Asylum Paintball - Auckland product reviews

I play here nearly every weekend. And every week the staff are at the top of their game. If you have never played before I highly recommend you try here before anywhere else. If you come on the weekend there is no minimum numbers you just show up and everyone plays together. If you have young kids they offer low impact paintball using spring loaded guns which I have to admit are a he'll of a lot of fun (this coming from a 21 year old). The low impact guns don't hurt nearly as much as normal paintball, if at all.

The staff clearly know what their doing. They insure that everyone knows what they're doing and that they know all of the safety rules. They make sure your visit is highly enjoyable.

The location couldn't be any better: the old high security ward from the former kingseat mental asylum. You can still see remnants from days gone by. At night with only the light of leds inside blue water containers to guide you, prepare to be freaked out. People come from out of nowhere.

The rental equipment provided is the best rental equipment you can get. The guns will keep shooting all day long (as long as you have paint and remember to get your air tank filled after every 3-4 games)

10/10 every time

After playing a painless game of Laser Tag, and a rather uncomfortable game of Airsoft, the paintball was supposed to be a big blast, unfortunately, it didn't turn out quite like that. By the time the paintball game came around, most of the players had left, so the games were quite boring, so this is a rating on circumstances, not the service of the company itself. The games would have been quite fun if it were in daylight, and if we had more players.

I thought that the location was quite unique, I've only played paintball in a forested area and a concrete speed-ball arena before, so I thought it was quite fun to play in such a location. I was able to see the inflatable speed-ball arena out at Kingseat, and I learned that that arena was used in tournaments, which I thought was quite impressive! Unfortunately, I only got hit by 1 paintball during the game, and typical, it landed on a welt formed by an Airsoft pellet which was fired at close range, but at least a got a war-wound without too many injuries.

The price is highly reasonable, I think it is cheap enough to enjoy without being so cheap as to ruin the appearance of it's high quality. I liked how they used inmate overalls as the overalls for this game, it showed a certain level of innovativeness and a willingness to put a bit of a spin on things, which was great! I think that the location in general is great for other reasons, you get the sense of going back in time, you know, walking through the halls of a decommissioned mental hospital, plus, you also get the feeling of a chill running down your spine as you come to realize that just a few decades ago, the rooms you pass through were filled with screaming, enraged, killer maniacs, whose souls may still roam the building, screaming and giggling for all eternity.

Another great advantage is the fact that Asylum paintball is right next to Spookers, so you can spent the day playing paintball and the night being scared witless, and potentially being driven insane as well depending on your mentality, by ghostly figures wandering through the main building! All in all, I think that if this game had gone a bit better, it would have been a blast! I highly recommend it as a great place to go for paintball in New Zealand!

Paintball is something that I have never tried before so I was most keen to give this a try, especially a night time game.

I already knew the ins and outs of the building that we were playing in, due to safety reasons we weren't allowed to play upstairs, and while a bit of a shame, as this would have opened up the playing area more, it was understandable as there was only one marshall and they didn't really want anyone falling down the stairs. One problem that I think there was is that the marshall kept off to one little area and so couldn't ensure that people's lights weren't being turned off and no one was being shot at too close quarters, so he should have been kitted out so he could join in and not get hurt.

The game itself was fun, though the 'bullets' do hurt like hell, even more than the airsoft pellets. There was some lighting around, but viability was tough and so it was an unfair advantage when someone's lights turned off by 'accident'. Whilst the dark did add an extra element to the game, and did make it more exciting, it would have been nice to have a daytime run through first.

I really did enjoy this, despite the small let downs, and I would happily give this another go.

Night-time Paintball events are a new creation and so it goes without saying that they are still working out the teething issues. Taking place inside Ward 16 (the maximum security psych ward of the old Kingseat Mental Hospital) the issues are immediately obvious. A two-storey building, the upstairs area have been labelled out of bounds due to safety concerns of running around in the dark, while understandable, it also limits the arena size significantly, leading to suicide missions occurring in the one room that is most easily accessible to both teams.

The games are limited by the lack of visibility and many members of the teams were caught cheating by turning off the lights on their headgear for "stealth". The lack of visibility also makes it incredibly difficult to identify your team mates, with outside lighting appearing similar to headset lights, effectively giving away your position. All of these things are left almost completely uncontrolled as the Marshall doesn't venture much due the high probability of him getting shot.

While it was fun, I found myself getting shot at short range far too often, by people that had turned off their lights, and it lessened the fun for me. Two weeks later, I still have scabs from point blank shots that bruised and bled. It lacked the techniques from the paintball, and some of the shots had me in extreme pain, and eventually caused half of the team to drop out long before the game ended.

This game definitely needs many improvements, one of which being either held at dusk, or having flood lights outside, to provide SOME visibility. Marshalls should be protected better to allow them to patrol areas better, and in turn allow a greater depth of games and missions. In the end, it just turned into an all-out free-for-all, and the games ended long before we ran out of paintballs.

I am not exactly a novice at paintball, but a night game was something I have never played, and was keen to give it a go. In hindsight, I think it needed either more players, or more light.

Playing paintball in daylight has some significant advantages - you can clearly see the trajectory of your shots, and adjust almost instantly to ensure you're hitting the spot you want. You can tell instantly if your loader has jammed, and not waste time firing pure airbursts while you get slapped by paint. Most importantly, your opponents can hide only by dodging into or behind cover, they can't stand 3m away you with their little marker lights off and snipe you with impunity, effectively cheating. Night-play removes all of these advantages.

While for some, that makes the game a huge thrill - you have no idea who is shooting at you or from where, which ramps up your adrenalin, for a small game of less than 10 players, it made it tough to really get into it and enjoy to it's fullest. This was somewhat offset by the venue - which is simply brilliant to play in, day or night, and by the crew who were at all times professional, attentive, impartial and accurate in their information and game-calls.

