Fully immersive and cooperative VR experience franchise blows reality out of the water. Find one of their storefronts and make reservations at Sandbox VR today!
Now, I haven't exactly intended to segue so much into virtual reality recently... But truth is that I've gotten a lot of contacts from friends and others excited about the current state and the promise of VR in the future. In light of that, I believe, it is prudent to make a few more posts regarding this amazing new technology and my experiences.
By now VR isn't something that is so extremely new that most haven't tried it. Kids of all ages partake in the fun that is experiencing play in a virtual environment. Also not surprising, is that some of the most fun aspects of those experiences include enjoying VR with your friends and family. Of which, I certainly agree, and have had family VR parties with games like "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes" or "Cooking Simulator VR."
What will surprise you, however, is the fully immersive and holistic VR experience brought to you by Sandbox VR. The equipment and facilities, along with the staff made a recent trip an unbelievable adventure!
The concept of a VR party comes full circle at Sandbox VR, with the event tailored towards group play in a virtual environment. And while most conventional VR experiences are generally attainable from the home on commercial headsets, the level of immersion possible at Sandbox VR is due partially to the professional grade equipment that they utilize. Moreover, the software utilized in the experiences is proprietary and not available to headsets like the Meta Quest Pro I have reviewed previously.
Let me tell you a little bit about it and give you my thoughts on Sandbox VR overall.
First Impressions
Before even entering any building, the experience begins online or over the phone. Sandbox VR has some very cool marketing and videos. A friend and I were able to see each and every one of the experiences, or games if you will, available on their website, https://sandboxvr.com. This definitely assisted us in understanding what the offerings were in our area and which we'd prefer to do.
Each of the experiences available in the locations near you are shown with demo video, time slots, and information describing them. Some of the offerings that I was personally interested in included Deadwood Valley, the Curse of Davey Jones, Amber Sky 88, and Star Trek: Discovery, but there are many available and they vary by location! That aspect makes me kind of excited to try new Sandbox VR locations while I travel.
Once we arrived for our reserved timeslot and party, we were greeted by polite and professional staff who ran us through a pretty clear process for check in and suit-up. The gear, strapped on and adjusted, felt very ergonomic. In all the equipment included extremity motion sensors, haptic vest, packs, goggles, and weapons!
The play areas are segmented open air rooms that can fit all of your team mates (up to 6 with most experiences). These play areas are bordered within the virtual displays so that you will see a big red wall to avoid, instead of running into it blindly. Also, when you're in the experience, you can see all of your team mates in near real-time. This will be helpful to avoid collisions and assist each other during the game!
The Experience
Intense and riveting would both be understatements for how unbelievable our chosen experience, Deadwood Valley, was. It kept my blood pumping the entire time! There were moments that I could definitely feel my pulse hit the ceiling and sweat was pouring down my brow.
The story line was pretty straight forward and easy to jump in to. You're special forces soldier here to save some VIPs that could help cure an infection that is making just about everyone a mindless zombie killing machine. The plot also thickens and adds a few memorable characters that you encounter throughout the explosive ride.
Working as a team, you will fight off hordes of these infected zombies as you progress through memorable locations, sometimes in vehicles, to achieve your objectives. They integrate multiplayer actions such as revives and even supporting each other with melee and ranged weapons.
Each feature of the VR experience has a lot of depth built into it, but all of it is introduced at a pace that isn't too much to handle. The enemies range from mindless human zombies, to aggressive infected, devil hounds, and even massive terrifying bosses. These call from the player different actions and strategies to combat the threats that come at you non-stop.
The weapons each maintain a different statistics and function that build upon the tactical depth of fighting the hordes. During our play-through, there were moments I realized it would benefit my team more if I ran back and forth mowing down the zombies that had surrounded us with the buzzsaw, instead of trying to pop long range head shots with my handgun. My partner definitely used his assault rifle to good effect, showing off his skills as a true gunfighter!
After what seemed to be a good length shoot-em-up, you get brought together with your team for some pretty enjoyable and light hearted post-game activities which are pretty awesome in their own rights, even though there is no zombie shooting occurring. My VR dancing skills were recorded for a very good laugh!
The End?
Even after your done shooting the experience is commemorated in some video products that can immediately be shared or saved at no extra cost. The staff walk you through the play areas to a back room where the videos are displayed for you to watch, along with scores and highlight reels.
This aspect of the event is probably the most value added part. Most places you visit definitely charge you way extra for some physical memento of your experience. Sandbox VR immediately makes an electronic memento available free of charge and able to be shard via various methods directly from their website. For those who want to show others exactly how awesome it was combating zombie hordes, you can do it with an easy tap as you walk out the door.
As you leave building you will definitely feel way happier for experiencing such a fun, thrilling ride with friends and family.
All images and videos courtesy of Sandbox VR.
Please leave a comment, and/or share your experiences with Sandbox VR as well!
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