Do you like first person shooters, but also need exercise and don’t want to give up that time you play with video games? This is perfectly understandable and that’s where father.io, the MM-Laser Tag game, comes in to provide you with both.
What is Father.io?
Father.io is Laser Tag with the real world and your smartphone. The basics are really simple, you are given a laser pointer that attaches to the back of your smartphone and a game that provides you with different weapons in-game.
Graphics and Visuals Score 5/5
The graphics for Father.io are absolutely amazing, as it provides you with a first person shooter experience equivalent to any console game would on your smartphone. The only difference is that, instead of seeing a virtual map that you play on, the map you play on is the real world. Your opponents are real opponents. This encourages sniping, sneaking, running, hip-fire, and all the things you would make your virtual character do, but now that character is you.
Hardware Requirements Score 3/5
The only way to make this game work is if you have one of Father.io’s Laser Tag devices, such as the Inceptor, and the application provided by the makers. This little device uses Bluetooth technology and has 6 Laser receivers to maximize the areas in which you can be shot at. A unique aspect is that the Inceptor uses it’s own zoom so that you can snipe from up to 50m. This makes the area of gameplay massive and encourages real-world battle tactics. The device works with iPhone 4s and up or Android. The only way to get the Inceptor, right now, is to go support their crowdfunding page. While this may change in the future, it limits the amount of people you can play with right now.
Fitness Score 3.5/5
Since Father.io encourages actual battle tactics, that means you will run, crouch, sneak, and shooting while running. This is the exercise that the military provides and it intensely trains the entirety of your body. Each Inceptor is around $50 and there’s quite a bit left, but since there are so little individuals playing this game, you won’t get much out of this game right now.
Gameplay Score 3/5
In the future, this review may change, but due to the limitations of how many players can currently play Father.io and the fact that the game’s playability is entirely based on this, we simply can’t give it the great review it might deserve. The game is simple to understand, well-focused on fitness, and incorporates a ton of features to allow for real-life first-person gameplay.
Overall Score 3.5
Father.io has a lot of potential, but since it is not available to everyone right now, that means the game will not be playable by average individuals any time soon. We hope to see Father.io hit the markets sometime in the future because that would make the game an immediate 5/5 game, but without the ability to play with others easily, that real reality will have to wait for a future time.
-Tommy Mertell
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