Above: Click and drag your mouse around this 360-degree "scene-shot" in order to simulate being inside of this PlayStation VR exclusive from a team of ex-Halo and ex-Infamous developers.

Not Their First Rodeo

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Doll Me Up

You'll possess – and fight against – numerous golems. Some might be six inches tall. In this scene, you are a 20-foot-tall rock monster fighting against another.

“ I was inside my first Golem: a six-inch doll on the floor of the hut. If you’ve ever wondered what Honey, I Shrunk the Kids would be like if it were real, then this portion of Golem is probably as close as you’re likely to get in the foreseeable future.

A Bug’s Life

Golem's clearly-not-modern-day world feels lived in – a sense that is only heightened by the fact that you're experiencing it in PlayStation VR.

“ I was like a six-inch-tall Lewis or Clark, exploring new lands.

Exploring the caves underneath your bed-ridden avatar's house as a six-inch doll yields unexpected (and unexplained) surprises.

Welcome to the Rock

The view of yourself from the six-inch-tall doll you're possessing. So since this is VR, you're actually having an out -of-body experience inside an out-of-body experience right here.

“ The VR and Move combine to make Golem’s combat a virtual 1:1 experience. Gesticulation equals success.

When you're a six-inch-tall doll, even the sight of a dead cockroach feels like a nightmare from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

A New Frontier

Much of Golem's story remains a mystery, but we're told that story is a big emphasis for the veteran team at Highwire Games.

