This was a very different experience to Strike Laser Tag. I’d say that the biggest difference was how we all felt before we went in to play. Firstly, the place was incredibly quiet, considering it was a weekday during school term.

I was very hungry beforehand and lost my touch pretty quickly after a couple games. Made me consider how immersion can be affected by your state of mind before you go into an experience of any kind. I was keen for the first couple games, then I got pretty weary pretty quickly.

Another big difference was the general structure of the place. The Dark Zone course was enormous compared to Strike, and I think I liked that better. I definitely felt like I was in a video game at Dark Zone, the course reminded me of courses in Call of Duty. Like last time though, I was not very good at the game.

The music choices at Dark Zone were more fun as well. The place didn’t seem to take itself quite as seriously as Strike, save for the very serious video brief set up before we started playing.