Sponsored content: Starting this Friday you can experience true magic in the world of Ghostbusters: Dimensions, a hyper-reality experience at The Beach…

You may have noticed a new pavilion taking shape at The Beach (right opposite Eggspectation). Well, it houses something pretty exciting – THE VOID, a hyper reality experience that makes everything else you’ve seen in virtual reality look, well average. In fact, it’s so good it almost has to be experienced to be believed.

Unlike other virtual reality experiences, you’re free to walk around and feel the environment around you as weave your way through a New York apartment in pursuit of ghosts (we tried it and were truly impressed).

As an additional bonus, Dubai is the first city outside of the US where THE VOID is available to the public, so you’ll have bragging rights among your friends.

Now, we don’t want to give away too many spoiler alerts, but here’s a sneak peek:

WE WERE ACTUALLY SCARED

As you arrive you’ll be talked through a safety briefing (you will be fighting bad guys after all). You’ll then be taken to an area where you’ll suit up – strap on a haptic vest with a backpack computer, grab your proton pack and you’re almost ready to go.

The pièce de résistance is the customised headset that enables you to quite literally become a Ghostbuster. This means that you can actually walk around inside the game, look out for the smells, vibrations, and other elements that bring Ghostbusters: Dimension to life. 

The entire experience is surreal, and had us squealing, screaming and laughing throughout (even though we were sure we’d be too shy to shout before we started).

We were completely engrossed from start to finish, and we’re embarrassed to admit it, but there were moments when we were actually a bit scared:

The best thing about Ghostbuster: Dimension is that it’s an experience you can share with your friends (four people can play at a time). You don’t have to have experienced virtual (or hyper) reality before either – it’ll work for everyone from non gamers to those who remember Doom in 1993.

In fact, while you can’t go through if you’re pregnant, we’d definitely recommend rounding up your friends for this one (at the end of our experience we found ourselves doing a victory dance with our mates. Proper big kid stuff).

Also, you don’t need to be super active (there’s no actual climbing or anything).

Want to see how you’ll feel right after it? Here’s a good idea…

SO WHO IS BEHIND IT ALL?

THE VOID is a critically-acclaimed ‘immersive entertainment company’ based in Utah (some serious Hollywood A-listers have tried it). The company is currently led by CEO Cliff Plumer – aka, the former CTO of Star Wars creator George Lucas’ Lucasfilm.

While Plumer did not found the company, he has called it the gold standard in the industry, which is a pretty big endorsement for someone who has worked on films like Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Transformer franchises, and who has (among others) an Academy Award for his VFX work on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

He’s considered one of the world’s early virtual reality adopters, and his involvement with Oculus Rift and Samsung GearVR – like THE VOID – is the result of the unique perspectives he gained during the early years of virtual reality.

SO WHAT ARE THE DETAILS?

THE VOID will be at The Beach for a limited time and opens on Friday, 24 March 2017. It costs Dhs110 per person. You can book your tickets here now. 

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