I’m sitting on a longship more than one thousand years ago, with a fearsome Viking lurking behind me. I’m on a wooden bench in the vessel, but in real life, I’m wearing a virtual reality headset and sitting in a 4D chair that is cleverly programmed to move in time with a digital world and the undulations of the boat, registering movements and impacts. I’m inside the world’s first virtual reality drama production, a 12-minute immersive film named The Ambush, at the newly-opened The Viking Planet, slap bang in the centre of Oslo.
Visitors can step away from their 21st-century lives and encounter a primitive barbaric world. Plugging in involves climbing onto a platform, selecting the futuristic 4D chair and donning a VR headset. The headset obscures everything but the VRscreen, and headphones ensure the only sounds I hear are part of my upcoming adventure.
My new (or old) reality opens and closes around an ancient Viking campfire. When the titles fade, I’m sitting among a circle of friendly Vikings, where a heavily- bearded warrior begins to share tales of his past. As he walks away from the fire, Iam transported a further 25 years back in time to around 860 AD. This time I’m ona wooden bench at the rear of a longship facing crew of grubby Viking warriors. An archer opposite me is decked out in millennia-old maritime clothes, layers of wooland leather.
Our slender ship is gliding through the water towards the raid. I glance around nervously and realise that while I can’t move from my seat, I can see almost 360° – from the stars in the night sky to the dwellings dotted on the banks of the water and the fearsome men rowing in front of me on the longship.
It’s as I’m testing the limits of my view that get a shock-there’s a tall, grubby Viking with what looks like a shaved head, standing right behind me. It’s not long before his arrows rip through the air.
As we approach our target and the battle commences, I can actually feel what it’s like to be on a Viking raid. The ship jerks and shudders from impacts, and my chair jolts and shakes along with the enemy’s counter-attackin ‘real’ time. The ‘whoosh’ of flaming arrows fills the air from all sides, and I find myself excitedly rubbernecking to see where they’re coming from and where they land. Terrifying enemies soon appear in close proximity, the battle cries are swelling, and I’m witness to some pretty ruthless Viking battle tactics.
It is thrilling and hard not to get caught up in the adrenalin of battle. As the snarling, axe-wielding enemies lurch in my direction, my heart is thumping rapidly in my chest. I feel a mixture of relief and disappointments the action dramatically comes toa close and I travel forward in time to return to the campfire scene.
The VR experience was created in collaboration with Ridley Scott’s RSA Filmsand the UK’s Dimension Studio. “We wanted to do something futuristic, like Ridley Scott, who makes films in outer space, on deserted abandoned planets, with remnants of human civilisation,” says The Viking Planet founder Erik Gustavson. The captivating scenes are thanks to 35 hours of filming, and months of painstaking post-production processes.
The 270° movie- shown inside Viking helmet-shaped theatre – was shot mostly in Haugesund, an area of stunning Norwegian landscape considered the epicentre of Viking history. The snowscapes and rolling hills of green are breathtaking stuff. The cast is equally impressive – the digital Viking archer is played by real-life archer, Wolfie Hughes. Other familiar faces on the ship include Game of Thrones actors Ross O’Hennessy and Murray McArthur.
I take off my headset, step back outside into the Oslo sunshine and am snapped back to the modern day. The Viking history from my VR experience is embedded in my thoughts. The staggering landscapes have stayed with me, and I find myself planning a trip to Haugesund in the west, so l can transform my digital journey today into a real-life Norwegian adventure.
Written by Jenny Haward, who joined a brutal Viking raid in The Ambush — a virtual reality experience at The Viking Planet.