Laser Combat product reviews

Loading up with a dongle on your head and a full size full weight weapon in your hands we are taken through the rat race and out onto the field where you then proceed to hear the bullets flying but nothing hits you. This is not the laser strike where you have a big piece of armour on your chest using $20 guns. These guns are worth a lot and they sure feel it. Well made, perfectly weighted and the feel that you are holding a real gun. You had two choices for weapons, a standard semi automatic rifle or the heavier bulkier heavy weapon designed to clear the entire room. Naturally I chose the latter option.

Before setting out 'Magik' runs us through an excellent tutorial of how to clear a building without getting your head shot off your shoulders. These tips are an excellent piece of advise that all of Call of Duty players should really listen to. Running round a corner will get your head blown to pieces in real life so Magik showed us how to get into a room the correct way. These sort of tips coming from a perosn heavily involved in the armed forces were invaluable and set us up for the entire day to be able to go toe to toe with regular players later in the day.

These laser weapons have a great feature where it can be set up that you have either one hit kills or 3 hit kills. Great for novices to start learning, especially in the more spaced out tyre field where it was easier to snipe. In the closed quarters option of the asylum the 3 hit kill does get tedious when you come face to face with your opponent.

Because there are no physical bullets you have the advantage of not having to wear a face mask, this has two major benefits. Firstly, no fogging up of goggles to worry about and secondly, you can use the scope on the rifle. With these weapons equipped with a Red dot laser scope your ability to fire accurately is immensely improved and you can easily tell immediately where your shot is going to hit. Of course another advantage of no physical bullets is no extra charges for ammunition. You will never run out of bullets and have to go home early in the day if you're one of those 'Spray and Pray' type people. This means that it is a fix cost system, you know what the whole day is going to cost you.

The other great part about the laser weapons is the fact that they use a digital system. This means you can't have someone say the classic 'No you didn't hit me' because not only does your gun tell you you scored the hit, but their gun will also tell them and if they die, they can no longer shoot until they go back to base and patch up using the medikits. Being digital your gun also gives you all the feedback you expect from Call of Duty or Battlefield. Live KD ratio, Accuracy and Hits registered is a great feature especially for being able to brag to your other team mates at the end of the round, which naturally after winning the rounds, I did :)

The only downside to this form of laser strike could actually be seen as an upside. The piece you wear on your head means to shoot someone you have to have a fairly accurate near head shot. This does teach you to aim for the head rather than the body but can be a little harder for novice players to pick up quickly.

Overall this experience was made by the excellent advise given to us by Magik, if you do get a chance for some extra time before you start playing. Ask Magik to run you through his tips, it may take up a bit of your play time but the information he gives you will help you immensely. Laser Combat is also one of the few options that can be played by all ages as there are no physical parts to hurt anyone with.

Taking place in the outside courtyard that linked Ward 16 (the maximum security psych ward) and the nurses' offices, the atmosphere was great. It was a great arena completely surrounded by metal fencing; many parts adorned with razor wire. It was dilapidated, and with a wide range of obstacles to hide behind, I had high hopes.

I didn't really enjoy this game as much as I had hoped. The guns were rather unwieldy, and the sensors that they were attached to kept moving, which made my targets harder to hit. The barrel was significantly lower than the scope, which meant I often lined up a headshot, only to realise that the barrel was blocked by my cover, and not actually shooting them. We were warned of this beforehand, but I was not expecting it to be so disruptive. Moving to expose the barrel ended up over-exposing myself, and I ended up taking substantially more hits than I gave.

The concept was fun, and the lack of physical pain allowed me to play without the fear of being shot, but I found the weapons to be overall awkward to hold, and the limited areas that registered as hits, to take away from the fun. In the "heat of battle" I often had no idea when I was shot or killed, as all the guns around me sounded the same; this combined with the lack of any physical pain, made the game rather unrealistic, and not as fun as I would have liked.

I have always been a fan of military simulation games, online or physical, and laser tag is one of my favourite, but all the games I've played have been indoors, and in the dark. To first experience this flavour of laser tag was something I will never forget! I first saw this organisation at the 2014 Waikato Show, and I found that it was quite a realistic military experience, and I was quite killer by the time I finished the games at the show, so you could imagine just how anxious I was to keep playing!

At our 3-fer wargames, we had laser tag as the first game, and having a game which allowed a pain-free way of learning basic military tactics, which was helped by having an ex-military tutor helped a lot, and it made the experience far more authentic and enjoyable! The one thing I love about military simulations is that it helps to take out my anger in a way that will not kill or fatally wound anyone, not saying I would, but the reason games like this are so popular is for this reason, it helps people vent anger in a safe environment; the thing I hate the most about these games is the fact that games like Paintball and Airsoft is that it is so painful when you get hit!

Thankfully, this game makes a painless alternative which still produces the same amount of fun! I think that this organisation's wide range of battle scenarios, multiple playing locations, and the fact that they cater for multiple occasions makes it quite unique, in fact, I think that playing outdoors where it's easier to hide makes this version of laser tag my new personal favourite! The location we played at, Kingseat Asylum, was quite fun, right next to Spookers, and the perfect playing field to provide a more advanced level of play! As the price varies depending on the circumstances, I can't make a rating on it, but if I did know what it was, I think that it would be reasonable, I've met the man who runs this organisation, and he is honest and skilled, so I am willing to give this aspect a 10/10!

Overall, I still don't think I've had enough of this game, so I hope that one day I will get to play again, and once you've tried this experience, you might find yourself saying the same thing!

Laser Tag was something that I had never done before, but I have been keen on giving it a go for quite a while, so when the chance for a game came up, thanks to KIWIreviews, I knew it was the perfect opportunity.

