After zooming past my mid-20’s and after bearing, caring for, and chasing several offspring, I tend to gravitate towards activities that make me feel young and active. It provides a good break from a life filled with what seems like endless diapers, dirty dishes and mountains of laundry. My husband and I discovered Lazer Tag amidst a throng of restaurants lined up along McPherson Church Road in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I had played a few games of laser tag during my high school years and vividly remembered how much fun it was.
For those of you who are not familiar with the concept of laser tag. It is an assault-type game where players are divided up into two opposing teams. Each player dons a lighted vest which has a gun attached to it. The vest is dotted with laser sensors mainly on the shoulders, chest and back. Colored flashing lights indicate where you shoot your opponent and each gun takes score depending on how many of your shots connect. Vests deactivate after a few seconds of impact, rendering the “wounded” helpless because their guns shuts off along with the vest. Most laser tag locations are spacious, dark and have walls to hide behind. The main “mission” is to hit as many opponents as you can, deactivate their base and accumulate the maximum amount of points.
We stopped at Lazer Tag one evening to get some information and came back the following weekend dressed in the darkest clothing we could find. Blacklights are usually the source of illumination for the gaming area, so the darker your clothing, the harder it is to spot you. As we entered Lazer Tag, we immediately notice a group of people exiting the mission area sweating profusely and laughing heartily. It was a good sign and numbed our senses to the run-down appearance of the place. Old arcade games dot the main area along with a few coin-operated pool tables. Most of the games were out of order and made the area look uninviting and dingy. A few employees manned the counter and were polite enough, though in a brisk and hurried manner. A 15-20 mission cost $8, while a 3-mission-pack could be purchased for $20. We stuck with trying one mission, still quite skeptical of what was in store for us.
After a short wait, which we spent feeling quite out of place amidst a throng of teenagers waiting for the same mission to start, we were admitted into the briefing room. Here, a game master enumerates the rules and object of the game for the newbies and assigns the group into two teams. My husband and I decided to stick together on the same team. Rules were quite simple. No running. No physical contact. Each team has assigned colors which eliminates any confusion as to which stranger is your opponent. One hand has to be on a sensor located underneath the muzzle of the gun. Extra points are awarded to the brave ones that can make it into the other team’s side and shoot a sensor which deactivates their base.
So there we were, guns in tow and raring to go. My husband, ohn, being in the military, had a deadly gleam in his eye, glaring at his teenage competitors. The doors to the mission area open with a dramatic show of sirens and flashing lights. We were given less than a minute to hide before all our vests activated. Then it was game time. We ducked and dodged and hid behind walls. John snuck and snipered and used every stealth tactic he had learned while I crashed into walls, giggled a lot, crashed into people and giggled some more. It was a blast. Adrenaline rush at it’s best. The fear of getting “shot” seems real at that moment of confusion and chaos while each person’s competitive nature comes into play because of the scoring system of the game. We came out sweaty, out of breath, hearts beating wildly and toes tingling from the hormones rushing through our bodies.
A brief look at the scoring screen reveals how much giggling affects one’s ability to shoot effectively, and how military training really helps in an activity such as this. We had fun. A LOT of fun. I would recommend this place to those looking for an andrenaline boost or even just a plain old good time. They cater to kids 4 and older so it is also a good cure for the couch-obsessed generation of children we have today. It puts them IN the video game rather than being stagnant and tapping away at a controller all day. It’s also a great way to burn calories. Despite the no-running policy, we still duck-walked a good distance and the mission area is big enough to get a good work-out in. Get past the dingy interior, glaring teenagers and you can find, within Lazer Tag, Fayetteville both young and young-at-heart alike can truly enjoy.
