Pre-heist setup check: room, light and space in five minutes

Laser Thief is a room-scale game. The room is the level. Spend the five minutes before your first countdown wisely and you’ll save yourself frustration, wonky beams and bruises. Here’s the day-one checklist, step by step.

Step 1: Clear the space (one minute)

The studio says the levels are designed for a 3 × 3 metre play area. The store recommends at least 3 × 3 metres, so roughly 10 × 10 feet.

What that means in practice:

• Pick the biggest clear area in the home, usually the living room.
• Push the coffee table, beanbag and clothes horse out of the way.
• Check you can spin a full circle with your arms outstretched.

Smaller rooms aren’t ruled out. Below about 85 per cent of 9 square metres, the game thins out levels but keeps every mechanic. That’s not a guarantee for every room size.

Step 2: Scan the room (two minutes)

Laser Thief uses room data from Meta Space Setup. With a scan, beams end at your real walls, tall posts reach the ceiling, and L-shaped rooms are supported.

Here’s how:

1. In-game, choose “Scan my room” on the room selector, or run Space Setup in the headset settings beforehand.
2. Capture walls, floor and ceiling cleanly.
3. Mark your furniture. Furniture under 1.3 metres counts as an obstacle in-game.
4. Then pick the room in-game and confirm you’re standing in it.

If you’ve moved furniture, it’s worth a fresh scan. There’s a “Rescan / Change room” option in the settings.

Step 3: Quick Play as your plan B

No scan, no inclination, no time? Then there’s Quick Play. The game takes a free square area directly in front of you. The default is 3 metres, adjustable in 0.15-metre steps between 2.25 and 3.75 metres.

The catch: without a scan, the game doesn’t know where your real walls and furniture are. So the area really does need to be clear. The game itself says: “keep it clear”.

Step 4: Trip hazards and breakables (one minute)

Laser Thief asks you to duck, crouch, slip through sideways and take big steps over low beams. No crawling required. Even so:

• Flatten rug edges or roll rugs up.
• Get cables off the floor, including your headset charging cable.
• Move glasses, vases and lamps out of arm’s reach. Gadget heists have you swinging a virtual hammer.
• Take pets and children out of the room, or get someone to keep an eye on them.
• Check ceiling lights if you’re tall and raising your arms.

Step 5: Light and passthrough

Mixed reality mode shows your real room through passthrough. Even, not-too-dim lighting helps the headset with tracking and helps you spot your furniture. Avoid direct sunlight on the headset lenses.

If the room is tight or cluttered, VR mode can help. It rebuilds your real room as a themed world. Furniture stays invisible until you get within 60 centimetres of it, then lights up as edges.

Step 6: Measure your height

Laser heights are based on eye height. The game measures it automatically. There’s also a “Measure” option in the settings: stand upright, press, done. Manually, it runs from 0.90 to 2.20 metres.

If you hand the headset to a family member, measure again. Otherwise the limbo bars sit at the wrong height.

Step 7: The right settings for night one

• Difficulty: Casual gives three shields per heist. Good for starting out and for mixed groups.
• Laser Speed: Easy slows down hunters and blink cycles. You’ll find it on the level select screen.
• BLIP in heists: leave it on. The hints at the platform help on the first evening.
• Stick locomotion: leave it off. The game is built for real walking.

The short version to tick off

Item	Done?
Clear area, ideally 3 × 3 m	☐
Room scan up to date, or Quick Play chosen	☐
Cables, rug edges, glass out of the way	☐
Pets and children sorted	☐
Even lighting	☐
Eye height measured	☐

What’s missing

There’s no seated mode and no dedicated setup helper for furniture beyond the Meta scan. If you have to play sitting down, you won’t find a solution here.

Buy now, wait or skip? If you can tick off the checklist, buy now. If you can’t manage 2.25 metres of clear space, wait until you have the room. All the store details are on the Laser Thief page in the Meta Store.