Hold onto your eyeballs: A guide to 9 immersive attractions in Vegas
It’s a buzzword that’s become as synonymous with seemingly every other newfangled entertainment attraction as the ubiquitous gift shop doubling as the exit: “Immersive.”
It’s meant to convey a more experiential dimension to a given exhibit or attraction, something you more actively engage with.
It’s a somewhat nebulous term and, as such, can be applied to a relatively wide range of attractions, which is certainly the case here in Las Vegas.
Here are nine to check out:
Electric Playhouse
Think of it as a VR experience without the goofy headset.
That’s kind of what it feels like navigating the Electric Playhouse, which is posited on state-of-the-art body-mapping technology and features a gaming layout divided among numerous “pods,” designed for one to two players who can choose from around a dozen games that range from “Crystalius,” in which alien spaceships are targeted, to “Paint Pong,” in which you create your own artwork.
The 10,000-square-foot venue, which bills itself as a “social gaming destination,” is designed to be a bridge between digital and physical realms, one that poses the question: Instead of merely playing a video game, wouldn’t it be more fun to inhabit one?
Forum Shops at Caesars; admission starts at $25 for local adults, $20 for local child; electricplayhouse.com
Illuminarium Las Vegas
By now the word “immersive” has become so overused when it comes to modern-day attractions that it tests gag reflexes.
What distinguishes the Illuminarium, where the term certainly applies thanks to luminous video walls that surround you on all sides, is the immersive set of games that can be played in unison with the visuals.
Or you can just sit back, open your eyes wide and let it all wash over you like the oceanic landscapes featured in one of the presentations here, which also currently include “Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified, The Immersive Rock Experience.”
Area15; tickets start at $29 for Nevada residents; illuminarium.com
Omega Mart
Punch your brain in the face by attempting to puzzle-piece together the 60-plus experiences that make up “America’s Most Exceptional Grocery Store,” Omega Mart, into a coherent whole.
How to describe this labyrinth of perception-warping interactive art and consumer culture satire?
It’s unsettling, beautiful, captivating and confounding all at once.
Sure, your cerebellum will feel like the goop in a lava lamp afterward, but then again, that’s kind of the point.
Area15; tickets start at $38 for Nevada residents; meowwolf.com
Museum Fiasco
So, what’s the Museum Fiasco experience all about?
Well, it’s kind of like entering a pulsating, mirrored, walk-in subwoofer.
Then, imagine being caught in a massive thunderstorm without an umbrella, the kind of tempest that knocks over mailboxes with gale-force gusts and floods streets — only replace the wind and rain with light and sound.
Area15; tickets are $20 for adults, $16 for kids; area15.com
Paradox Museum Las Vegas
Pull a fast one on your brain at the Paradox Museum, an 11,000-square-foot labyrinth of illusions, interactive elements and countless photo-ops that is all about tricking your senses.
There are plenty of mind-bending attractions here, like an elevator that makes you feel like you’re shuttling between floors even though it’s standing still and another Paradox trademark: a couch where a pair of guests can make it appear as if one person’s body has been cleaved in half.
It’s a lot to take in — 90 attractions total — the connective tissue is that they’re all designed to leave you questioning what you’re actually seeing.
3767 Las Vegas Blvd. South; tickets are $25 for Nevada residents; paradoxmuseumlasvegas.com
Arte Museum Las Vegas
Prepare to have a (virtual) whale of time at the Arte Museum, where said mammal swims in digital depths that’ll make you feel like you’ve been outfitted with cement boots and plunged into an ocean of wonderment.
The theme here is eternal nature, which manifests itself in absolutely breathtaking visual landscapes ranging from nighttime jungles to starry beaches to perpetually blooming flowers created by generative art technology.
And it’s not just a feast for the eyes, this a multisensory experience with a soundscape crafted by composer Young-gyu Jang, who’s scored more than 50 films, and customized scents from renowned perfumer Marianne Nawrocki Sabatier.
You won’t see — or smell — anything quite like it.
63 CityCenter, 3716 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Suite 208; tickets are $45 for Nevada residents; lasvegas.artemuseum.com
Colors of Mexico at Fantasy Lab
“Celebrate life in all its colors like a fiesta that never ends,” a neon sign here reads.
And so we head to the bar for a Licuachela in order to heed such sage advice as The Fantasy Lab, a seven-room maze of eye-popping interactivity complete with a restaurant, has undergone a Mexico makeover. There are 14 exhibits here, from the luminous Firefly Forest to the artisanal skull-festooned Dia de los Muertos attraction.
You want value to go with your alebrijes?
The $15 admission fee serves as a credit for drinks, food or merch in the gift shop, meaning this is one of the best deals for attractions of its kind.
Fashion Show mall; tickets are $15; colorsofmexico.com
Immersive van Gogh: The Next Chapter
It’s one thing to behold the celestial majesty of Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”
It’s another thing to inhabit it.
That’s the idea behind Immersive van Gogh: The Next Chapter, where some of the most seminal paintings from the father of expressionism blossom all around like one of his iconic sunflowers via advanced projections.
The Next Chapter builds upon the highly popular original exhibit with a deeper dive into all things van Gogh and features an AI tool that lets you write and receive a personalized letter from van Gogh and a Lighthouse Immersive app to bring a “pocket gallery” to your phone. You could only be more fully immersed in van Gogh’s work if you were transformed into his paintbrush somehow.
The Shops at Crystals; tickets start at $39.99 for adults and $29.99 for children; vangoghvegas.com
Museum of Illusions
We can all agree — especially at the conclusion of this journalistic masterpiece — that the world would be a far, far better place with more than one of yours truly.
Sadly, science has yet to create a scenario in which we can get our Michael Keaton on “Multiplicity”-style
Until that day comes, though, we can console ourselves at the Museum of Illusions’ Cloning Table, where you can hang with five versions of yourself.
It’s one of the more popular attractions at this smorgasbord of optical trickery, which spans more than 80 exhibits, from Vegas-themed illusion rooms to a bevy of 3D holograms and other mind-bending installations that’ll have your eyes spinning like slot machine reels en route to a sensory jackpot.
63 CityCenter; tickets are $31 for Nevada adults and $24 for Nevada children if purchased online; moilasvegas.com
