When we were kids, one of our favorite places to go was Lazer Quest on St-Catherine. Hiding in the small dark-lit labyrinth of spray painted plywood walls gave us a sense of being a badass soldier. Of course, as we grew older, we stopped going because who wants to shoot children, repeatedly, while they scurry around bewildered? Well, we have rediscovered that feeling of being James Bond in a new laser tag arena: Laser Game Evolution.
Laser tag is fun. It makes you move around and concoct split second feints and strategies to take out your enemies again and again. Unfortunately, Montreal has had but one or two places to play and they are always full of kids and strangers. Furthermore, those longstanding bastions of laser tag have had the same equipment for the past 20+ years. As such, we’ve all developed a kind of stigma that these places should be avoided.
Well, LGE has broken that for us. They have done away with the open-to-everyone format in exchange for small 6-12 player games from the same group. That means that if you and a couple of friends want to shoot each other for an hour, you won’t be bothered by any little children running face first into you because they weren’t looking. Furthermore the equipment, namely the gun and body armor, is all brand new technology. While the parent company of LGE has existed for 20 years in Europe, they have continually updated the equipment they use.
LGE Dix 30 has been lucky enough to be one of the first to be fully stocked with their third generation laser weaponry, costing over a million dollars to develop. That means lasers you can see. Targets that are not faulty. A screen that tells you who hit you and who you hit. And that is only the beginning.
LGE, located near the cinema at Dix30, has three mazes that can also turn into one giant space and a nearly infinite number of possible game modes. As the manager described to us, the program that controls everything about the game is fully customizable. Want to make an 11-1 bachelor party mode? No problem. How about a 1-shot and you’re dead deathmatch? It can be done. Want to only be able to kill someone from the back? Ok. How about shooting with a flashlight-like cone of death? Can do! The possibilities are endless here and the idea that you can suggest a mode when you reserve is a delight to our imaginations. Games last 20 minutes and will run you $10 per person, though if you play 3 games (an hour), it’s only $25. There are even cheapy Tuesdays to coincide with movie nights. What better way to wait for you movie to start than an $8 game of laser tag?
LGE is a welcome addition to the ever expanding activities in and around Dix30. Make a day of it with surfing, laser tag, iSaute, drinks, and food. Oh, and obviously all the shopping. LGE is already getting a huge amount of reservations despite only being open for a little over a month so don’t forget to reserve your place at this amazing Call of Duty-type experience!
9520 Boulevard Leduc Brossard, QC J4Y0B3
(450) 486-6486
Photos courtesy of Laser Game Evolution and Jonathan Brouillette (@darksteelangel).
