Helios 3 - Playing It First

This weekend I traveled to Ultrazone Loudoun in Sterling, VA to be among the very first laser tag players in the country to get to play Zone’s new Helios 3 in the very first arena to have it installed in the United States. I absolutely love to experience new laser tag first! This new system was just installed at this site earlier this week, so when I arrived to play on Friday night I was excited to be part of some of the first games ever to be played on Helios 3 “out in the wild”. :)

When I entered the center and approached the front desk it was delightful to be greeted by some familiar faces. Eleni and Sergio, who I last saw at IAAPA demonstrating the new equipment, were both there. Even Simon Willetts, President of Zone USA and owner of Ultrazone Loudoun, was there for the start of the first weekend of gameplay with Helios 3.

I immediately got to join a game and see how it felt to play using the new packs.

I was placed on the green team and the game master used one of the RFID control cards to change the color of my vest to match my team. That worked seamlessly and got things moving quickly.

For the first game of the night there were some younger players participating and I really loved seeing their reactions to the new gear. One enthusiastically shouted “These are some DRIPPING vests!” (Kid quote) OK, I’m probably showing my age to say that this was the first time I had ever heard the word “dripping” used as slang, but this kid was clearly impressed! And yeah, I looked it up…urban dictionary meaning is “when something is really cool or has much swag to it”. Lol, ok…these vests are “dripping!”

I was “adopted” by two boys who were prepared to show me the ropes…and I let them. :) They called me over for a team huddle and told me our strategy would be to “go for the base first because those are 2000 points.” I smiled and told them I would.

These are not the new triangular bases, but I know more bells and whistles are coming soon.

Then mid-game that same kid called me over to show me some stats on the new phaser touchscreen. He told me we were winning and then showed me, saying “here’s how you can tell.”

And he scrolled through to show me how you could see other stats as well.

What I found interesting about this is that nobody told him about the touchscreen or the info he could now access. He figured it out on his own very quickly. He told me he had played here two weeks ago and all the vests were different and that he thought all these upgrades were really cool. Can’t get a more honest perspective than that. I told him I agreed.

As the night went on the player demographic changed and an older crowd started to take shape. First, a group of teen girls asked me to join their team. These are my new besties!

And gradually the games filled up with an adult player base, which made for some really fun competition!

We traversed the top and bottom of the two-story arena. Although I had played at this location many years ago, this experience was really like playing it with new eyes.

As the fog rolled in we captured some “laser magic” with a bit of pink vs green team aesthetic. Yes, I am a big fan of Wicked and I think any arena with the capability to change team colors should coordinate with the pop culture moments like this when they come around, so I enjoyed working this color combo with Eleni.

In the fog you can really see the beams nicely!

Simply from an in-game player standpoint, if you have enjoyed Helios 2 then Helios 3 will feel very similar with some subtle improvements like the touchscreen on the phaser or the black-light reactive pattern on the vest fabric. There are also magnetic clasps now on the front of the vest. Many of the system upgrades are more behind-the-scenes, operator-focused improvements like the number of game options, backboard charging and the RFID control cards.

However, this site made a much bigger jump between generations from their previous gear to this new equipment, so the reactions of players who had compared it to Helios CE was significant. I had a great time (as I fully expected I would), but clearly everyone else did as well and there were a fair amount of comments I overheard from players who were impressed with the upgrade. This is worth noting because so often the general public tends to think “laser tag is laser tag”, so it was heartening to see them connecting the dots about this change on their own. Lots of times when I play somewhere I just listen, and on this night the players certainly had a lot of nice things to say about their games.

Midway through the night Simon gave me a tour of the rest of the facility. Let me just say, after visiting several of his locations, one common denominator is that the artwork on the walls is always amazing! I’ve taken note of this in the past when I wrote about the mural artwork at the Ultrazone locations at both Bailey’s Crossroads and Myrtle Beach as well, and if I were looking to have a party I would love to celebrate in one of these themed rooms!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Ultrazone Loudoun. This trip was incredibly worthwhile, however in some ways it was also a bit surreal. You see, to make this possible I had to board a flight both to and from Washington, D.C. less than 48 hours after the fatal crash that occurred on Wednesday evening. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of everyone involved in that incident. I have no words and my heart hurts for the entire situation. However, I will say that I continue to have full confidence in the airline industry, including the particular airline whose plane was involved (yes, I flew to DCA on that same airline) and I continue to believe in air travel as well as in the professionals who work to keep us safe while flying. At the start of the flight to D.C. our captain briefly acknowledged the situation by commenting “Thank you for trusting us”, which was met by applause from the passengers. It was a moment of recognition that we all made a decision to move forward in what I truly believe is “flying by faith”. I am writing this while sitting in the DCA airport waiting to board a flight home. Again, my heart goes out to everyone affected by the incident and I thank those who work so hard to keep us safe while we travel by flight. This is what has allowed me to enjoy so many wonderful experiences including this weekend’s opportunity to be one of the first players to enjoy playing Zone’s Helios 3.