Virtual Reality in Cardiff

[Philip Edwards]

As part of my Milestone Birthday celebrations, my son kindly booked us a session at a virtual reality centre. It was something that I’d always wanted to try so that’s another item ticked off my bucket list. The centre was at the Eastern Leisure Centre although I believe that they also have a centre in Llanishen Leisure Centre. Not knowing what to expect upon arrival, we were guided towards a small, unassuming doorway. We knocked and were taken into a squash court, although all evidence of it once being a squash court had been removed.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, virtual reality lets you experience a whole new world in quite a different way. You have a headset placed over your head. Your eyes can only see what the headset eyepieces display to you so your eyes lose all contact with the real world. Instead, you can interact with a virtual world.

Initially we found ourselves in a basketball court. Using the handsets, we were able to pick up a basketball and throw it into a hoop….but this was just a start.

There were a number of games that we could choose from. We could have been chefs in a pizza restaurant. We could have had a go at killing zombies. We chose a sort of story adventure.

We found ourselves on a lunar space station. We had to follow graphic and audio clues to solve a mystery in order to save all of mankind. This involved wandering around the virtual space station, entering codes on keypads, ducking through doorways, going up and down lifts etc. In one section, we took a lift downwards looking over a lunar landscape. It was most convincing. To be honest, I wanted to stay a little longer there. In another section, we had to walk over a scaffolding plank placed over a forty foot drop. I honestly couldn’t do it. It was just so real. Thankfully, just beside the plank, there was a button marked, “This button is for the faint hearted”. I pressed it and thankfully a door opened revealing an alternative route.

Eventually, after a virtual game of Whack-a-Mole our half hour was up. In all honesty….half an hour is about right. It wasn’t exhausting physically but mentally; I was done in.

The whole experience had been a bit like one of those escape room experiences.

I wish they had a virtual reality game where you could sit at a restaurant table beside the ocean sipping wine but strangely, they hadn’t thought of that.

Prices start at £10 for half an hour. It is possible to book for a group of people.

https://www.active-reality.com/active-reality-cardiff

 

[Philip Edwards]

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