Hard Knocks

I had a great time at Hard knocks. The laser tag instruction are clear and the missions are fun. the guns used for Laser tag come in three different sizes so it is perfect for those who want to carry a large rifle or just a hand gun size laser gun.

Hard Knocks was an awesome environment with super friendly staff. They are great for parties and manage large groups excellently. The missions are really fun. I can’t say anything about the price, because I went on a Unilocal event night so everything was free, but I would pay for a trip like this in the future. It was a great experience.

Great Place to have fun and bring out the kid in you. Time just flies when you into the game. Best place to have all your friends together to share the challenge. Looking forward to doing it again.

This is a great place for a team building event, getting a group of friends together or a date night. I would not known about Hard Knocks, if it weren’t for a Unilocal event I attended.

This is a great place to go to have a good time. I recommend going with a group. Your group will get put with other people but it is a lot of fun. The staff is very friendly and helpful. I had a blast!

I wish I’d been able to give a little bit of a higher rating of this place, because the concept has some great potential and truly, I left with a smile on my face. There were just some things that happened during my visit that made it difficult to recommend this for a group outing. Don’t let the 2 star rating deter you necessarily, but I felt like there were too many things that missed the mark for me to endorse someone going out of their way for this place.
The concept is supposed to be marketed towards larger, corporate groups and the situations in the laser tag venues are supposed to be as realistic as possible (i.e. militaryish style). The problem with that was:
1) They offer a private dining room for large groups, but require that if you use the room you order from one of their vendors. No problem, except that they scheduled our catering for the wrong day… which delayed our food for longer than 2 hours. One of the girls behind the bar took the liberty of explaining to us that her manager was new and that she was the only one «seasoned» and she was doing her best to run basically the entire building. Not a good look. Hungry people don’t necessarily care about the dynamics or deficiencies of the staff that’s responsible for why their food isn’t there, they just want to know when it’ll be available.
2) The explanation of protocol in the laser tag venue (given via a video of some blonde chick with a stripper name) didn’t effectively explain how the guns work, how much ammo you have, what happens when you run out of ammo, etc. This caused several problems in the first two or three games.
3) Aforementioned stripper names. Every single gun is named some stripper/​porn star name… and so are all of the instructors. It was a little much for me walking around with my camo vest looking for Summer, Trixie, Heidi, or Vonda (no offense to anyone reading this who may or may not have one of those names…)
The night ended up fine and I enjoyed myself, but given the price, like I said I wouldn’t be back or necessarily recommend this place for large groups.

Took a trip here with a handful of friends. I cant comment on the price since we paid a group rate, but judging from the previous reviews, it probably wasnt a killer deal. oh well.
It was a fun place, big and plenty of room to run around and hide. the only problem was THE GUNS DIDNT WORK. I understand how guns work. I know that a rifle is a long range, a pistol is a mid range, and the shotgun is a short range weapon. I cant tell you how many games we played that half of the people complained about hitting someone multiple times and nothing happening.
We even stood in from of each other and shot each other and heard nothing. The system is very hit or miss. Frankies has better guns because they work. But i like the concept of hard knocks, i just wish things would work. Many times we had people saying their gun didnt work or their vest wasnt registering hits. (one girl ran around for 5 minutes through gun fire before the ref stopped and tested her vest).
Take the guns from frankies fun park and you’d have a working concept! OR fix the guns.

This place had potential. It was so hot coming out of the arena to the bar area. A fan would have been nice. Most of the staff was cool, but one regulator would’ve made a better parking ticket cop.
My biggest complaint is that they didn’t show individual scores, only if your team won. They made you sign up for keeping track of your score (pregame), but they just want your contact info to spam.
Note: Make sure that the gun you pick shows a digital reading on the side. If the text is ½ there or not showing, your gun will suck. I found the pistol was the best gun to use. Make a code word for your teammates so they don’t shoot you when you’re close to one another.

Inadequate staff. Huge lines. Sexist décor and instructions. Place filled with kids waiting in line for way too, long and they only opened one arena. The elimination rules are not appropriate given the cost. You should be able to play the whole mission.
I know this is a chain, but they act like they’ve never done this before. They may aspire to be the Hooters of laser tag (a strange aspiration) but savvy business people would recognize their real customers.
It’s only saving grace is the lame competition.

Came once with another couple and it was a good experience. Recommend Monday or Tuesday night since they have Ladies night and family night where you can play as a group for hours and save on the price. As the other reviews indicate, this is not your run of the mill laser tag and comes at a premium cost. As long as you remember that it’s a game and just enjoy yourself it’s a real blast. The «missions» go by quickly, you will be getting some exercise and don’t expect gourmet food. We were told you can leave and get something to eat and come back if that is an issue.

Really fun! Really entertaining! Definitely bring a group of friends and as for Eclipse as moderator… She Knows the right games to play and makes sure everyone plays fair, plus an upbeat attitudes that makes it a lot more fun!

Came here for a team building event with 10 co workers and ending up having an awesome time. We had a great rate through the group event booking. Everyone is having a blast!

We took a group of our interns here for a final event, and invited along our managers and mentors. We rented out the entire place and had a blast. They were incredibly helpful and accommodating, our students loved it, as did our full time employees. Many were asking if we could come back and do a team building exercise!
Its hot though, so make sure you were comfortable clothing/​shoes!

I don’t know what the other reviewers were expecting, but I thought this place was great. My grown son and I were in town for a meeting and decided to try this (having never experienced anything like it) and went there with 3 other business associates.
We all had a blast and thought it was a good value. I hope one opens in my hometown in the future.

