I was eaten alive in The Walking Dead — and it made for an incredible VR experience

LOS ANGELES — As I sit down in the wheelchair that developer Starbreeze set up as part of its new virtual-reality hardware and game demonstration, I start to understand what I’m in for. Four minutes later, as the zombies approached my helpless body, my fears were confirmed.

StarVR is a new VR head-mounted display that Starbreeze is making itself in conjunction with Starbreeze Paris, which was formerly known as InfinitEye. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo tradeshow yesterday, the publisher used its new Walking Dead game — from developer Overkill — to show off the capabilities of the new device. If that sounds like a terrible idea, that’s because it is — and the company responsible for all of this was happy to make it as horrifying as possible. But I came out believing that this new competition is only going to mean good things for the future of VR.