“Your mission, should you choose to accept it,” are words I’ve wanted to hear spoken to me through the earpieces of a VR headset ever since the Oculus Rift Kickstarter first got funded. I’m a big fan of Ethan Hunt’s adventures in the Mission Impossible franchise of films and was delighted to learn that Nomadic, the creators of this incredible Arizona Sunshine location-based experience, are teaming up with VRWERX, the developers of Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul, to make it a VR-reality. In fact, this appears to be the same Mission Impossible VR game they announced over a year ago.
What makes Nomadic’s installations so amazing compared to other location-based experiences I’ve tried is just how interactive they are. Sure, you can carry a gun in Sandbox VR, or push some buttons in The Void, but with Nomadic the entire installation itself is mapped to the VR environment. I was opening drawers, walking across planks, hanging onto chain linked fences, and riding a moving, vibrating helicopter. They truly know how to make the virtual a reality.
To be clear, this is old test footage. The actual experience and sets are far more elaborate now.
Combine that with the game development talent of VRWERX, who really brought the Paranormal Activity IP to life in VR, and that’s a recipe for something special.
To be clear we have not seen this VR experience for ourselves and we have no idea whether or not it lives up to expectations, but the potential for a high-quality escape room meets VR game is so perfect with this property it seems like a match made in VR heaven.
According to a press release from a company representative:
“Visitors can expect to literally step into the virtual shoes of an agent of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) and feel exactly what it would be like to go on a secret mission… The new Mission Impossible experience is set to open early next year and will allow players to reach out and feel their way around various locations that tie back into what they are seeing through their headsets.”
That’s about all we know so far, but this is definitely exciting news. In the meantime, I highly recommend checking out Nomadic’s debut location in Orlando to try their amazing cooperative Arizona Sunshine experience if you can. At the very least this news should tide us over until we find out more about Defector and Blood & Truth.
