How to take outdoor Laser Tag to the next level

When I was younger I had an obsession with first-person shooter (or FPS) games. I spent a ridiculous number of hours with friends playing games such as GoldenEye, Counter-Strike, Quake 3 Arena, Unreal Tournament and Halo; reveling in the teamwork, camaraderie, and adrenaline that is a hallmark of the FPS experience.

Some companies have already tried bringing shooting games closer to reality by using virtual reality; through your smartphone, your living room, and even purpose-built virtual reality theme parks.

Now, some mad (or genius!) game developers have decided that what we need is a way to truly take FPS into the real world. Paintball? Too messy. Nerf? Can’t be bothered picking up ammo. Laser Tag? It’s restricted to indoors. But hang on, what if it wasn’t?

Father.io is an augmented reality “Real Life First Person Shooter” game that you can play outdoors using your smartphone. Players plug in a smartphone attachment called an ‘Inceptor’, which becomes both your weapon and hit sensor. It allows you to go around in your local environment and battle other players in real-time, in real life, deathmatch style. You could also play as part of the team from your desktop computer at home.

Sure it would appear silly to bystanders. But I’d have to say it’s a better look than being hunched over, eyes glued to a glowing screen in a dark, dingy internet café.

Real life FPS? Bring it on!

Check out Father.io