Hi all, I am thinking of taking my nephew to play Laser Tag as he has requested in the past. He is a bit sheltered and I’m not sure he really understands how it works (I have never done it either). From my preliminary Google-fu it sounds like an activity for large groups that go together, get divided into teams and blast away.
Are there places where two people can just show up and join an ongoing battle? (specific Chicago recommendations especially appreciated!)
You can just show up. There will be enough other people there to divide into teams and start a game. You might have to wait a little while if it isn’t a busy day. Call the business and find out a good time for two people to show up and get in on a game.
Personally, I would call every place I could find and ask them how they accommodate two person play.
While I can’t recommend a place in Chicago, I would say any laser tag place is open to anyone joining, and I’m sure you and your nephew can be on the same team if you’re worried he will get weirded out by the experience.
The nice thing about laser tag is you are generally only disabled when you get shot for usually around 10 seconds, and the game is more appealing to young kids because getting shot doesn’t hurt (there is generally a sound in the helmet and a vibration to let you know you’re shot, and you get to keep playing. Occasionally some places may have a league event, just like a bowling alley, so I would call ahead to make sure when you want to go all the available spots aren’t taken up by those folks.
That said, I would specifically NOT recommend paintball as a follow up adventure. The reason being that DOES hurt depending on where you get shot, and every paintball park I have ever been to has been miserable for first timers. They inevitably have experts who show up and bring their own equipment that is significantly better and more accurate than the equipment provided to the novices. The experts also know the course and know where to hide. The novices then get divided up along with the experts, and are all killed off within the first minute or two of play, and then you have to wait around for usually an hour for the handful of experts to hunt each other down. Then the process repeats itself. I’m not sure why the paintball places haven’t all figured out that this is killing their business, because most people only go once when they have this experience.
The OP might get more info in The Game Room. Moved from GQ.
samclem, moderator
This is kinda hard to explain, so stick with me.
Wherever you go, try to find out if they have “memberships”. Avoid playing with “members”, because they have all kinds of stupid tricks (that they earn or pay extra for) that basically make them invincible and they will completely ruin the experience for you and nephew.
This happened to me and a kid I took years ago. Some jackass had an “invincible shield” and “extra strong laser”. He took great pleasure in shooting the kid, over and over, just following him around till he was knocked out of the game. You could shoot him, but it had no effect. A real bummer. And a waste of money.
I went old school on the guy, and, um, solved the problem.
Only play if everyone in the arena is on the same playfield, so to speak.
I used to play at Enchanted Castle in Lombard ages ago (literally decades) and played at Cyberspace Lazer Tag in Naperville a couple years ago when my nephew had a party there and the kids needed someone to round out the teams. I don’t think either had in-game membership perks, I was a member at Enchanted Castle and all it meant was cheaper games and they tracked your rankings. That said, my sample size is two places and I don’t doubt Gatopescado’s experience so it doesn’t hurt to ask.
My experience is that they’ll take an adult-child couple and keep them together if you ask and you’ll just be used to fill teams. Depending on the day, this might mean teams of 12-14 each or it might mean the two of you versus two other guys.
The nice thing about Laser Tag is that, unlike paintball (as I understand it), getting hit doesn’t really mean that you’re out. You usually get like five seconds of downtime and you might have to ‘recharge’ at a station to get back into the game. The games are structured by time so, if people paid for a 15 minute round, then you get to play for 15 minutes. That’s nice if you’re new to the game since you don’t just get blasted in the first ten seconds and stand in the corner.
I recommend CMP. They’re a company started by former paintballers who gave up on paintballing due to expense and many of the complaints mentioned in this thread. The laser tag is squad-based and tactical. There is no record of kills because kills are a means to an end, not the end itself like most laser tag. Death just requires you to go back to your spawn point and respawn in. (Except for the occasional last-man standing game, but those are only done as bonus things if there’s still time left in the session, and only if everyone wants to do it.)
And if there are enough participants, they have alternate guns that require different strategies in their use.