I was playing beat the clock by the time I made my way to Owynn’s World of Adventure in Litchfield Park, AZ. I wanted to fit in one more laser tag experience before calling it a day and meeting up with friends for dinner. If I was going to be on time for our dinner gathering, I knew my time was tight. That’s why I especially appreciate that the team at Owynn’s got me into a game right away, playing Delta Strike Genesis for the third time in the last 24 hours.
This is a cute little arena. The theming is fairly simple, with a rocky atmosphere creating the setting of a mountaintop, with images of plains flying nearby.
The concept of bringing players into a higher elevation is augmented by having a raised center platform serve as an upper level, accessible by ramps.
This was the second time in two days that I was particularly aware of what seemed like a significant amount of extra targets in the arena. I found myself echoing my earlier sentiment that if I had gone in alone, I would still have had plenty of elements in this arena to tag. As I was playing a one V1 versus a staff member who does not play very often, I was trying deliberately not to go hard on player to player tags, so I focused more on finding all the smart targets scattered about.
I actually really like when I see lots of bonus targets in an arena. What I would like to see more of is the incorporation of these targets into arena props. However, I enjoyed seeing so many of them throughout this game. This was a lot of fun…and so far I was still right on schedule!
When I was done playing laser tag, I could have simply been on my way, however I noticed that this location also offers Verse Immersive holographic experiences and I was really interested in trying this “out in the wild”. I had sampled Verse during last year‘s IAAPA and, even though I was pressed for time, this seemed worth taking a few extra minutes out of my schedule to try it out.
Verse Immersive is a kind of VR, but unique in that you can see your environment through the headset, so you are not completely removed from having some real world vision. That is one of the things I like most about it. I have real trouble with traditional VR in general because I feel unsettled when my vision is cut off by the headset covering my eyes. This, however, is different. Once I had the Verse Immersive headset on, I could see the interactions in the game as well as the open floorplan of the black box style room where I played my experience right alongside other people having completely different experiences at the same time.
I have yet to try any VR where the experience has been flawless. I won’t pretend that this was a completely smooth encounter, but there are definitely enough positives to make this both enjoyable and unique. It actually worked out well because I had a chance to sample several of the experiences for a few minutes each. I started with “Primal Ranch” where the program began with me training a dinosaur. Well, we all know I’ve been there and done that before! (Any excuse to bring up my little lizard…aka my tiny dinosaur)
The dinosaur images in this one were truly stunning. However. I did encounter a small glitch and rather than starting fresh, I was offered the opportunity to sample a different experience, so I went into “The Unreal Garden”, which I had previously tried at IAAPA.
There are a lot of cool creatures portrayed in this one. I think the poetry and narrative may be especially appealing to younger players. The imagery, however, is once again stunning. I was quite impressed with the visuals. With five minutes before I had before I had to get back on the road I got a quick sample of the Art of the Future.
This one was right up my alley. It did not require anything but exploration and appreciation for the artistic images all throughout. In a way it was a bit like a self guided tour. Seeing how beautifully the images came to life in the headset was worth taking the extra time to experience Verse Immersive in a proper space. Trying something at a trade show is very different from experiencing it in a real world environment and this was worth taking the extra time to experience.
My thanks to the team at Owynn’s for packing so much into my very short visit to this location. Next time I am in Arizona, I would love to stay a bit longer. However, it was time for me to make my way to Phoenix for a very well needed time away to visit with my friends. What a great way to end the tag part of this trip!
Comments or Questions?
Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com
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