Shadowland

It was suppose to rain all day on Sunday so I wanted to find an indoor activity that got the kids some exercise. So I took my 7 year daughter and a friend to Shadowland in Gaithersburg on Sunday to celebrate the end of the school year. We have been here before but it is usually a birthday party. This was free time. They were a little nervous so I sat in when the staff was explaining what to do so they felt comfortable. They had a great time. The staff really took the time and answered all the questions the kids had and made them feel important. They played 3 games each and were really tired but glad they played. Great way to spend a rainy day. Your review helps others learn about great local businesses. It’s not inecpensive, but I think the price is reasonable for all that you get.
Please don’t review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review, or if you’re connected in any way to the owner or employees.

Nice place for kids to go out for laser tag. The facility might be somewhat outdated and the laser tag is not the newest of systems, but what this place does have going for it is it’s general proximity to the DC suburbs, making it one of the only places worth going. In regards to the facility itself, it doesn’t have any of the digital features of newer laser tag arenas but that doesn’t stop it from being lots of fun.

I started this review about 2 years ago. Called on a Saturday to see if they had an opening for a birthday party. They only schedule parties on week days after 11:00 am. Left a number to be called back. Monday morning called about 11:30 to see if there was a time slot available. Was told that they had to call the other people who left messages first before giving me a time. I don’t like this.
Fast forward to now. The kids really love this place. Been to five more birthday parties here. Based on how much they enjoy this, I’m raising my rating from ** to ****.

LOVE YHIS PLACE! My friend invited me to this package she bought where we played five games back to back. The first two games I was completely lost because I didn’t listen to the guys explaining the directions (HINT listen to those guys) so I didn’t know how to work anything. By the 3^rd game I was totally into it and absolutely loved playing it !!! Somehow I seemed to fall upon the perfect hiding place, and everything was just great. I recommend them to have a restaurant or just some good food in shadowland cuz you get really hungry after running around shooting people :))). Plus it gets really hot so where short sleeves (even if it is –1000 degrees outside). Bring a water bottle, and don’t bring any novelties or expensive stuff, cuz you can’t put your stuff in a locker or anything, and you don’t wanna carry it cuz that’s just extra baggage weighing you down. Make sure someone u trust is near ur stuff, or u just don’t bring anything expensive. Make sure to wear running shoes too. Don’t wear heels, or else u gon die!!! Don’t wear makeup either. U start to sweat a lot. Wear black clothes, cuz u don’t wanna be seen by other ppl (cuz you’re against them). Wearing neon clothing isn’t gonna help u!!! Birthday parties here are the best BTW, OH TOTALLY FORGOT, during breaks there’s a Dunkin donuts right next door to this place, so hop on over there and get cho self coffee to reenergize! Come to think of it, after drinking the coffee I felt so much more energized… maybe they mix something in their drinks to create winners ;)))

If you are looking for a healthy way to vent your psychopathic tendencies, come here! The laser guns are innocuous and inflict no harm beyond crushing the hopes and dreams of a high school nerd.
The employees do not get enough credit for their ability to organize play sessions on the fly. On any given weekend night, they have to organize two large group parties of 20+, walk-​in groups of about 4 to 10 people, and a few couples on a date night.
Those high school minimum wage workers really know what they are doing. Someone give them distinguished honor roll!
If you want to become an expert at laser tagging, read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. You will find its military strategy and tactics are applicable here.
–Maintain a higher ground over your opponents
–Know who you can trust, know who you cannot
–Flanking your opponents when they are vulnerable
–Be willing to sacrifice for the greater good and send in scouts to gain intel
It is about $ 8 for group play. $ 20 for triple play. The play session are the fastest 15 minutes. The phasers display everything you need to know. Don’t waste your time with the gems unless they are about to shoot you.

I always have an awesome time here! The employees do a great job explaining the rules. The facilities are clean. And the arena is so fun! Love it!