A promising vision of the future of VR gaming for hardcore gamers hides in a small, quaint, quiet studio in Old Seattle – a 3.5” floppy disk’s throw from where Seattle’s best professional athletes now compete at neighboring CenturyLink Field and Safeco Field. Walk into Highwire Games ’ third-floor office and everything seems unassuming at first sight. Nine veteran game developers – and it’s their almost endless, AAA game-laced resumes that are key to the challenge they’re trying to overcome – all work quietly. Only the sound of seagulls circling outside or, more oddly, the occasional marching band storming by on the street breaks up the quiet, focused work going on here.But the silence feels more like confidence. Strewn about are reminders of the team’s past: a three-foot-tall Master Chief statue circa Halo 2, a framed Halo 3 poster signed by the entire Bungie development team, an Infamous 2 electrical prod prop with one of its poorly galvanized rubber ends melted into a creepy pool of black goo (but at least there’s a napkin underneath it to catch any additional rubberized drool). These relics mix with new elements like PlayStation 4 development kits and, most prominently, PlayStation VR headsets (one of which has a pair of googly eyes stuck to the front of it).So this is a veteran team in the very best of ways, and they are very serious about their first project together: Golem, a PlayStation VR exclusive. It is by far the most intriguing, exciting game I’ve seen purpose-built for VR yet; a refreshing breath of hardcore-friendly air in a VR world that, so far, is dominated by tech demos and mini-games. Could it be the game that sells millions of PlayStation owners on the potential of VR?Above: Click and drag your mouse around this 360-degree "scene-shot" in order to simulate being inside of this PlayStation VR exclusive from a team of ex-Halo and ex-Infamous developers.Golem is a game whose plot is still, by design, shrouded in mystery. But here’s what Highwire would say: it’s a world not like this one. You play a girl stricken by injury; bedridden. But she can interact with the world by virtue of her ability to possess golems which will range in size, shape, and ability. It is clearly not the modern-day world. Everything has a handmade, natural look to it.Above: Click and drag your mouse around this 360-degree "scene-shot" in order to simulate being inside of this PlayStation VR exclusive from a team of ex-Halo and ex-Infamous developers.I held up my PlayStation Move – yes, Golem is a “real” game despite not utilizing the DualShock 4, and we’ll let Highwire explain how and why later this month – which was represented as a large pink crystal in my avatar’s hands. I stared into it and suddenly, *poof*, I was inside my first Golem: a six-inch doll on the floor of the hut. If you’ve ever wondered what Honey, I Shrunk the Kids would be like if it were real, then this portion of Golem is probably as close as you’re likely to get in the foreseeable future. This change of perspectives is certainly a strange experience, but also a wondrous one. I wandered around with the headset-based movement system (more on that later this month too), gazing at giant nails that hadn’t been hammered in all the way peeking out of the floorboards. A dead cockroach went from a little thing I’d have never noticed as a full-size human to a giant, disgusting hazard. And at one point, I looked up as the six-inch-tall doll on the floor and saw my injured self in bed. I realized that, including the PSVR helmet on my head, I was currently having an out-of-body experience of an out-of-body experience.Thankfully, only tiny buzzing gnats and more dead cockroaches and scarabs dotted my path. I soon wound my way out from under the hut and into daylight. I was like a six-inch-tall Lewis or Clark, exploring new lands. But the daylight didn’t last, as I soon ducked into another tunnel, egged on by shiny purple crystals. Inside, walkways criss-crossed, with armies of bugs marching in the distance – far enough away so as not to haunt you, but close enough to give you the willies anyway. Strange rock formations in the shapes of, fittingly enough, golems carved from rock were hewn from certain stones, reminiscent of Han Solo frozen in carbonite.This journey took my tiny doll self from daylight into darkness and back again, and ended at a very distinct rock golem carving after I crossed a series of, ahem, high wires in the form of narrow wood planks resting atop a chasm. I explored and beheld fascinating sights, but I’ll have to wait for the full game to figure out what this section of Golem means for its story and bigger-picture gameplay.Fear not: Golem is no mere walking simulator, and the Move acts as more than just a flashlight. The second chunk of gameplay Highwire loaded me into was a desert arena under the bright midday sun. Instead of a six-inch-tall doll or a four-foot-tall disabled girl, I was now a giant, 20-foot-tall stone giant; a golem in the more aggressive sense of the word.Above: Click and drag your mouse around this 360-degree "scene-shot" in order to simulate being inside of this PlayStation VR exclusive from a team of ex-Halo and ex-Infamous developers.Attacking is pretty straightforward – just swing your sword. But you must first block your opponent’s attacks in order to open him up to a counter. Your rival’s strikes can come from over the top, so you’ll need to lift your arm truly above your head. Griesemer told me that many friends who they’ve brought into try Golem make small motions with their hands out of habit, conditioned so after years of a gamepad requiring minimal movements. But the VR and Move combine to make Golem’s combat a virtual 1:1 experience. Gesticulation equals success. The golem can also come at you with a direct sword thrust or from the right or left sides. More advanced golems attack quickly and with more random attack patterns, which is tricky because you have to block the entire sequence in order to unlock a chance to counter.Eventually, you’ll chop off one of its arms and soon strike it down, sending it satisfyingly flipping to the ground and to its death. I couldn’t help but extend my arm straight out, pointing my sword at the golem’s corpse in a victory taunt.And don’t worry: we’ll show you gameplay videos of both the doll and golem sections very soon.But what about the logistics of VR? Meaning: will you feel motion sickness in a first-person VR game? Vertigo? Will it be physically comfortable on your head and, more specifically, your eyes to spend extended stretches of time in VR? It is these design challenges that Highwire thrives on attacking. After all, Griesemer was one of the key folks responsible for tuning the original Halo’s controls and, by extension, making first-person shooters fun on a gamepad for the very first time (with apologies to GoldenEye and the N64’s single thumbstick). We’ll cover Highwire’s strategy as our IGN First month of coverage continues, and if you’re like me, it will seem obvious when you hear it, but at the same time incredibly smart.While Highwire hasn’t slapped a release date on Golem just yet – heck, we still don’t even know when PlayStation VR launches or how much it costs – Griesemer made it clear that won’t be a launch title. When you factor that in with the knowledge that Golem has already been in development for two years, it’s clear that Highwire’s decorated team of AAA-game veterans is very serious about taking its time to making a true, story-driven, top-shelf game built specifically for VR. If they live up to their resumes – not to mention the full potential of what I got to see in my two days at their studio – then Golem might be the first must-have game for PlayStation VR, or any other VR platform for that matter.To keep track of our Golem coverage all month long, please bookmark this page , as it will be updated as each new feature is published.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews and Xbox Guru-in-Chief. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan , catch him on Podcast Unlocked , and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.