Let's cut to the chase: KFC's VR training experience is ... surreal. If you've got a thing for Saw but wanted Jigsaw to kindly instruct you through making fried chicken, this is your bag. Titled The Hard Way -- because you're making Kentucky fried goodness by hand, ostensibly how every KFC employee makes it on-site -- players inspect, oil, batter and fry poultry under the omnipotent eye (and disembodied voice) of the Colonel. It's creepy yet charming, which is KFC's wheelhouse now with its media and stunts. But the 10-minute VR trip won't make you a master chicken fryer, or even a competent employee.

As it stands, KFC's VR trip is a weird diversion, an indulgent free fall into a brand's cultish mythology. I got stuck on some tasks, like figuring out I was supposed to eyeball the whole chicken piece while "inspecting" it and struggling through a final shape-matching test. (I'll admit to getting distracted by the cuckoo clocks and knickknacks plastering the walls of the virtual kitchen.) The oddball humor helps though. When I tossed a chicken piece on the ground, the Colonel's framed portrait used its eyeball lasers to zap it back up to my prep table, for example.

Obviously, the bizarro atmosphere doesn't reflect a real workplace, but the humorous touches would likely keep potential trainees engaged in their VR education. Hell, we could all use more play in the workplace. The Hard Way might look like it was made by Willy Wonka's loony capitalist cousin from the South, but it's good to see a brand not take itself seriously.

To be fair, everyone I talked to reassured me that The Hard Way is in its very early stages, and KFC isn't totally sure how it wants to refine or change it. By no means is it gearing up to replace traditional recruitment training with the VR experience, KFC Head Chef Bob Das told me. At most, the company is showing it to some regional managers for feedback. For now, it's trucking media in for another weird KFC experience and considering next steps -- there's always the possibility that it could augment training in the future, Das said.

When a brand so steeped in its old-school American image tries to jump on buzzworthy tech, it's reasonable to be skeptical. The franchise has done outlandish gadget stunts in the past, from releasing a phone-charging takeout box to suggesting a takeout order based on your face. But its VR experience is a different endeavor, primarily because known companies like L'Oreal and UPS are looking into swapping virtual reality for on-site training. With some tweaks to better simulate the real cooking process, I could see The Hard Way becoming a prototype for KFC's future programs that prep trainees before they reach the real machines on-site.