San Francisco (CNN Business) On a recent weekday, I pulled a virtual-reality headset over my eyes and, in an instant, left behind a bland office and entered a rustic-looking frontier land. The spot in front of me where a table had stood was now a decaying, foreboding home. The wind blew in my ears and the sun shone overhead.

I was checking out a demo of "Westworld Awakening," a new virtual-reality game from HBO and VR game studio Survios that's based on HBO's hit sci-fi western "Westworld." Players take on the role of Kate, an AI robot (known in the TV show as a "host"), who suddenly awakens in the lab of her makers and realizes she isn't who or what she thought she was.

For those who haven't watched, the TV show's fictional Westworld park is a place where incredibly realistic-looking hosts interact with human visitors who can pretty much do whatever they want in a Wild West setting. It could have simply been remade as the setting for a virtual shoot-'em-up game. Instead, Survios and HBO, which is owned by CNN parent company WarnerMedia, worked together to create something much more complicated and fascinating.

I was captivated by virtual clothing so intricate you can examine the ruffles on collars and see through diaphanous fabric. People I came across didn't appear photorealistic, but they were impressive-looking nonetheless. This is a game with a lot of blood and gore, so it might not be for those with queasy stomachs, but even the lifeless bodies I came across were worthy of inspection.

Even the way you move through this world is unique — swinging your arms while holding a game controller in each hand. The faster you swing, the closer you get to running. If not done just right, with all the visuals matching up properly to what you see as you move, it could have been nauseating. Instead, it worked surprisingly well, matching with the pace and a sense of fear that permeates the game.

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