Before I even put the headset on, I was ushered into a small staging room and introduced to a docent, Thea Ulrich. In hushed tones, she briefed me on what to expect and how to alert her if I was feeling disturbed. She then helped me strap on an HP Z VR vibrating backpack and a StarVR headset, then held my hands and led me to the actual site, since I was basically blindfolded by goggles that weren't turned on. The whole time, I could hear ominous atmospheric music playing through the 32 cinema-grade DTS:X speakers set up in the space, as well as smell the smoky scent of oud in the air.

When I arrived at the starting spot, Ulrich guided my hand to a tire near me, and soon after that, the VR headset came on. The tire that I felt appeared in the virtual environment, exactly where I thought it would be, and other props in the faux village, like crates and bricks, were mirrored in my real surroundings with props, too.

All this set the stage for a powerful, profound experience, and indeed, as creator Navid Khonsari told Engadget, about 80 percent of people who see Hero are shaken at the end of it. For this reason, the team also prepared a post-room to allow viewers to recover after the seven-minute session.

Khonsari and his team also went to great lengths to create an accurate digital world. "The actual music coming out of the radio is by a very popular Syrian singer there, directly to that actual time," he said. The characters were Syrian refugees scanned into the experience, too.

The message of the project, according to Khonsari, is that "amongst all the rubble that exists among all the civilian places in this world, there is still joy and happiness." After the initial shock and when the dust has somewhat settled, Hero leaves it up to you to decide what to do. As a relatively experienced VR user, I was able to quickly suss out the end game and figure out the goal.

Even though Khonsari's idea for Hero came about around two years ago, at the height of the Syrian Civil War, it's become even more timely this month, after Britain, France and the US fired missiles at the Middle Eastern region.