In the zombie apocalypse, it pays to watch your back. That's the valuable life lesson you'll learn following a session at Zero Latency, a virtual reality gaming arcade in Docklands.
Located in District Docklands, Zero Latency specialises in multi-player, free roam (meaning no pesky wires) VR games, where up to eight players work together to explore alien worlds, investigate strange disturbances on spaceships and – yes, Walking Dead fans – battle hordes of the undead.
The entire experience is a marvel. Through in-game prompts and trickery, players can actually walk upwards of one kilometre back and forth without hitting a wall. When you do stray too close to a wall, your headset display prompts you to step backwards. When you die, you're forced to sit out for 10 seconds while your avatar reloads – just enough time to catch your breath and rethink your prepardness for the end of the world.
Since opening in Melbourne in 2015, Zero Latency has expanded to locations including Brisbane, Tokyo, Madrid, Boston and Las Vegas. The current game line-up includes Outbreak, a 30-minute journey through an apocalyptic urban landscape overrun with undead, and sci-fi shooter Singularity, where players investigate a space station that has mysteriously gone dark. Then there's the puzzle game Engineerium, which boasts gravity-defying physics that will make your knees buckle.
The gameplay is astonishingly immersive, so much so that overwhelmed players have been known to quit mid-game (the staff appear to take this as a compliment). More importantly, the games are legitimately fun, especially when accompanied by a little friendly banter: players communicate through microphones during the game, and each person receives an email with their number of kills, headshots and deaths relative to their teammates afterwards.
Ready to immerse yourself in the world of VR? Head to the website to find out more.