The holiday break is here and its a perfect time to get together with your best girlies and gays and have some fun. The question is, what should you do? You’be been to brunch a hundred times, it’s time to try something new, maybe something a little more... interactive?
Escape rooms are still a thing — and they’re a lot of fun — but sometimes it's fun to mix things up when it comes to group activities. The're's also indoor axe-throwing, but even that can get dull (wink!) after the first few times. Then what are friends without any fabulous holiday plans supposed to do for fun when it’s freezing out and the same old indoor activities sound, well, same and old? Sitting around playing video games together online or IRL is one choice, but PRIDE has experienced the literal next level. It’s called Sandbox VR and not even Avatar 2 with its fancypants 3D will wow you more.
If you own or have tried out the Meta Quest or similar VR headsets that aren’t tethered to a computer, then you have a basic sense of what’s possible with “room-scale” virtual reality. Sandbox VR takes things from there and to a level most people wouldn’t be able to pull off at home. Its tech, which is designed with accessibility in mind, consists of a wireless VR headset, a haptic force feedback vest, and velcro straps for your ankles and wrists that have rods coming off them, atop which are small, colored balls. Those colors correspond to your player in-game and the bands are key to how immersive the experience feels because they mean your arm and leg movements can be translated more precisely into the game.
Courtesy of Sandbox VR
So, what’s it actually like once you get past the suiting up? You’re in a video game. Well, it’s a room, but gradually your “real world” helpers start bringing in the zombie-fighting weapons you picked in the pre-game briefing. They look like they’re floating — and then they shoot you. It registers on the haptic vest, like being hit with a thrown golf ball. (This is the Sandbox VR team’s favorite part of each session, they told PRIDE.) Plus, these implements of shooting and sawing produce tangible feedback when used that only adds to the overall effect. Finally, you’re encouraged to help one another; if a player is killed, another has to place a hand on their shoulder to revive them
One moment we’re in a nondescript room blasting our friends and laughing about the sensation, the next we’re on a decimated small town main street, being told we need to protect a scientist with a cure to a zombie plague at all costs. What that means is that, for the next half hour or so, we were beset upon by waves of undead (including zombie dogs) — and if you think they’re startling in movies, you haven’t seen (and felt) anything until they’re mobbing you in VR. Not just any VR, because while we were effectively in a high-tech shooting gallery, the production values, scale, and sheer immersiveness are on a level you could never realistically achieve at home.
Not to give too much away, but let’s just say things went from bad to worse until our team was face-to-face with an epic end boss. Defeating it together as a team really gets to the core of the experience, which is about being transported somewhere fantastical and working as a team. This is a game, of course, so everyone gets scored on their performance to determine an MVP. But before that, there’s a VR dance party where (dressed as your game character) you’re encouraged to show off your most sickening moves. Those, along with highlights from your game session, are turned into a video you get to keep.
So, if you’re near one of its locations, and you have a group of people who are ready to commit to becoming video game characters — with all the thrills that entails — Sandbox VR really is can’t-miss. Although you might miss a few zombies, and that’s OK.
Prices range between $49.99 and $54.99 per person Monday to Sunday.
Approximately 45 minutes.