We celebrated my sons 7^th birthday here and had a blast. We had only 7 people play due to not many RSVPs so I spoke to manager about allowing some of the kids to play more times because I would still be charged for 9 people (the minimum amount for a party). He was very accomodating and advised me right away that we would figure out a plan. After our first game, my party assistant advised me that the manager would only charge us for 7 people instead of the required 9, which saved me $ 42! I was beyond thrilled. The schedule was maintained the whole time. We played 2 games and we were out in 2 hours. Highly recommend! It was great and my son and his friends had a blast:)

I won’t go into all the things that went wrong. First I called to see if it would be a problem to bring a group of 13 to play on a Saturday night from 8 – 10. I was told we did not need reservations we should be fine. I got there at 8:15 and was told it was a 2 hour wait and we could only do one game. I told the manager about the phone conversation then we were told it would be a little over an hour wait. 2 hours later we got to play. They didn’t mention on the phone that they don’t take reservations its first come first served. Had we known that we might have planned an earlier trip. ITwice we were lied to which prevents me from ever wanting to return. My sons friend was
Badly injured as well and came out with a huge knot on his head. They gave him ice but then got all worried when they couldn’t find his waiver. Go at your own risk when you have a lot of time to kill

Very fun it’s been years maybe 11 years ago when I went laser tagging. Me and my friend came here I said wow I feel like a kid again. I’m 23 years old now. The coworkers who work there we’re really cool. Some guy complimented me on my chain. The coworker told us it was just us 2 right now no one else. I said is it more fun when it’s more people? He said yes. I told him oh okay we probably come back in a few go have some drinks and stuff. He smiled and said «that’s wassup» he probably wanted to drink knowing he’s going to be at work all night. Anyways great fun place and nice workout too

Horrible customer service. Just turned away a group of teenagers (10+) after making them wait 2.5 hrs and giving them wrong information the fact of which the cashier denies now. Yes, the manager apologized which unfortunately doesn’t change much about the fact that those kids had to find rides to get there and back, had to walk around the area for over 2 hrs (not much to go and see around there) and had their celebration totally ruined. Never going there again.

I consider myself a lazer-​tag expert. Why? Because I had my 10^th birthday party at a ‘Q-​zar, bought a Q-​zar hat with my birthday money, and wore it for 2 years until Q-​zar hats went out of style and shell necklaces took over with an vengeance.
Haha just kidding. Q-​zar hats were never in style. It’s time for another episode of PROS and CONS!
Pro: Invited to play lazer tag in my late 20’s? YES PLEASE! Will it take me back to the zealous days of my youth, or rank right up there with ‘walking up the stairs’ in reminding me how old and outta shape I am?
Con: I think they call it Shadowlands because the location hides in the shadows and eludes you like a passageway in Hogwarts. No signs from the main road point you there, and you could park 30 feet from the door and never know it. I wish I could give you some tips for finding it. Do what I did and arrive fashionably late you you can have your buddy find it first.
Pro: Very accommodating manager. Waited patiently while 7 people paid by credit-​card for each person/​couple in our group, entering our nicknames and organizing us into teams…
Con:…giving me some time to look around. To one side some arcade games, some snacks that I would only eat under life-​threatening circumstances behind the counter, and some party rooms that were empty on a weeknight. Without the parties and with the DnD-​esque space decorations, it was dark and depressing.
Pro: Very chill staff member took us back to what could best be described as a briefing room. I felt like the Rebel Alliance in Episode IV «I used to bull’s-eye womp rats in my T-​16 back home.» (You know what I’m talkin’ bout!) He explained the lazer-​tag equipment, scoring, and gameplay to us in about 10 minutes, gave us our guns and vests, and took us into the arena.
Con: My vest either ran out of battery charge or shut down two times. I had to stop playing, walk to the chair where the staffer was sitting, and have him walk me back to the briefing room and get me a new vest. I missed about 10 minutes of the half hour match time doing this.
Pro: There are decent options within the games; you earn credits by tagging enemies, and you can use those credits to buy rapid-​fire and invincibility. We chose to play ‘infinite ammo’ option.
Con: The system botched our second game, and eliminated the top scorers from the other team. It turns out that knowing you won isn’t as great as seeing that you won on a computer screen.
Overall, decent experience, but nothing special. I’d go back because i don’t know where else to go for this particular activity.

I’ve come to shadowland off and on in spurts for half my life now. I have to say that I’ve had more than one instance where my equipment did not work. The manager on duty is always happily willing to grant you an extra game pass, not only have they taken care of me, they’ve given my friends accompanying me extra passes as well! Their professionalism is great and the managerial staff is always excellent. I hope that some day they are still around when I have kids.

