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Reporter’s Notebook: This is judgment day for ‘Terminator Salvation: Fight for the Future’ novices

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It took me about 15 minutes to save the world.

In that span I shot through hordes of terminators, littering the ground with the metallic carcasses of dozens of the fiendish cyborgs — all in the service of the Resistance.

Afterward I got an ice-cream cone.

This heated battle for the preservation of mankind occurred at the new “Terminator Salvation: Fight for the Future” attraction at the virtual reality center Spaces in the Irvine Spectrum.

The attraction sends small teams on a mission to a war-torn city, where humanity is facing Skynet’s red-eyed robots in a story adapted from the film franchise.

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Before the action started, my teammate and I were asked to scan our faces on a device that mapped them to an in-game avatar. I had to scan my face a few times before it fully captured it.

Next I was fitted with a backpack computer, a headset and hand and foot sensors that track motion.

After a short video explained the straightforward mission, we were led to a cordoned area, about the size of a boxing ring, and told to lower our visors. Ushered into the virtual world, the hilarity of seeing my teammate’s face on the skeletal body of a terminator provoked some laughter.

Before the mission began, we were told to practice our shooting on a couple of targets.

I wasn’t good.

If it was possible to actually lose the mission, the target practice would have presaged failure.

Something I was good at was shooting the face off my teammate’s avatar. It’s one of the great joys of the attraction. It eventually restores, and then you can shoot it off again.

My only frame of reference was the VOID’s “Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire” attraction in Downtown Disney. The overall narrative and adventure in that experience eclipses the Terminator attraction.

When you finish the “Star Wars” experience, you feel like you have gone to several locations and accomplished more. Most of the Terminator attraction occurs in one virtual location.

It’s still a blast, and the shooting in the Terminator experience is far more satisfying.

After saving the world and all that, one of the attraction’s attendants led us out to a television screen, where we watched a short film of our adventure. It is here that any pride you may have had in your accomplishment melts away.

A dramatic orchestral track underscored great dialogue like, “You have to put the thing in the thing,” and, “I’m trying to read the thing, dude.”

Riveting stuff. Worthy of a James Cameron script.

We also found out who scored the most points. Not me.

It may have had something to do with spending most of my time shooting my teammate’s face. It will likely take another round or two to get better.

I’ll be back.

Spaces, also the name of the company behind the attraction, was formed in January 2016 by Shiraz Akmal and Brad Herman. Both came from the DreamLab department at DreamWorks Animation.

The company focuses on immersive entertainment, with a number of projects slated for theme parks. The Terminator attraction is the first the company has opened to the public.

“Our aim has always been to build the future,” Akmal said.

The company started the Terminator project about a year and a half ago after securing the rights.

Akmal said they’re huge fans of the film franchise, and the recent reboot shows the longstanding relevance of the Terminator universe.

While Akmal acknowledged that virtual reality experiences are becoming more common, he said Spaces has some unique qualities, like the facial scan and short movie.

Herman said he doesn’t see other local virtual reality attractions as competitors.

“It’s not like the VOID is our competitor — more people doing location-based virtual reality is good for the industry in general,” Herman said.

The Spectrum location is a work in progress. About a third of the building is open to the public, and more experiences are being developed so visitors will be able to choose from a variety of adventures.

“We want to make sure there is something in every category, so you have your action and sci-fi experiences, and then horror, fantasy and more,” Akmal said.

Tickets are $30 at spaces.com.

benjamin.brazil@latimes.com

Twitter:@benbrazilpilot

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