My team went on our quarterly team outing last week and we had it at the Sandbox VR Hyper Reality VR Escape Rooms which was suggested by Nic.
Sandbox VR combines the latest VR hardware, movie quality real-time motion capture and AAA-quality content experiences to create the best VR experiences on the planet. It’s the perfect event for team building, corporate events, and parties.
We made a reservation for a Friday night at a different timing initially, but then we wanted to move it earlier to 7:45 pm so we could still have dinner afterwards, and when Nic emailed them, they responded very promptly in like 10 minutes. Now that’s what I call great customer service!
We booked our session using their website. It cost us S$37 per person for a group of 5. You could book for up to 6 people per room and choose from one of two experiences: Curse of Davy Jones or Deadwood Mansion. We did not choose the latter because it seemed scary and some of us are easily scared and didn’t want to risk it even though the guys would have preferred to shoot at zombies with bigger guns. Sorry, guys! 😅
So when we got there, we were early, so we had to sign some waivers and then we posed for pictures outside.
Then we were each given a box with gadgets that we had to strap on to our wrists and ankles. Since my skirt was a bit long, they also gave me some binder clips to clip some of it away, to make sure that it didn’t interfere with my ankle gizmos. So there’s the first tip – don’t wear long skirts. Maybe don’t wear skirts at all, actually.
Afterwards, we walked into a green room where they put on the rest of our gear for us – vests, backpacks, virtual reality headpieces, headphones with mic, guns, and a torch for our leader.
Our backpacks reminded me of ghostbusters. 😄
The purpose of the vest is to make you feel any hits that you get in the game. But don’t worry – it’s not painful, just some vibrations that feel a bit ticklish. So feel free to shoot your own teammates if you secretly want to get back at your boss in real life. (Just kidding. 😬)
At the beginning we had to pick weapons and avatars, and I misunderstood instructions and ended up picking a male avatar. GH picked a female, and it was hilarious seeing him walking around as a sexy woman.
I have to stress the importance of listening. Listen to the instructions – whether it comes from the guys helping you put on your costumes, or the parrot, who is a friend and not an enemy. We spent a lot of time yelling at each other and not listening to the parrot, which I realized was giving us instructions on how to defeat the enemies and escape the rooms.
This was my first VR game experience so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this turned out to be very fun and realistic – so much so that we screamed a lot when the creepy looking enemies jumped out at us.
It was also a bit tiring. After a while, sweat was trickling down my face and my right arm got a bit weary from shooting, so I had to use my left arm. But I’m just not a very active person, so this probably isn’t a problem with fit people.
We managed to “escape” and finish the game before the 30 minute mark. They showed us our scores – the number of bullets used, enemies killed, accuracy rate, etc. I think my accuracy rate was around 30% and I definitely wasn’t the best player, but not the worst either, so yay!
They then took off our gear, and then we walked outside where they showed us four videos and said they could airdrop them to us in exchange for a TripAdvisor review. I spliced the four videos together and you can watch it below:
Some tips for you if you’re planning to go:
- Plan for a total of about an hour for your Sandbox VR experience. This will consist of about 15 minutes of training and setup, about 30 minutes in VR, plus another 15 minutes of debriefing and reviewing video highlights of your experience.
- Don’t wear a skirt or too much makeup because you will sweat and end up with a messy face and besides, your face will be covered with a headset so what even is the point?
- Wear ear plugs if you suspect any of your friends is a screamer.
- If you wear glasses, you will have to remove it to put on the headset, but don’t worry, you will be able to see and enjoy the experience. My teammate GH was fine… I think. But then again he ended up picking a woman as his avatar so I am suddenly unsure.
- Don’t talk so much and pay attention to the instructions at the start, or you’ll end up picking the wrong weapon or avatar. Choose the right avatar. This is your chance to cross dress without really wearing a dress.
- Make sure to calibrate your weapon so you don’t end up with a 13% accuracy score at the end of the game.
- The parrot is your friend. Do not waste your time shooting it. Listen to it instead and follow its instructions.
- The torch can burn the ghost and it’s a one hit KO.
- Stand close to your teammates so you can quickly save or be saved when one of you is killed.
- Always keep your composure and do your best celebrity pose even when being chased by a big fat ghost because this will be caught on camera. It’s okay to die – you can be revived anyway. Posing is more important. (Kids – this only applies in the game, not in real life, okay?)
- It can be a bit tiring, so make sure to make reservations for dinner afterwards. Orchard Central is chock full of good restaurants, so this shouldn’t be an issue. We went to Tanuki Raw – blog post about this to follow!
Sandbox VR Hyper Reality VR Escape Rooms
🏠Orchard Central #05-31 (Nearest MRT: Somerset)
📞9832 5988
💻sandboxvr.com/sg/
⏰Sun to Thur – 11:30 AM to 10:30 PM, Fri to Sat – 11:30 AM to 12:00 AM
I like that there’s a VR equivalent to escape rooms – seems like a new edge to the game! Do you prefer that or the original? x
I like that there’s a VR equivalent to escape rooms – seems like a new edge to the game! Do you prefer that or the original? x