. You need at least 50 balls per arena to enjoy the game and for some objectives, bombs are a must.

The arenas were nice, but there's room for improvement (You can't ask people to pay attention when handling the zombie head because it's already broken, SERIOUSLY!?!). When I bought this amazing voucher I was not told about the poor quality of the protections, the poor quality of the basic guns, the strict schedule and how the teams would have been organized.

You might enjoy it, but I am...

As soon is I opened the car door I instantly smelt very strong WEED!!!! It was present throughout the day.

The day was absolutely terrible. Everyone was cheating, getting hit, whiping the paint off and then shooting back. Obvbiusly this made it utterly impossible to play the game. People shooting each other between games, firing wildly at trees, bins you name it. All of which is clearly ridiculous and dangerouu it has no reason, peoeple were getting hit in the head while not even playing! It was a joke!! No marshalls disciplined any idiototic, dangerous behaviour. The masks were honestly unusable and we had no gloves, I couldn't see a thing, to top that off the only defining factor between the red and blue teams was a small band of tape on the right arm. So every single person was randomly shooting hoping that it was the enemy, we couldn't see. Then the clubs members were allowed onto any of our games and shoot us, regardless of our protection and visibility.

Due to no rules and very poor supervision one person shot a lady point blank in the neck, it instantly came out in a horrendous mark. This was in the dead zone not during play, he was just messing with his gun! There was a Marshall right next to us.

Above this the paintballs were very, very, very expensive; on a level that will force me to never ever return. It's £25 online for 2000 paintballs, but NPF charge £75 for 1000!!!!! But you cant take you own paintballs in so are forced to pay their prices.I honestly don't know why anyone goes. It's criminal. I purchased a gun upgrade at the very start of the day, before playing any games, but after just one outting and a try of anothers standard gun I realsied that the upgrage was complete crap, an extra £10 for a heavier, less accurate gun. I asked for my money back as I at least wanted to use the standards and they said that wasn't an option.

There are many, many more reasons I am writing this review, noting them all here would simply take a lifetime.

I had people in my group in phsyical tears one the day. It just completely and utterly unacceptable. I would like the entire company to take a very very serious look into how they run their paintballing business. Other than that I would suggest they close down, so that nobody else gets hurt.

Please do not waste your time or...

It's common knowledge around Birmingham and even the West Midlands that NPF Bassetts Pole is a great day out for older kids and adults. I have been paintalling and quad biking there several times now and they always show me a good time. What I did not realise was what a great option it could be for a kids party. We took 17 kids (well, 15 kids and two adults playing as kids) for a day out yesterday (November 29th 2014) and they all had an absolute blast.

The kids were from 6 years old to 10 so paintballing was ruled out so we did lasers which was just amazing. This is outdoor lasers and the guns are amazing, you can shoot someone with a laser site from across the map and your gun lets you know if you have had a hit (their head flashes as well so you can see) and your gun lets you know if you have been hit. They had various games from capture the flag to defence of a base (and even a game where you have to carry a bomb from A to B). The marshal's really kept what was a very excitable group in check and the kids all left their muddy, tired and happy. Even the transport back and from the main area to the game zone in the back of a Jeep was a blast for the kids (and adults).

Ultimately, they all enjoyed it, they all spent two hours running around in a forest rather than yet another sedentary activity. Being a party organised by me (the Dad of the birthday boy) I forgot the candles and everything for the cake yet another marshal sorted out candles, lit them and helped us sing happy Birthday in the war themed bunker back at the base.

All too often kids parties end up being a crappy cash in but this was quality from start to finish hence this review and giving credit where it is due.

The kids already want me to organise a day of mini paintball for them (which uses special guns that do not hurt) and the marshal's even told us we could do kids vs adults with the mini guns which sounds a blast. I am also heading up a group of the adults for a day over xmas for a day of paintballing and quad biking hopefully.

Well recommended to get your kids (and adults) off their backsides...