Zero Latency’s Sol Raiders Title Is A Fun Location Based Virtual Reality PVP Game

Written by Brandon Hofer on February 17, 2019

News: Zero Latency is doing some pretty cool things with virtual reality gaming and this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Zero Latency has a number of virtual reality games that you can play at ZL Arenas worldwide. We were recently invited to check out their newest title at their MGM Grand location in Las Vegas. There are a total of six games but we were invited to primarily check out the latest release, Sol Raiders.

In Sol Raiders, Earth is gone and the last survivors are now traveling the universe searching for new worlds. Aliens have left behind a power source unlike any other, Sol. If you get this then you are good to go, however, everyone wants to get it so it definitely won’t be an easy feat to acquire Sol. It isn’t a super deep story but it is enough to allow you to jump in and have some fun with your friends as you try to accomplish your goal and eliminate the enemy.

”Sol

There are three unique worlds to explore in Sol Raiders. There is the Turbine Station, Dark Wreck, and Mining Canyon. There are two teams battling it out on these maps and you will need to work together if you hope to have any success. You will have to shoot objects to fulfill an objective, walk onto a walkway so it can take you to another side of the map and, of course, shoot your enemy. You are of course doing all of this in virtual reality.

The way this all works is you walk into the lobby of the “arena” that they have. The gamemaster takes you through the mission briefing and then helps you gear up. You’ll put on something that looks like a backpack but is really the unit housing the virtual reality unit you are using. Once that is secure you’ll put the virtual reality headset on and adjust it to make sure it comfortably fits. Once that is done you’ll put on headphones to make sure they fit properly so that you are fully immersed in the world that you are about to enter. Once everything is good you’ll need to take your headset off briefly so you can safely walk into the arena. The arena in this instance is basically a giant, dark room. It is almost like an empty warehouse. There is nothing in this arena except you and the people running the game. So with that being the case, you don’t have to worry about running into anything in the arena itself except, of course, the other players. The software does a pretty great job though of telling you when another player is in close proximity to you so that you don’t run into each other. For safety purposes, they don’t want anyone running or jumping in the arena. That way, if you do happen to bump into someone else no one gets hurt.

As soon as you get in the arena and you put your headset back on you immediately become fully immersed in the world. You need to kneel down to pick up the gun you will be using and then it is time to embark on the mission. You will want to pay attention to your surroundings in this virtual world and try to act like it is the real world as much as possible. For example, even though you are in an empty arena, you do enter buildings in this virtual world and there are walls and places you can’t go. If you try to walk through a virtual wall you will be penalized for doing so, up to and potentially including your character getting killed. If that happens you will need to walk back to the spawn point so your character can enter the game once again. You will also come across instances where your mind is telling you one thing and your body is telling you another thing. For example, you know that you are safe and playing in this empty arena. However, in the game, you might need to walk across a narrow ledge above a canyon. Now as you walk forward in this empty arena you are fine but being so fully immersed in the world it almost like you actually are high up above a canyon, trying to get across. In the case of Sol Raiders, there was an instance where after I would respawn I would have to immediately get on a moving platform so it could take me to where the action was taking place. It is a pretty cool feeling to engage with the world in these ways and going through the whole experience can be some decent exercise as well. Once the experience is over and you take the headset off you might find that you completely walked from one side of the arena to the other as you were trying to accomplish your objectives in the game.

While going through each game everything seemed to function well. I didn’t notice a whole lot of lag from when I pushed the physical trigger on the gun I was holding to when my character in the game shot his weapon. There is a button on the gun you can push to change your weapon in game along with another button to push if you want to reload before your clip runs out. Additionally, if you are using a shotgun in one of the games, you will need to pump the shotgun before every shot like you would do in real life. When I would turn in the arena my character would immediately turn right and if I needed to act quickly like shoot an enemy out of the sky it seemed like it was able to keep up with me.

”Sol

Before you begin this experience you need to register first. When you do that you give them your email address and some other information. What that allows them to do is send you the results of the game(s) once you are finished. For example, the last game that we played that day I finished in first place. I was able to get 160 headshots on the enemy, 212 overall zombie kills and I didn’t die once in that round. That was by far my best game as earlier in the day when I was getting used to how everything work I definitely placed in the bottom half of the leaderboard. Not only do they email you your results, but you also see how your team performed overall and what everyone else did.

If you are interested in virtual reality I highly recommend you go to one of these arenas and experience it for yourself. You will need to book an appointment ahead of time though. You can do that on the Zero Latency website. First, you pick the game you want to play and then give them the appropriate details such as your name, how many players there will be, and when you want to play. Once you have all of that set up you will want to make sure and arrive approximately 30 minutes before your scheduled slot so they can set your game up, get you registered, you can pay for the session and anything else that might need to get done to try and make sure you have a great experience. It should be noted that there is an age limit here as well. If you want to play during the day you need to be at least 13 years old. After 9 p.m. though it is adults only and you have to be 21 or older. Additionally, if you wear glasses they recommend wearing contacts if possible because you will not be able to wear your glasses with the virtual reality headset. Also, for those wondering about cost, it costs $25 per player, per session.

There are 24 Zero Latency arenas worldwide. Obviously the setup in each location might vary. My experience was at the Zero Latency arena at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. There are arenas in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, and the United States. To check out the specific location in each of those countries, click here. If you are interested in experiencing virtual reality and you live by one of these arenas, I definitely recommend checking it out.