Hey everyone, Blake here with another review for my website, The Virtual Reviewer. As many of you know, I’m a total tech and video game nerd, so when virtual reality first hit the mainstream consumer market a few years ago, I was obviously one of the first people to buy an Oculus Rift headset. Ever since then, I’ve been hooked on VR and try to experience as much cool VR content as I can, whether that’s AAA games on my PC at home or location-based VR experiences when I’m out and about.
Well, on a recent family road trip to visit my in-laws just outside of Dallas, Texas, I discovered a very cool virtual reality arcade at a family entertainment center called Alley Cats in the suburb of Hurst. As soon as I walked in and saw their massive laser tag arena decked out with VR headsets, I knew I had to give it a try! My wife Patty and kids John and Jenette were also excited to check it out since it combined two things they love – laser tag and video games.
In this post, I’m going to review the entire Alley Cats location in Hurst, with a special focus on their unique VR laser tag offering. Hopefully, this review gives you a good sense of whether Alley Cats is worth visiting with your family if you happen to be in the Dallas area!
Overview of Alley Cats Hurst
Alright, before jumping into the VR laser tag, let me give a quick rundown of Alley Cats Hurst itself. This place markets itself as a family entertainment center, offering the usual lineup of bowling lanes, arcade games, mini golf, and the like. Honestly, at first sight, it looked pretty similar to the dozens of places like Dave & Busters that have popped up over the years.
However, Alley Cats stands out with the sheer size and scale of its facilities. This location in Hurst is MASSIVE – it’s spread over two floors and seems to go on forever! Just within the arcade area alone, there’s got to be over 100 different games and activities crammed in there. From thrilling carnival rides to old-school Skee-Ball lanes to modern virtual reality setups, you could easily spend hours wandering around this place and not experience everything.
They’ve also got a huge two-story laser tag arena that my kids were eager to check out. This was advertised as a “one-of-a-kind” laser tag experience featuring virtual reality elements, which piqued my interest! We ended up getting the unlimited video game & attraction wristband so we could play laser tag as much as we wanted, which I’ll talk more about next.
So, while the Alley Cats location in Hurst doesn’t necessarily offer anything you can’t find elsewhere, the sheer scope of family-friendly entertainment packed into this locale makes it stand out from the competition in my eyes. It’s almost like an indoor amusement park crossed with a state fair! If you’ve got kids like mine with seemingly endless energy, a place like this is the perfect indoor playground for them.
Laser Tag with Virtual Reality
Alright, now onto the main attraction itself – Alley Cats’ unique take on VR laser tag! After picking up our wristbands from the front counter, my family headed straight for the laser tag staging area, eager to suit up and start blasting each other with infrared beams.
The staging area almost reminded me of something out of a sci-fi movie, with dark lighting and props like fake smoke machines setting an ominous mood. My son John was already trash-talking the rest of us, vowing that his natural video game skills were going to easily dominate the match. I told him to quit bragging and prove it out in the arena!
One helpful staff member helped us put on our laser tag vests and handed out our mock plasma rifles. These guns looked high-tech and almost like something out of Halo or another futuristic shooter game. Plus they had some decent weight and heft to them rather than being cheap and flimsy plastic toys. We were able to choose between red team and blue team colors – my wife joined up with John on red while Jenette and I went with blue.
After getting geared up, it was time to finally enter the massive two-story laser tag arena… and this is when my mind was blown! I had expected just your typical laser tag with backlit geometric mazes and obstacles. But here, the entire arena was decked out in gorgeously detailed environments making it look like we had stepped into a video game world.
Our first match took place in some kind of gritty sci-fi slum with flickering neon lights and graffiti-tagged buildings stretching up to the ceiling high above our heads. Epic electronic music was pumping through unseen speakers and spotlights darted every which way. Both my kids’ jaws dropped when they saw the arena – “This is SO COOL!” my daughter squealed. I couldn’t help grinning myself taking it all in!
But there was one last surprise still in store for us. Right before the match began, a staff member had my family put on virtual reality headsets that had been integrated seamlessly with the laser tag vests and guns. Suddenly, the arena transformed before my very eyes… the props and environments stayed the same but it was like all the graphics had been cranked to Ultra settings!
