VR City — Local services in Bradford

Mixed experience, abit underwhelming in all honesty. We did the vr arena first and there were delays with getting us connected, which I understand that these things can happen but it wasn't exactly the best first impression. The main issue was while being in the vr arena, we felt the service was lacking as the workers weren't there with the 5 of us to help guide us with the controls or assist us on what to do. As we were wearing headsets of course, we couldn't see where the workers were and so we'd be asking questions or stating confusion but the help wasn't quick which meant the experience wasn't as fun as it could be and felt like time was wasted while we were trying to figure things out for ourselves. There were 3 workers on shift but I think one was sorting out the racing as they'd been having technical difficulties on that too so I imagined there would be 2 with us but it only felt like 1. I have been to VR places before where there was a worker there with us the whole time. The staff here had friendly personalities so no problems there, but I'm not sure why the assistance was lacking. They also all looked like teenagers which I would deem unprofessional of VR City management, to leave them to look after the premises and customers by themselves.

The racing simulator was very fun, unfortunately there was a power cut which meant we couldn't complete the 3rd race. All these factors meant it didn't feel like we got our moneys worth (£28 per person for an hour). We weren't asked about our experience when we were leaving, if we had I would have relayed these points onsite.

The point of this review isn't to deter anyone from visiting as there are plenty of 5 star reviews, and so we may have just turned up on a bad day. Rather, I hope the management will take the feedback on board, so other customers don't experience the...

Me and my family did not have a good experience at VR City. We booked the VR arena experience for 5 of us. We got there, and nothing was set up. It took the staff member 25 minutes to set everything up; yes, they did give us extra time at the end, but when you have to wait there for 25 minutes to get it set up, it kind of ruins the experience. Even when everything looked set up, there were constant issues with the headsets and controllers throughout. Some of the games are available on some of the headsets, and some games are not available, which meant we could not play against each other or play the same games as each other. Also, if we wanted to change the game we were playing, we had to ask the staff member to change it for us, and that took some time.

I have booked VR City once before for 4 of us, and they had the same issue of nothing being set up when we got there. Matter of fact, we had to wait 15 minutes for someone to open the door for us. However, they did have all the games on each VR headset and had a lobby area where you could change the game yourself without having to ask a staff member, which made the experience better. I don't know why this has changed now and a staff member needs to be asked to change the game for us, which did leave us a bit frustrated on my second visit.

If they manage to have everything set up and ready, as well as batteries checked before each booking, it would make the process a lot easier for the customers. It is important to have every game available on all VR headsets because with groups that come in, they want to play these games with each other or at the same time as each other. Adding time at the end of a booking does nothing for me because I would rather play during the hour I booked than be given time added...

Overall, we had a great time as it was our first visit. We didn’t do the car racing, instead we did the stand-up VR games. The reason I’m giving 3 stars is:

Positives - The staff were friendly. The venue has a cool atmosphere with its dark mood lighting. The games are fun which was the most important aspect and because of this we loved it.

Negatives - there were quite a few technical difficulties getting started. The computer needed restarting a few times. One of the stations/headsets wasn’t charged (this didn’t affect our experience but it just shows they need to tighten up on the basics). We kept connecting to random players online when selecting multiplayer. The staff member eventually told us we could use the password option which allowed us to always play multiplayer together. It wasted a bit or time when we had to reset the games when we connected to randoms. Would have been useful to know this from the beginning. The price - £54 for two players for 1 hour.

Would we visit again? Not in a hurry, but we may invest in a VR headset ourselves because...