Sandbox VR Offers Escape from Norm with Immersive Virtual Reality Studios

The following is sponsored content by Sandbox VR.

Have you ever wondered if you’d survive a zombie apocalypse? Or what it would feel like to harness telekinetic powers in the Upside Down?

At Sandbox VR, those cinematic, larger-than-life moments become something you don’t just watch. You can experience them firsthand.

“Nothing takes your mind off of your worries like trying to survive zombies,” says Robby Harrington, lead product marketing manager for Sandbox VR.

With locations in Dallas and Fort Worth, Sandbox VR offers an escape from the norm with immersive virtual reality studios. Whether you want to walk with dinosaurs, blow off some steam fighting zombies, or journey into the Upside Down (from Stranger Things) and test your telekinetic superpowers, Sandbox has you covered.

Fair warning: These simulations are incredibly realistic.

“We have fans in all of our experiences, so when you move — or, let’s say, when an elevator drops — you can actually feel the wind as if you’re experiencing it,” Harrington explains.

Unlike some VR options, Sandbox focuses on group experiences. Here you can participate in a simulation with groups of up to six people. In the simulation, players are able to see each other in real space and time, and groups must work together to achieve a common goal in each experience.

“A lot of times when you’re experiencing VR, it’s a very solo endeavor,” Harrington notes. But at Sandbox, “it really feels like you’re entering a new world when you’re in VR and you’re with other people.”

When we visited, we opted to fight zombies in one of Sandbox’s newest experiences: Deadwood Phobia. The game’s mission is to find and rescue three members of an elite military team who have been captured by zombies. The goal is to rescue the team members without killing them or becoming infected. It’s a lot harder than you would think.

Players are transported through a series of locations during their mission to find and rescue the lost teammates, and each phase is phobia-inspired.

The game starts out strong, with hordes of zombies rushing players from dark hallways. The particularly scary ones in this phase crawl on all fours like slimy, flesh-hungry spiders. One of the phobias represented is claustrophobia, where intestine-like walls pulse with zombie arms. The perceived walls close in, and players are confined in a tight space in order to avoid being infected.

A phobia represented in another phase is coulrophobia, or fear of clowns. Zombies bedecked in clown costumes and laughing hysterically swarm the team while a monstrous zombie lumbers around, carrying one of the people in need of rescuing on its back.

The experience was both exhilarating and terrifying.

Sandbox has a few iterations of Deadwood. Deadwood Valley transports players across different destinations, such as isolated country roads, zombie-infested cities and dark valleys. In Deadwood Mansion, players step into a spooky mansion overrun by a zombie horde.

If surviving a zombie apocalypse isn’t your preferred way to unwind and leave reality behind, there are several other options.

In partnership with Netflix, Sandbox offers a Stranger Things experience, where players are confined to Hawkins Lab as one of Dr. Brenner’s test subjects. While this simulation has no zombies, it does include monsters from the show. After learning how to hone your telekinetic powers, you’ll face off against Demobats, Demodogs and Demogorgons.

For a more peaceful, family-friendly experience, players can step into the Age of Dinosaurs experience and walk alongside long-extinct creatures. Sandbox VR partnered with the Natural History Museum of London to create an experience as realistic as possible, transporting players back 150 million years. In this simulation, you can feed dinosaurs, rescue eggs and search for any clues that may save the future of life on Earth. More than just a casual stroll through the past, it’s a mission to save the planet.

Sandbox VR is a great way to escape the repetition of day-to-day life and try something new. Tickets start at $39 per person, so be sure to snag yours today.