VR Varna. We named ourselves after the entire city, which is a slightly
outrageous thing to do unless you can back it up. So: 800 square metres
across two levels, 70 headsets, and a free-roam arena measuring 20 by 20
metres. The biggest VR arcade in Varna. The biggest in Bulgaria. The biggest
on the Balkan peninsula. We checked. Twice.
Level 1 is where you land. Thirty headsets, every single-player game we own,
a StepMatrix LED floor that lights up under every step you take, and the
Secret Gaming Room - a lair of PlayStation, Nintendo and gaming PCs.
Sessions here run 15, 30 or 69 minutes. Yes, 69. We are not going to explain
that one. And if you do 15 push-ups at reception, we add 15 minutes for
free. That is a real rule, not a joke, and the number of grown adults who
drop to the floor of a shopping centre for it is one of the highlights of our
week.
Then you take the lift down to level -3, and this is the part nobody else in
the country has. A 20 by 20 metre arena. Empty floor, wall to wall - no
cables, no wires, no taped square you are told not to leave. Four hundred
square metres you are free to sprint across. Up to six players go in at once
and you see each other in there, standing right next to you, as whatever
avatar you picked. You can flank your friends. You can also shoot them. We
encourage it.
Down here live the multiplayer games and every one of our VR escape rooms.
Hunt each other with bows and laser rifles in CYBERCLASH. Hold a line
against a zombie wave in DEATH SQUAD and find out who in your group panics
first. Melt down in the restaurant kitchen of KITCHEN PANIC. Fight the
actual licensed machines in Terminator: Uprising. Nine full escape rooms - a
lunar base coming apart, a spy train, a wizard academy - plus two horror
rooms for the people who always ask if there is a scary one. There is.
Don't. And there is a second StepMatrix down here, because one was not
enough.
Eight years we have been doing this in Varna, longer than anyone else here,
with 230,000 people following along. Zero experience required. We fit your
headset, brief you properly and stay with you the whole way, so nobody ends
up standing in a corner poking at a controller pretending to understand.
Fully indoors and air conditioned - which makes us either a nice bonus to
your trip or, if you have looked out of the window lately, the entire plan.
