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I remember several years ago coming across a story where the characters get trapped in a virtual reality labyrinth where they were wearing a prototype/demo bodysuit that simulates pain responses, to the degree it could even kill the user. Also it could simulate smell.

I think it was in written form, but I can't be sure. Can anyone identify the title?

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  • In this one they end up in a labyrinth specifically just like in greek myth (I can't remember there may have even been a minotaur in it) and the actual people that developed it aren't around, I can't remember if it is a prototype or demo or what but they get their hands on these fancy new body suits and decide to try them out.
    – ewanm89
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 16:25

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It's definitely Shadow of the Minotaur because I've just read it and its great! They are working for a person called Glen Recede who is the game master and the body-suit is like a second skin as they say and they get stuck in a video game in a labyrinth which is the final level, with a Minotaur!

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    That's the one. Well, what else would you have in a labyrinth but a Minotaur, really should have remembered that.
    – ewanm89
    Commented Jul 18, 2015 at 18:14
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Killobyte by Piers Anthony sounds like the story to me. The main character that had the death issue was a paraplegic (with a heart condition that required a pacemaker that was affected by the shocks), and also that the "kill" shock of the game was supposed to get progressively worse as a discouragement.

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It could be that you are talking about the Otherland series by Tad Williams.

Throughout the second and third book, the protagonists travel from one virtual reality to another, although they never really are in an actual labyrinth.

It only differs a bit in your description of how they are interacting with this reality (spoiler ahead)

Firstly, they are not all wearing bodysuits. Secondly, it's not the suit that could kill them

If this is not what you are talking about, could you give some more info?

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Caverns of Soctrates by Dennis L. McKiernan also has a similar idea, though it's a fantasy world that they enter, and the characters are a group of gamers who are supposed to be testing the virtual reality and end up getting stuck inside it instead. It was quite fun.

Here are some additional details (spoiler):

I don't recall if they were wearing bodysuits, but the story did have the characters trying to survive in the VR while the people who had developed it were on the outside trying to get them out. There was also a horrific storm occurring at the same time to complicate matters in the real world, and a scene where ball lightning was floating throughout the building at the climax of the storm. At the end, after the gamers escape, it's revealed that one of the magic users has somehow retained their abilities in the real world.

http://books.google.com/books/about/Caverns_of_Socrates.html?id=1cH2c5WkwS0C

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This sounds very similar to Dream Park, or maybe one of its sequels. The series is built around the concept of high-tech LARPing.

Characters do end up trapped in mazes in at least some of the novels; they also use high-tech bodysuits a lot of the time, since they're basically playing an advanced interactive RPG.

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  • No definitely not LARP stuff in the story, it was entirely virtual reality. Also as far as I know it wasn't a series. Just a single story.
    – ewanm89
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 19:23

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