Getting to the site, my husband and I, since we were so early, got to have a walk through of the building and tyre gaming areas. An interesting area, set in an old asylum, it was good to have a walk through and pick out some good spots for hiding in, and of course some really bad spots for getting cornered in. We had a man named magic leading us all, giving us some handy tips for how to play. we got split into two teams and our aim was just to 'kill' each other. It was a bit hard at first to put the tips into practice but we did ok.

The guns that we were given are rather heavy, if I remember correctly they are 2 kilogram each, so lugging it around and trying to remember to always keep it up was hard to do at first, but after a few rounds it does get easier. It is a little awkward at times as you have to aim for the head only (though if you shoot the gun it registers) as that is where the sensors are, you get a few hits before it is a casualty, your gun lets out a big groan when you've had enough hits to 'kill' you and then you go to the medic box, hit the big red button and your life is respawned. The technology is rather interesting and neat, I liked the fact that we could see our personal stats, I 'killed' one person per round, not the best score but not the worst either.

Our guide, Magic, was a great help, he gave us tonnes of tips on how to deal with corners, providing cover file, protecting the rear, making sure all angles are covered and other useful tips for staying 'alive'. All the extra time Magic put into teaching us those tips proved useful for the entire day. The Laser Tag was a lot more exhausting that I thought it would be and after just a short ten minutes I was really hoping for a break. We ended up playing for an hour, but once we really got into it, I could have happily played for another hour. Oh, and the great thing about the bit that the lasers tag, whilst they might look funny on your head at first, they're so light and out of the way that once they've been on for a minute you've forgotten they're even there.

Laser Tag was a fun game, in a really neat location. The staff were great and I could happily go back and play another round or two or Laser Tag.

It's been over eight years since I have last played Laser Tag, so when my wife told me about the KIWIreviews event and that I could go and join in with her I was rather excited about the day.

My first impression was that the play area was very well set up, from the Tyre Yard to the Asylum (inside and out) there were plenty of spots to hide in, if you could get to it some great vantage points as well, I found one particular spot and it was perfect, I just kept picking people off which was so much fun. It was also great exercise and really had the blood pumping those first few games as our bodies got used to the play.

The guns were great, they are made so well that there is nothing to get confused over and even with all the yelling going on you could hear them telling you when you killed someone, when you were dead etc. And if you couldn't hear it then you sure could hear Magic (who was running the games) whistle for everyone to stop. The tips we were given were clear and easy to follow, make sure you listen well as they really do come in handy for any game you play out of the paint-ball, air-soft and laser tag games.

Overall, the Laser Tag was great fun, really enjoyed it, can't fault our teacher and the whole set-up was awesome.

Located in the former Kingseat Mental Hospital, Asylum Paintball is a unique location for the sport of shooting people with realistic looking weapons. Having both outdoor and indoor arenas means that their is a lot of variety on offer. Whilst primarily a paintball business, Asylum work closely with Laser Combat Ltd, to provide a less tactile approach to combat.

The only time I've played anything close to Laser Combat was back in the early nineties in a dark warehouse in Melbourne. That was Laser Strike, which was fun, but not exactly anything past a lighthearted run around shooting people type experience.

Laser Combat was going to take things to the next level. hell, it was going to jump several hundred levels. Left in the capable hands of Magik, our host and trainer for the day, we soon found out that combat meant combat. This was a game of head-shots, with guns that looked and weighed authentically - in other words, heavy, and with a very nice red dot sight.

We started off getting used to the gear in the outdoor arena. Magik kept us at ease with a nice banter and plenty of humour. Once the game was on however, Magik turned into a rabid animal intent on killing anything that moved.

After two rounds outside, we were fairly confident with the guns and shooting each other. So Magik took us to an abandoned wing of the old Mental Hospital for some Close Quarter Battle training, teaching us not only how to enter hostile rooms and clear them, but also how to hold rooms, as well as walking and breathing silently and a few other tactics to boot.

Then we got split into two teams and given a couple of rounds of combat with various scenarios.

Two hours later I was exhausted, dirty, and grinning from ear to ear.

The venue was perfect for my previous diet of XBox based modern military shooters, the training by Magik reminded me of everything I had learnt playing online, and the weighty real world of carrying guns and having to creep along corridors and up stairs gave me a workout without feeling like I was doing anything but having a blast.

If you're ever wondering what it would be like to actually carry a gun rather than a console controller, check out what Asylum Paintball have on offer. You won't regret it, but it might take the shine off playing online games.

One of the worst things about try a new combat game is how badly you can suck at it until you learn the skills. That was something Magik made sure no-one experienced. Until his skilled tutelage, everyone was soon looking, acting and feeling like they had been doing this for ages.

The hardest thing for most of the experienced gamers to get you grips with was the utter lack of ballistics. There was no fall-off over distance besides of course light travels straight. Once we had that firmly in mind our accuracy rose dramatically. So obvious really, yet the guns made it feel like regular combat and tricked us into thinking we were shooting bullets, not photons.

After a number of great scenario games, we were all feeling it - muscles we didn't even know we had were suddenly letting us know that if we didn't take a break soon, they would surely punish us. Turned out, heavy breathing in a combat situation is a bad thing, so it was great that even something as small as breath control was covered by Magik's combat schooling.

Overall, while the day once again proved that my best skills are sniper shooting with actual projectiles, for me the biggest things to come from the laser combat session were the infiltration and area-clearing skills we were taught. They made the afternoon sessions with NZ Airsoft so much more real, enjoyable and surprising for the experienced players we came up against. Expecting a total turkey hunt, they instead found themselves getting pwnd by noobs. The respect and skills we earned thanks to Magik's session gave us the ability to not only hold our own, but totally bring it!