I drove about an hour north into Newport News to pay a visit to Tagtime Tactical Laser Tag and join in the next hour-long session using their Adventure Sports HQ gear.
Upon my arrival I met the owner, Brad, who told me they do a lot of outdoor mobile business and had intended to build an outdoor arena when the opportunity presented to build this 10,000 square foot urban battlefield to add more entertainment options within the plaza where they are located. Laser tag sessions start on the hour and several game formats are played within each session. I got a look around the space between games. There are several “rooms” constructed including a home base on opposite ends of the arena for respawning.
Themed obstacles including barrels and vehicles are strategically placed throughout the space and there are two sniper towers in opposing corners.
There were a few bright glowing elements accenting the field as well.
But the games are so immersive that these elements become secondary to the objectives.
As the session got underway with about forty players we were randomly divided into teams by being asked to select a headband from the “bag of destiny” where you would pick either a red or blue headband to determine your team. I liked this method for breaking up the groups and it seemed to result in a pretty balanced separation of players. I was on the red Alpha team.
The next stop was the armory to get out taggers and velcro head sensors.
I picked the one called “Radio” since it seemed appropriate for me… :)
Our first game was Domination. I think at this point I have played Domination on almost every major system. I enjoyed this game. The goal was to press the button for your team’s color on each of these Domination boxes and maintain control of the color for as long as possible.
My team held it down well and we won this round quite easily.
The next game was “Protect the Commander” where a random player had to be kept “alive” and untagged for the entire game. Once again, my team did well and won the round. Next was Team Deathmatch where each player has one life and once you are tagged you are out, so it’s really about who has the most players left on the field in the end. I stayed in the game for the majority of the time, but ultimately I did get tagged out. The blue team won this round. After that we played Search and Destroy where one team presses down two buttons to activate a two minute countdown during which the other team has to find and disarm the box with a code. This format seemed a little unbalanced to me as it appears one team has a natural advantage. I’m not just saying that because my team failed to disarm the box in two minutes time…but that’s how it went and the blue team won again. At two wins per team this final game format would be the tiebreaker.
Our last game was called “Smoke ‘em” and the objective was simple…the team with the most tags wins. This is how I enjoy tactical tag the most. Personally, I am far less interested in strategy games and just love to tag. I think the rest of my team felt the same way because we did in fact “smoke ‘em” with 153 to 117 tags. This hour just flew by!
I took home a couple of souvenir t-shirts. If I had more time I might have tried my hand at the other attraction they offer…axe throwing (have I mentioned I’m a former Lumberjack Princess? I think I could have done some damage there!), but I had to continue on my way back towards Richmond. However, if I find myself back in Newport News again Tagtime Tactical Laser Tag is definitely a site I would love to play again!
Comments or Questions?
Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com
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