I was able to do something new and quite fun this last weekend! A group and I went and got to experience VR at a new place downtown.
I am not new to VR gaming, as I’ve had an Oculus for some time now and am familiar with the gameplay in a home environment. However, there is a place located in downtown St. Louis called Sandbox VR and this is an experience for a single person or a group, although a group is more fun to share the adventure with. The location is in a new area called The Foundry and offers lots of different things, like a food hall (think food trucks without trucks), some cool bars, and shopping as well.
The premise is a group of up to 6 people can all share in the same game and interact with each other while taking on whatever adventure you would like. There are several games to play, one is a Squid Games experience, there are 2 different zombie shooters, a fantasy game with swords and magic, and so on.
We signed up for one of the zombie shooter games.
The place advises booking online to reserve a time because they do book up most available time slots and walk-ins can happen but doesn’t look like chances are that great in actually getting in unless you are lucky. We arrived at our set time and were greeted by a host, who confirmed our appointment times and we had to fill out the normal information like names and emails. You get a video of your experience afterward, that is why the email is needed.
So we geared up with the sensors on our legs and arms first, and then we entered our play arena it was a large open room with fans on one wall and plenty of room to move around in. The host brought us our vests, placed the VR goggles and headsets on each of us, and ensured they fit correctly after we all were equipped and ready to go they loaded the training session. This reminded me of The Matrix when Neo first was rescued and Morpheus introduced him to what the Matrix was, it was just a large white room and you could see the other players there with you in their new bodies.
Now the fun begins when we are handed our pre-selected weapons and the game environment is loaded. I am not going to tell the entire tale here, but it was fully immersive as you would expect, with the fans blowing cold air on us when the door in the game was blasted open and snow along with cold air blowing into the room. We blasted zombies from all directions, above and below. We stomped and shot rats, killed bosses, dodged lasers that would kill you, and so on for about 30-40 minutes. We worked up a bit of a sweat, to say the least, but all in all, it was very fun.
If anyone has a Sandbox VR in their locations and is looking for a fun time, I recommend giving it a try.