It was fun until someone stole my jacket. The clientele there is on the rough side.

Friendly, helpful staff who seem to enjoy what they do! I went on a weekday for an adult b-​day party, and there were no kids… we played against two other groups of adults, it was a good time.

LASER TAG! This place looks like it is stuck in the 90s with all of the cheesy decorations, but is a fun thing to do with your friends even if you are a 20-​something year old adult. However, if you go on the weekends, beware of those little monsters called children running around everywhere and screaming. You will most likely be playing with/​against them. Don’t bother strategizing with them because they won’t listen so it’s pretty much every man, woman, and child for themselves.
There is only one gaming room and each game takes about 15 minutes. Before each game starts, they will teach you how to put on the pack, use the gun, and shoot the gems. Make sure your pack works and is the one that you are actually assigned to because God knows those kids can put the packs back correctly.
Once the game starts, just start shooting the lit bulbs of the other team, and don’t forget to shoot the gems for a special surprise! It’s definitely a workout if you let your competitive side take over. You’ll find yourself squatting, running, and even crawling to avoid getting shot at.
When the game is over, they will print out a stat sheet for each player to see where you rank and all of your hits. The place and equipment is pretty old and needs to be upgraded, but it’s still worth playing every now and then. It’s about $ 8 per game, but they have group discounts. They also have birthday deals.

I hosted one of our swim team socials here, and we played two games for the price of $ 6.25 each time. The first game went well, but when we went back into play the second game, the packs were not lighting up, everyone had the wrong «gamer-​tag», and many kids did not even have a team to play on. I went outside to tell the staff of our issues, and ten minutes later, they attempted to re-​start the game, which resulted in even worse conditions. I voiced my opinion and made it very clear that I wanted a refund because the game did not happen, and no-​one got any true playing time. The staff «solved» the problem by adding five minutes to the game, even though, I had told them that the parents were here and waiting, and that a refund would solve the problem. After the game, when the staff was calling out scores, and passing out the results, they were calling the wrong «gamer tags» because that was they had down because they messed up our game, and given random names from the game before us, to our game. They were yelling and getting aggravated at my swimmers, when they were not at fault, because they did not know the random names that they had gotten, instead of their chosen «tags». Overall, the service was horrible, the kids (thank god!) said they had fun because they got to hangout, outside the pool, but they had really hoped for their money back, or a free game, or soda even. I even called the next morning, and spoke to a manager who said that since we were in the arena, we do not qualify for a refund, which if you ask me is B.S., because everything went wrong for us. I never intend on suggesting or recommending this place ever again. The customer service sucked, I felt as if I was being mistreated, and that the service needed a change in attitude.
A couple other notes, they do not have ANY storage, so when you have 34 teens jackets in the dead of winter, a parent or someone must stay outside with the coats during the game. Also, in an attempt to pass time between games, the team was taking a group picture on some stairs for the yearbook, when a staff member EXTREMELY impatiently yelled at my swimmers to move. To make matters worse, posing 34 kids takes time, and I had the camera ready and everyone set, when she made us move, it was disappointing and rude, for a supposedly «fun» place.
Also, we had our game on a Sunday night, and there were five cops there, which did not give a good vibe off. The area is not too bad, but I did not expect to see five policemen there late on a Sunday night, just shows the kind of people who hang around there I guess.
In a few words «never, ever, ever, EVER! again.»

Took my kids to Shadowland for the first time over the weekend and they loved it.
The staff was friendly and helpful. The experience was amazing the kids also enjoyed the arcade games. My kids played 3 different laser tag games and each one was different. They want to have their birthday party there. They offer a nice package for birthday parties. We also had popcorn which was hot and fresh. I had a smaller child and staff was so nice and helped him with his gear and made him feel comfortable. He really enjoyed it. Very nice and fun place to go on the weekends!!!

