Welcome to Virtualities in Salt Lake City, Utah
Being home during quarantine has got me thinking, what was my favorite thing we have done as Utah Family Fun Stuff? Then, I remembered Virtualities, a virtual reality center in Salt Lake City. If you aren’t familiar with Virtualities, it’s a place where they put a virtual reality headset on you, and for 15, 30, or 60 minutes, you can be immersed in VR (virtual reality).
SADLY, VIRTUALITIES ANNOUNCED MAY 2020 THAT THE SLC LOCATION IS NOW CLOSED. THE PANDEMIC/QUARANTINE HAS HIT MANY OF OUR LOCAL BUSINESSES HARD. WE WISH THEM ALL THE BEST AND HOPE THEY CAN REOPEN IN THE FUTURE.
Favorite Virtual Reality Games
One of my favorite games you could play was an alien shooter game, named Space Pirate. You get to blast aliens from all around you. It triggers all of your senses, so you become fully aware of your sentences. My other family members played this game, and they equally enjoyed this game as well. It was actually my dad’s favorite overall! It’s definitely a must-play if you go there.
Another game that I loved to play was Job Simulator (it sounds boring, but it’s not). You get to play in various careers, from being a chef to being a gas station worker. What makes this game unique is that you can mess around while on the job. Heck, you could not do your job, to begin with, your virtual boss won’t care. I had fun with this game as it meant that I could do anything as I wanted to without repercussions.
Finally, the other game I enjoyed playing was Arizona Sunshine. This game puts you into the center of a zombie apocalypse. You kill the zombies to increase your chance of getting a better gun, like a shotgun, or a fully automatic gun. It’s as close to being in a zombie apocalypse as you will get. It also triggers your awareness, as you don’t want to turn your back on a zombie. If you are easily scared of zombies, I would not recommend this game for you.
Picture of me in the VR headset
Pricing at Virtualities
Next, we should talk about pricing. The one set our family did was called HTC Vive. We did the hour-long experience, which will cost $35 a person. It’s definitely expensive for some, but it was worth it for our family. But, let’s say that you don’t want to do an hour. With the HTC Vive, you can do $20 per person for 30 mins, or $12 per person for 15 mins. They also have other options, like the Omni Treadmill, which allows you to run physically. If you would like to check out prices for yourself, you can click here.
Picture of the space that you will be in.
Tips for Visiting Virtualities
Some tips to know before you go is that you should schedule ahead of time before you go there. You will have a wait if you decide to walk in without scheduling ahead of time. You will also have a screen close to your eyes for a period of time. It might make some dizzy, so you could take it off and have a break for a second if you so desire. Another thing to know is that you will be stepping near wires, and I mean a lot of wires. Be careful where you step, as, during my session, I almost took the headset off of my head when I stepped on a wire. We recommend that if you are planning on going, you should bring kids 8 and up. This place is mainly for teens, but if you know that your kid will do fine with a headset on there head, then they will do fine.
Little brother in a video game.
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Morgan Smith loves playing video games, hanging out with his family (especially his dog), and much more. He helped start Utah Family Fun Stuff with his mom in January 2018.