The lighting effects in particular were stunning with volumetric fog, shining lens flares, and other advanced effects that felt straight out of the latest VR games I’ve played on my Oculus Rift at home. Combined with full 360 immersion thanks to the headset plus the physical running around and ducking behind the cover, I felt more present in this laser tag virtual world than in any other VR experience before. Like I was literally IN a video game but with the real-life physicality!
My excited daughter said it best when the first match ended: “Wow, that was better than laser tag AND video games!” I couldn’t agree more. Alley Cats seemed to have perfectly blended both mediums into one massively fun hybrid. We immediately jumped into a second round just so we could keep enjoying battling each other across alien planets, zombie-infested cities, and more hyper-detailed arenas.
After thoughts on VR laser tag
Whew, so that covers the nuts and bolts of our epic VR laser tag adventures! By the end, both my kids and even my wife were just as pumped about it as I was. We ended up playing for over 2 hours straight until we were exhausted and our wristbands had run out.
Here are some of my lingering thoughts after having some time to reflect on the experience:
The Good:
- The hybrid mix of laser tag plus VR is just absolute genius – plain and simple! The physical arena play crossed with cutting-edge virtual graphics made this, unlike any other family activity I’ve tried before.
- Speaking of the graphics, they were truly impressive with advanced lighting, physics, particle effects, and more that looked nearly as good as the latest Oculus Rift games I play at home. Especially considering this system has to render stereoscopic 3D views for up to 30 people simultaneously, the visual fidelity blew me away.
- The stages and environments were super creative and captured that perfect sci-fi/fantasy mood. I loved how no two matches felt the same thanks to the variety of alien planets, techno cities, medieval castles, and more we battled across.
- The full wireless freedom of running around without a wire tethered to some desktop PC or console was very freeing. Previous entertainment VR systems I’ve tried often require you to be confined to a small space or desk. But here, sprinting and dodging my kids across sprawling multistory arenas felt awesome!
- Even when not using the VR headsets, the stages were still gorgeous thanks to meticulous set design, lighting, and audio. So people who easily get motion sickness from VR could still enjoy playing in the physical environments.
- The guns were very nicely made and super accurate for shooting or sniping other players. Much better tech than what I remembered from old-school laser tag places growing up!
The Not-So-Good:
- My only real complaints were minor quibbles. Firstly, some matches tended to feel a bit long at 10 minutes of frantic running around dodging shots. For kids especially, 5 minutes might be enough before they start sitting down exhausted!
- Spawn points could sometimes trap players by dropping you right into crossfire leading to annoying insta-deaths. Maybe randomized spawn locations would help mix up matches more.
- The weapon variety felt a bit basic with just standard plasma rifle options. Unlocking temporary bonus power weapons mid-match like rocket launchers, sniper rifles or the like could liven up gameplay even more!
So, while Alley Cat’s VR laser tag experience isn’t 100% perfect, it came astonishingly close to offering next-level virtual reality entertainment suitable for the whole family. As both a lifelong gamer nerd AND a parent, I can easily say this is by far my most recommended activity ever for families visiting the Dallas/Fort Worth area!
Wrapping Up
Whew, well that wraps up my epic saga reviewing the Alley Cats entertainment center in Hurst and its unique take on VR laser tag! Even days later, my kids are still begging me to take them back so we can battle aliens and zombies in their awesome sci-fi-inspired arenas. I’ll have fond memories of us parents vs. kids team deathmatch showdowns whenever we visit my in-laws in Texas again.
In all honesty, my family could have easily spent our entire weekend vacation at Alley Cats since they packed what felt like an entire indoor amusement park’s worth of activities within their gargantuan facilities. Beyond laser tag and VR attractions, their bowling lanes, arcade games, mini golf courses, and more offer endless entertainment options for visitors of all ages.
While the sticker price to enjoy everything may cause some sticker shock, keep an eye out for web deals and coupons to cut down on costs. We got our money’s worth from the unlimited band access tickets! Their massive two-story laser tag arena with seamless virtual reality integration should be reason enough for tech and gaming fans to schedule a pilgrimage to this temple of family entertainment.
So would I recommend checking out Alley Cats in Hurst if you’re traveling through the big DFW metro area? Absolutely, a hundred times over – especially if you’ve got an energetic pack of kids like mine! This Google Maps pin is getting saved forever in my family vacation destinations list thanks to the over-the-top fun we enjoyed.