I suspect day games are, for most people, the best option to explore. Leave the night-games to the die-hards with their milsim outfits and high-end fancy airguns with nightscopes and laser targeting. For some all-out fun, put on a few extra layers of clothing, make sure you remember to pack the "cricket box" lads, and head on down for an afternoon of running around like wannabe BLOP'ers getting splattered with paint. You can hire all the gear you'll need on-site, and if you get bitten hard by the bug, there's a well-stocked gear shop in the lobby too.

Overall, brilliant fun in the right conditions. Personally, I'd love a morning game while it's all foggy - saves on smoke grenades, but would give you a whole "fog of war" vibe too. :)

Ok, let me get this out to start with, Paintball at a Mental Asylum... How can anything beat the sound of that?

Well let me introduce you to NIGHTIME Paintball at a Mental Asylum.

Just the thought of that had me roaring ready to go.

After playing a few games of Airsoft and Laser in the Asylum during the day we knew the location fairly well which I may say is a good thing as by Jove it was dark. If you are unfamiliar with the asylum layout this may be a hard one to do and I would recommend at least organising a walk through or a day game before you attempt this at night time.

After suiting up into bright orange jumpsuits we were given our facemasks, these had small coloured lights on the sides, and when I say small I mean those little finger lights small. Not really bright enough to help you see anything but more designed so that you can see your team colours and the opposing team colours so you know who to shoot at. That is as long as they don't turn off their lights...

With everyone suited up we went out to start the shooting. For obvious safety reasons Upstairs was a no go area, whilst a bit of a shame, the safety aspect does come into it with the only lighting provided by a few portable LED lights scattered around the building, until they get the power on in the Asylum and are able to at least get some stairwell lighting this is the only option.

The objective was to find a small dimly lit ball that was placed in a random position inside the building. Both teams started at different sides of the middle entrance with the objective to get the ball and bring it back. During the day this would be relatively easy but at night this became very hard. With limited visibility and the supplied masks continuously fogging up it was hard enough to see your feet let alone people shooting at you from the other side of the room. The one issue with the night paintball is it is very hard to see the trajectory of your bullets so correcting this can take a few extra shots and with the cost of ammo you may find yourself running out quicker than a day game.

The venue itself is great. Compared to other fields in Auckland the available maps are more limited, but the fact you are playing in a real two story building raises the realism by a lot.

In my opinion there are a couple of ways these night based games could be improved.
1. Using better lighting, either tactical lights attached to mask or gun as used by military/police.
2. Somehow bringing up the ambient lighting in the building with dull lighting in the building.
3. Using glow in the dark paintballs to make it easier to track where you are shooting.

With that being said this was still a lot of fun and I can't wait to head out again for another night game.

Paintball has always been on my list of things to do, so that made the three day event even better.

i wasn't sure what I was in for, but having a chance to look at the Tyre Yard and Asylum before actually getting into any of the games gave me a chance to see what the balls filled with paint actually looked and felt like. It took more pressure than I thought it would to get the paint ball to pop under my foot, so that gave me an idea of what was to come, and after an hour or so of airsoft and the pain that came with that, I really wasn't looking forward to getting shot with paintballs but still keen to give it a try.

My husband and I ended up joining in the game a little later than everyone else as we had gone to visit a friend and then the game got bumped forward by almost half an hour, but that was ok. We got a quick lesson in how to shoot, how to set it in safe mode and put a bag over the muzzle for extra protection, and of course the full face mask. We went out to the asylum, only to go back inside to get overalls on, and in my case a padded vest as well, and then back into the game.

Our objective was to locate a small jar full of little lights and get it back to our base without getting shot. The first game was a bit disorientating and hard to see due to the dark, my glasses fogging up and my hair getting into my eyes. The second game was a little bit better, this time we knew exactly where the lights were and my teammates provided cover fire whilst I grabbed the lights and ran it back to base. The next game was a bit too much for me, I am not good in a situation where I am somewhere that is near pitch black and people are coming after me. I ended up getting shot, which was ok thanks to the vest, but then two fingers got hit and that was excruciating.

I wish I could have tried paintball during the day, night was just too dark, not quite enough light, and the light on your head was a little bit distracting at times when you don't want to be seen. Still, I did enjoy some of it, but I don't think I would do paintball again.

So we got here just in the beginning of March for our mates stag do. I was very sceptical about things that were promised to us after being burned by Delta Force (yes, I had enough stupidity to by the "tickets" and actually go to Delta). Guys at Asylum not only met what they promised but outdone themselves by going extra mile to make sure we enjoyed the special day for our stag. We didn't quite go for the standard package and asked the guys to create something special. Ended up spending good 6-7 hours there.

First of all is uniqueness. Takes easy ten, as there are quite a few field in Auckland, but not a single one gets close to Asylum. When they say that field is located in the mental hospital, they are not joking. We played inside the villa 16, which used to be a place where people go in, and don't really get out. Still gives me chills. Its amazing. most of the things inside still preserved in good condition. Solid timber doors and concrete walls add a lot of creepiness to it.

Location worked perfectly for us as we started with a breakfast at Pukekohe and Asylum is only about 10 minutes away from there, moving to town from there didn't take long either.

Price - Worked out much cheaper than I price up around different fields. At $70 per person we managed to have more than 10 games. Let me say that we are not first time players, so we were SHOOTING, not hiding from each other. That price got us the jerseys, masks and guns and all day air, private bbq area, bbq with gas. Its was absolutely awesome!

Variety - Sure as hell didn't get bored. 2 levels of killing house + outside, cool mad max style truck tyre field. we even got to try the tournament style field (blow up bunkers).

Will be back end of may for another work team building gig. Huge thank you!