Went for a friends birthday and did not have a very good experience. The host paid the group-​rate yet nobody informed her that this does not mean you get private matches with just your group.
We were given 2 hours to play 8 matches yet had to wait for orientation EVERY MATCH for the people they added. The «regulators» only job, it seemed, was to draw the process between matches out as long as possible. There was no way we were fitting 8 games in. We arrived at 230 and by nearly 6, had only played 5!
As I mentioned above they tried mixing other groups in with ours. What’s the point of a «group-​rate» (which was actually the same $ 30 per person as non-​group) if they are going to constantly mix new/​other players in? At one point they tried to match us with another group that had nearly 25 people, ours had 12. This would not be an issue if the arenas actually had room for that many people.
Lastly, when we questioned why the whole process was taking so long, the «bartender» and other employees started throwing the group sales rep under the bus. They explained how terrible she was at her job and how she had overbooked the whole day when really, they were just obviously understaffed. The concept at this location is not fully realized yet either. All game types are essentially the same, equipment is fussy and does not work right half the time and the «upgrades» they explain on their site are not even available at this location. Icing on the cake, what else could go wrong you ask? The A/​C was «not working» in any of the arenas and they were all hot, humid sweat boxes.
Will not go back and will not recommend to anybody. The concept seems cool from the get-​go but in reality is just a half-​assed headache waiting to happen!

It’s kinda of like Call of Duty «live». We had a great time on our visit, but it’s a little hard to figure out. This was our first visit so maybe the learning curve improves.

Expectations were too high, the place was not as fun as I thought it would be. I’ve been to better.
I walked into the store, the people who work there are wearing shorts that their mamas would NOT be proud of, they are possibly THE most unfriendly, unprofessional people I have ever encountered. Still whatever, the costs are extremely high, you have to purchase a year-​long membership to have a «cheaper» purchase of 4 or 8 games. I didn’t want that because I had never been to the place, but you can’t buy a single game, it’s weird. EXPENSIVE. But whatever, I don’t own the place.
We watched a safety video that taught you pretty much nothing about the games, but she had some knockers all right. It was not helpful, but I figured hey, learn by doing. So we went in, for some reason we couldn’t take pictures? like calm down, it’s not a real battlefield, it’s LASER tag for goodness sake. They threatened to kick us out because we had taken a picture. OKAY, first, WARN US that no photography is allowed!
We played for whatever the amount of allotted time was and then left. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND this place, it’s gender-​biased and is horrible for young children, NO women do not look like this. Would not recommend, if I could give it a 0, I would.

Ok, so I came here with some coworkers expecting something lax and casual, but this actually turned out pretty intense.
First, they’ve got some «state-​of-​the-​art» equipment that costs $ 1500. Pretty sure a $ 100 toy gun would have done the same, but hey, I’m not business owner.
Second, there’s a 10 minute «safety» video with a well-​endowed lady wearing some skimpy two-​piece army getup (pretty sure that tiny vest isn’t going to protect anything, lady).
Third, they’re a bit strict about all of their rules, and can get a bit annoying with enforcing it.
Fourth, I was expecting some mist machine and strobe lights with some techno-​based background when I first got here, but instead, got basically different layouts of warehouse space (not really a bad thing, but trying a bit too hard).
Fifth, it was like $ 25/​person for supposedly 5 games. However, there’s also a time limit of 1 hour, so it’s more like 3 – 4 games.
However, that being all said, I actually had a lot of fun running around (though not really, cause there’s a no running rule, so it was more speed walking) and being a little kid again.
This place is a pretty solid 2, but I’m feeling generous.

Okay, here’s how this gig works…
You enter the place and you look at the sign to make sure you didn’t walk into Hooters by mistake.
They make you buy an annual membership of $ 5.99 per person. Then you buy missions in packs of 4 or 8 for $ 19.99 and $ 29.99 respectively. There is no option to buy a single mission to try it out.
You watch a video vixen explain how the guns work, and they turn the sex appeal up by telling you that no matter how attractive you find your fellow players, touching is prohibited.
Then you get into an amoeba like mass and you get separated into two teams and you’re led into the armory room. You have a choice of M4, MP5, shotgun, or pistol as a weapon. Each have their own unique characteristics. You put on a tactical vest that has the sensors on it. The idea is to shoot the sensors.
You’re led into one of four arenas. It then becomes pretty much a freeforall. While you can tell when you’re hit because the gun screams at you and shuts down for about five seconds. But unless you’re listening carefully to what you’re shooting at, you can’t really tell you’re hitting what you’re aiming at.
You’re in the arena no longer than 17 minutes, and that includes prep and debrief time.
It’s a neat place to have a birthday party, though.

My expectations coming into the event were high, I imagined laser tag extreme. It was more indoor «combat» (used loosely) training. There are four guns to choose from and you have three or four sensors to shoot on your vest (some are green camo some tan camo – make sure you can tell the difference!). Lasers are somewhat accurate.
We came as a birthday party and paid $ 30 per person, what should’ve equated to 8 games but we were only allowed to play 7 because we were «timed» (they advertise eight games for thirty dollars FYI). Staff was friendly enough but they seemed frantic at times organizing all the groups. Out of the seven game mode we played all were different – good variety.
We also grabbed a beer (very limited selection, the only IPA is a longbow by Red Hook and marked up). My biggest qualm was that you have no idea how you did, no stat sheet, no record of how many kills or who killed you.
Honestly I’d loved for this to have been awesome but it was disappointing. If I hadn’t spent so much money and could’ve known how I did I would’ve been a lot more satisfied. Hope they can improve there.