Billy Penn tries out "Squid Games" at Rittenhouse's Sandbox VR

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Your ever-curious Billy Penn team tested out the virtual "Squid Games" experience, and everyone made it out in one piece.

Sandbox VR, a location-based virtual reality experience, opened its Philly location in Rittenhouse in April, and has been drawing groups for birthday parties, team-building experiences and date nights since then.

The space is part of the wave of location-based entertainment options that have come to the city.

The opening was Sandbox VR's 60th in the world. Its parent company, LOL Entertainment, is also behind the Museum of Illusions in Old City, as well as the Time Mission, another immersive gaming challenge that's currently under construction a few blocks away from Sandbox VR.

Your ever-curious Billy Penn team tested out the virtual experience during a recent visit.

The current games lineup at the Philly location includes nine game experiences where you -- virtually transformed into a pirate, a mage or an android -- can battle zombies, aliens, skeletons or dragons.

Two other experiences are tied in with Netflix productions: Zack Snyder's "Rebel Moon" films and the popular South Korean "Squid Games" series. A game based on the "Stranger Things" series will be coming out in the fall, tied to the release of its latest season.

"All have a little bit of competition involved. Sometimes you're able to team up with somebody," said Stacy Stec, vice president of sales and marketing at LOL Entertainment. "There's a variety of different games that you'll play where you may choose to work cooperatively with your team or you may choose to sabotage them, and that's kind of the fun."

Billy Penn opted for the "Squid Games" experience, mainly because we wanted to see everyone's true colors when a giant virtual piggy bank and office bragging rights were on the line. Philly culture reporter Julia Binswanger warned some that "competitive Julia" may come out of hiding during the game session, a persona the Billy Penn gang hadn't met yet.

"You get to see -- especially if you are with colleagues or with friends, or even with family -- who the competitive one really is and who may choose to sabotage the rest of the group for their own benefit," Stec said in explaining the balance of collaboration and competitiveness required for all the experiences. "But when it comes down to it, even with the friendly competition, just being part of that shared experience is what really brings people together."

The Sandbox technology is a step up from what you can put together at home with hardware like Playstation VR, Meta Quest or Apple Vision Pro, with VR headsets, tracking sensors on your wrists and ankles, and a chest vest that provides haptic feedback during the game. It all takes place in one of five "holodeck" rooms, which are clear of floor obstacles but have lots of cameras and gear above to track you. A host explains the technology and gameplay, and monitors how things are going during your session.

With all the sensors, your body is essentially the controller and you're able to catch, hold, hit, dodge and interact with virtual objects in an intuitive and seamless manner. Other experiences have guns and other items you need to hold so you can shoot and strike virtual objects (and hopefully, none of your play partners).

Before you enter the room, you select an avatar and that's how your colleagues "see" you in the game room. The avatars tracked well to players' motions, and they even moved their mouths when players spoke into the microphone in their headset. But the representations still had an "uncanny valley" factor to them. One of the BP suggestions: Make the avatars a little weirder than the all-human, "Sims-like" options we chose from.

Our six players -- the maximum that can be in a session -- suited up and chose a group name -- "Billy Squidwards," a team name from a previous quizzo night. We then became "Squid Games" contestants/victims and faced off in six challenges.

Each one involved collecting, catching, sorting and knocking about virtual objects inside the play area to score points. Most challenges required players to move around the space -- and most also included a way to sabotage or attack other players, whether by directing a bomb toward them or changing the placement of symbols they're trying to sequence from memory.

After each round, the person who earned the most points was crowned the winner. Unlike "Squid Game," everyone was still standing at the end. In a fate worse than death for some competitors (not naming names, Kevin Donahue), the game instructed us to "dance to complete program." I apologize for my part in the video below.

The experience took under 45 minutes and the whole group was laughing and joking throughout. Some points in the immersion -- at one point, contestants "fell" when the virtual floor gave way below them, and sometimes there was nothing to see -- were a little unnerving for those who were already slightly uncomfortable with those experiences. Moving around the space with all the equipment was a pretty good workout, but the fans and the open ceiling of the room kept everyone cool.

During the experience, there were a couple of unintentional bumps and brushes during each game, but there was only one time our host Chris paused the game to check on everyone's wellbeing -- when Julia leapt into general assignment reporter Violet Comber-Wilen to avoid the above-mentioned falling floor. Both were fine, despite the best effort of "Competitive Julia" to knock out an opponent.

There was an occasional lag with the video and audio, but nothing that persisted or ruined the experience. The technology can be a little fickle. In one example, some players put on their wrist sensors backwards. When we put on our VR headsets, their hands were grotesquely pointed in the wrong direction. Our host performed the quick, painless surgery and we were all ready to roll.

Investigative reporter Meir Rinde lived up to his billing and interrogated the limits of the technology. It was hilarious to see his avatar suddenly standing on its head, or later walking off and doing something counterintuitive in the middle of a game or scene.

While there is no age restriction for the experience (minors do need an adult accompanying them), Stec said the content of the games and equipment are probably better suited for older children, teenagers and adults. She hinted at more kid-friendly additions coming in the future.

"There's definitely some things that we know are going to be coming, exciting things to make it a little more family-friendly because a lot of these games are geared towards teenagers or adults, the equipment just being quite bulky," Stec said.

Sandbox VR has been part of a wave of location-based entertainment that have popped up trying to draw people back into the city and out of their homes after the pandemic lockdown and the ensuing years of economic uncertainty. Other recent examples include racing simulations space F1 Arcade, high-tech darts bar Flight Club, and escape rooms like Beat the Bomb.

Sandbox VR's cost for an experience ranges from $55 to $65 per person, depending on whether you book an off-peak or peak time. They take walk-ins, but recommend booking ahead.

Time Mission, which will have team-based adventures completing tasks in 25 portals representing the past, present and future, is expected to open between late September and early October, Stec said.