Be afraid. Be very afraid. Zombies have infiltrated Sega’s Joypolis theme park in Tokyo's Odaiba district, and it’s your job to crossover into their virtual world and stop the apocalypse of the undead.
Zero Latency's Zombie Survival experience is the world's most advanced VR game. Totally immersed,... [+]
Sounds a little intense? It should be as this VR experience is a mind-bending look into the future, a future of total immersion. Step through the portal-like door into the Tron-meets-Matrix-like playing arena and you leave the real world behind. Called Zombie Survival, this surreal multiple player experience is the world’s most advanced, free-roaming virtual reality (VR) game ever. And it has just opened in Tokyo.
Developed by Australian start-up, Zero Latency, the game and platform have been updated for the Japanese market, and will be operated by game giant Sega. Playable by up to six gamers at once, Zombie Survival is a specially tweaked version for the format in Joypolis, and is the first rollout to the public. It is also the first permanent installation for Zero Latency VR. What better way for Sega to celebrate its Joypolis theme park’s 20th anniversary than to collaborate with Zero Latency to create this scary, world-beating VR experience.
After a pre-session briefing, players suit up in goggles, headsets, backpacks and then finally you... [+]
In a special long-lead preview, I got to don the PC-laden backpack, customised OSVR goggles (Open-Source Virtual Reality), headset and specially developed multi-tasking weapon and spend 12-minutes as part of the six-man "Alpha Team" roaming a 280 square meter space blasting away at hordes of zombies as they tried to overrun our position. I felt like I was on the set of The Walking Dead TV series, but acting out the battle inside Star Trek’s holodeck. Zombie Survival is uncannily real, frightening, technically brilliant and above all epic fun.
“It’s so real and you feel so comfortable in this virtual world that most people want to stay in there – and not come out,” says Zero Latency director, Scott Vandonkelaar. I’d have to agree because the 12 minutes I spent inside Zombie Survival seemed like the blink of an eye. Time passes quickly as you’re using all of your wits and spatial awareness to avoid and shoot the undead to stay alive.
On the surface, all looks peaceful. But once inside the VR world of Zombie Survival at Sega's... [+]
What impressed me more than the amount of detail or even the level of total immersion in this game was the way players can move seamlessly through this VR world with no delay in data or graphics transfer. “It is matching your physical movement to the virtual experience which is key, so there is no disconnect,” comments company CEO Tim Ruse. Incidentally, that’s exactly what Zero Latency means – no delay.
“And it does all that in real time using WiFi, which was actually also developed in Australia. So you feel no discernible delays when you’re targeting the undead. Zombies' movement, and weapon firing all feel natural,” adds Vandonkelaar. “Up to 64Gbps of data travel through the network, so it’s a vast amount of data. Creating a way for data to be transferred instantly and smoothly was one of our biggest challenges. And one of our best kept secrets.”
Inside Zombie Survival I really felt as though I was overlooking a warehouse and being attacked by... [+]
But according to Anthony Winston of Sega Live Creation, who has been overseeing this cross-cultural project, even Sega’s top brass had a say. “Our president, who played an early prototype, was happy with the overall game but said the zombies moved too slowly and there weren’t enough of them. So we immediately asked the Zero Latency VR team to incorporate this request, and now you have zombies coming at you from everywhere. It is intense, but designed to be fun for beginners while having enough detail for the tactically minded to plan their way to higher scores and more fun.”
Sega's president wanted more zombies in the game. So he got more, faster-moving zombies. Photo by... [+]
As an expat fluent in Japanese, I found Sega’s pre-session player briefing surprisingly well-conceived as the instructor explained game procedure and weapon usage in a language that was as much military regimental as it was theatrical, as if you were the member of a special black ops team going into battle.
While I suit up in my headset and backpack, the military style language continues. By the time I move through the portal door into the surreal chequer-pattern floored play area and receive my weapon, my mind is already in the mood and ready for the moment that they switch on the "goggles", transporting me instantly from the real world to the virtual one.
I fire once to check my weapon. The rifle-cum-shotgun-cum-machine gun allows the user a choice of sniper rifle mode, pump action shotgun mode and two different assault rifle modes, with a "secret" weapon setup Easter egg at the end of the session for when the going gets tough.
Milled from one piece of solid plastic, the multi-tasking weapon offers machine gun mode, sniper... [+]
As a member of a six-man team, I was able to control my side of the building for the first five minutes until I was overrun twice. Ruse tells me that after people have tried the game once or twice, they quickly learn to collaborate. “Gamers soon learn how to watch each other’s back especially when the zombies rush you,” he says.
Vandonkelaar says that the company plans to expand into Europe and the US in the near future and then link players together in real-time across borders. “We will also have a global leader board acknowledging the most accomplished players.”
But Ruse’s most satisfying moment he says was when he saw a mother and daughter enter the arena together. “It was touching to see a mom and daughter playing the game and having a zombie battle bonding moment and then later planning strategy for their next session. That's what it's all about. Having loads of fun, but at the same time, learning how to work together.”
