“Why play a game when you can live it?” ask the creators of The Void, the world’s first virtual reality theme park slated to open in Utah in summer 2016. Gamers will soon be able to immerse themselves in 4D environments, with all sorts of eye-popping effects layered onto real spaces. Imagine: first-person shooters meet paintball or laser tag – this is the future of gaming.
The flagship Pleasant Grove location will feature sixteen 60-by-60-foot rooms with different themes for different experiences, and they even plan to change these virtual stages every three months so repeat players never get bored.
Want to find out what it feels like to wander around in the jungle during the Jurassic age, or explore a truly terrifying haunted house? Zoom around skyscrapers in a flying car? The Void basically enables you to star in your own action movie, alone or with a group of friends, in a VR experience that far surpasses anything you could do with a headset on your couch.
Each stage not only has custom architecture and sculptures to make it feel more real – you’ll also feel blasts of air and shifts in temperature, take in scents and strap yourself into motion simulators for activities like flying. Individual rooms hold up to 10 gamers at a time who can work as a team or play against each other. The Void has created a virtual reality headset of its own design, called Rapture HMD.
You won’t necessarily have to fly to Utah to experience it, either – they’re planning on opening other locations around the world.
