-Clay Wright
You don't hang out at WantecVR on a busy night without hearing screaming and laughing echoing over the hums and whines of the racing simulators. At the source is a group of 2-6 people having their minds blown by one of our virtual reality experiences. While virtual reality has become more popular with Oculus headsets being bought by more and more people, there is no experience like ours.
Using exclusive technology in a 40x40-foot stadium, Wantec's virtual reality creates an experience worth remembering. I had the privilege of trying our VR with the staff as a customer shortly before being hired. I hadn’t done any virtual reality before, so I had no expectations, but I was blown away when I was thrown into an open galaxy as soon as the headset slipped on. I could look up and around and see a galaxy full of stars. I was dumbfounded at what I later learned was the loading screen. We loaded into our most popular VR game, CityZ 1, a first-person zombie shooter. The game's objective is to ascend a decimated skyscraper amidst a long-raging zombie apocalypse. I am not ashamed to admit I screamed at a higher pitch than I thought I could register when I first got jumped by a zombie that felt like it was an inch away from my face. After the first round, any “Left 4 Dead” or “Call of Duty” instincts I had kicked in, and I was catching myself from physically punching zombies. Fighting zombie clowns has nothing on the level where you have to walk on a steel beam between one building and another over at least a twelve-story drop. I and many others will and have asked, “What happens if you fall?”, the answer is always, “It's all real. If you die in the game, you die in real life,” or some similar kind words.
Finally, you make it to the roof of the skyscraper, where everything comes together in one tremendous moment when you get to shoot a chair off the building. You thought I would say the giant boss battle against a hulking flesh horror, wrong. There is a chair on a ledge on the final level, and with the game’s physics, you can shotgun blast it flying into the orange skyline while your friends actually play the objective. Whenever I replay the first CityZ, I shoot the chair because it reminds me of my first time playing. Everyone at WantecVR has their first VR story, and hopefully, I can turn those into some interviews in the future. In the meantime, whether you’re new to WantecVR or even one of our regulars, I urge you to try one of our VR games. Get a group together or just try it alone, but you owe it to yourself to try it.
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