I like the concept of this ride, but think it could really use some tweaks to be more interesting.
Improving the weapon. It has no weight at all, probably due to weak sounds, basic effects, and zero recoil. There’s much better feeling weapons in Virus, so it should be improved to feel more like a proper weapon. Needs to feel like something. Even the laser tag gun feels better.
Maybe have some powerups or weapon pickups you can score, perhaps shooting certain things could swap you to different weapons.
Faster ride. This event takes quite a long time to complete, and I think this is the main thing that puts some people off. The best part about the ride is the last 20 seconds or so where it speeds up fast. I really think there should be more fast sections like that, and the overall speed of the ride throughout should be 20% faster or so.
A laser dot wouldn’t hurt.
The interval for the ride could be quicker, so that larger parties can see their friends in a cart behind them or something. There’s only one place in the whole track right now where you can see the cart behind you. If the time were shorter maybe there’d be more.
I think mainly with point 1 and 3, that a lot more people would play this ride. Its still fun as it is, but its just a bit slow and repetitive.
Points 2 and 3 sound good, but regarding point 1; Since this is just a themed dark ride, your gun isn’t supposed to be like a real gun; its pretty much just a toy, hence why it feels weak with no recoil.
But idk maybe the gun for dark voyage is just a placeholder or something, I don’t mind if it gets replaced/updated to feel more like a proper weapon.
As Boo said, the gun feeling weak is intentional. Real dark rides literally use what are essentially laser tag guns. They’re quite literally just toy guns. And, to me, the Dark Voyage guns feel just like the real thing. Also, the real rides do go quite slow on purpose, because it gives you plenty of time to shoot things. I actually feel like Dark Voyage should actually go just a little bit slower, because I quite often end up spinning around and shooting things behind me because the ride moves past things faster than I can shoot them.
The speed of the ride is also an issue for larger parties as the players in front of the cart have the advantage of seeing around corners before the players in the back do.
Sitting in the back, my score was miserable compared to my friends’ scores sitting in the front. Too many times was I just waiting around for something to shoot as the people in front were getting all the action. This becomes a much bigger issue inside the house where there are narrower rooms with more walls perpendicular to the track blocking your view from further back (like the library room).
There’s still things to shoot at during the fast ending bit so forcing everyone to holster their guns at that point would just lower the amount of points you can potentially get from the ride, which would be kind of lame.
Still. I was about to shoot flying demon during the fast ending. I acknownlegde why the lightgun ride lets you still shooting demons as they fly over you, behind, in front of you during the final stretch. I imagine the Mega Race scene from Spy Kids 3-D.