I would love to give this place 5 stars but I just can’t. It is a great place to go and it’s fun when you do.
The issue is nothing ever changes. The only upgrade I noticed after not going for 2 years was the guns were made to make you keep 2 hands on the gun to fire. Play 1 round against kids who hold hands in front of sensors and this upgrade you will be thankful for.
The terrain never changes, nor do the games or design. I’m not asking for much but after what has to be 10 or more years now, it’s time for a change.
My only other quarrel is that ½ the time you go with more then 2 or 3 people one or more of you are bound to have some sort of technical issues. Most of the time the victim will receive a free game coupon but little good that does when your group is done playing and you missed your turn and they don’t want to spend more money to play again when you should have been included in the first place. I know a few times I’ve gotten a free game credit yet lose it before returning, which may be a reason they hand them out so often.
The past 2 times I went with my 3 brothers either myself or my brother couldn’t play 2 or more of the 3 games because of pack issues. So out of 6 games played we only once played all together.
I’ll go back eventually but only after the need to play outweighs the issues I know I’ll have. Who knows.

I do not rate anything five stars unless it is an incredible experience. This gets a five-​star rating only because I can’t give it six stars.
Triple play for less than twenty bucks when you have five other buddies with you. YOU CAN’T BEAT THAT WITH A BAT. In addition, when one of your buddies is a total n00b and hasn’t ever played before, the staff require you to go through a quick briefing on how to play the game and how to use the pack and what all the little lights and noises are. THEN you go into their huge frikkin’ dark arena and IT IS TOTAL MAYHEM, BOYYEEEE! I took a few guys from my paintball team in here after we had a s***ty experience at some other laser tag joint down in VA. They gave us a capture the flag game. WE DESTROYED THE OTHER TEAM. And the whole time they had this awesome music in the background with fog and lights and un-​tiss un-​tiss un-​tiss did I mention the pumping music?

Remember when laser tag came out in the 80’s? It was so insanely high-​tech back then. I mean, think about it… it was tag, but with a FRICKIN’ LASER!!! I begged my mom to get that for me. She didn’t think it was an appropriate toy for a young girl who really should be spending more time practicing her violin and less time watching commercials. Then the cartoon came out on Saturday mornings. Man, I was so addicted to that cartoon, and my desire to play laser tag grew to nearly an obsession. Sadly, none of the kids I was allowed to play with (all good little Chinese girls who enjoyed practicing violin over watching mindless TV) had the laser tag set. But in my dreams… oh the battles I had!!!
Years goes by, and I have moved on. Still… still, there is part of me that always yearned. So imagine the rapture my twisted little soul experienced when a laser tag «arena» opened up a mere 10 minutes from me! Finally!
Fortunately, the (lame) guy I was dating at the time was the uberest of über geeks. The two of us went to Shadowlands so often that we not only knew all the staffers by name, but we also knew who would be working on which day… and a few times, we gave the little spiel about how to use the equipment (in addition to the gun, you also have a chest piece) to the n00bs when the staff was busy. I know. Pathetic, right? But there you go.
In the beginning Shadowlands was actually pretty cool. Most of the players that came were über geeks like we were. Geeks, but at least adults. Or companies who would book events here as «team building» activities. Again, adults. The arena was dark, with carpeted ramps and hidden little nooks and crannies everywhere, and when you showed up for a game, it was always an epic pitched battle that everyone would be talking about and arguing over drinks, for hours afterwards.
But then… the kids came (kids ruin everything!). Parents started booking their kids’ birthday parties here on Saturday afternoons. Fine, we just learned to avoid the place on Saturdays. But then it extended into Sundays. Then after school… and before you know it, the entire place now infested with kids.
Before anyone asks why having kids in laser tag is bad — I just want you to think of your last paintball game (or your last LAN party… or the last time you had the guys over to watch the game). See how fun it was? How free you were? How you cursed and mocked and taunted your friends? OK. Now picture that fun event… with kids. Yeah. You see how the cursing and mocking and taunting would have to stop? Plus, the kids never abided by the «rules», and would randomly shoot people — including you, if you were on their team. Friendly fire my butt!
So now, again, my laser tag dreams have been dashed. Shadowlands has been taken over by sticky, whiny 8 year olds, whose mothers give you dirty looks if you dared to try to tell their precious little snot-​rag that they can’t shoot at their own teammates.
In short — Shadowlands, bad for geeky adults who wish to live their dreams of laser tag glory… but good for annoying, overprotective mothers to throw their 8 year old a party.
P. S. I know it seems that I hate children — I really don’t. I hate parents who let their kids become unmannered, over privileged brats who need either a good spanking or solitary confinement in juvie-​hall.