E3 2016: Wilson’s Heart Is Like a Hitchcock Movie You Star In

With an Oculus Rift atop my head and an Oculus Touch controller in each hand, Wilson’s Heart suddenly put me inside a 1950s Alfred Hitchcock psychological thriller. My virtual hands-on test drive of the macabre, black-and-white first-person spookfest began with each of my hands shackled to a rigging. I reached down and undid the bolts on each hand and then I was free to explore this mid-20th-century mental institution and wonder, “Where the hell did my heart go, and what on earth have the madmen here replaced it with?”

You navigate the hospital using an increasingly popular VR movement method: you look around, and when you see a silhouette of yourself appear, you press one of the Touch’s face buttons to teleport there. It’s an effective method of navigating the space in the absence of the Vive’s room-aware sensors, even if it requires a firm suspension of disbelief. I moved from hallway to room and back, stopping at one point in front of a mirror. Cleverly, you can crane your neck, lower your chin, and otherwise mug in front of the mirror, and Robert Wilson changes his facial expression according to the angle of your gaze. It’s a clever, immersive touch.

A book next to that same mirror lends your first clue as to what the hell is going on. Sketches of bizarre heart replacements – some organic, some decidedly man-made – litter the pages, along with strange inscriptions and notes. Panic starts to set in for Wilson and you begin wandering the facility, desperate for help. A nurse you approach is either blissfully unaware of your condition or straight-up lying to you about it, frustrating Wilson even more as he ponders the foreign object in his chest.

Things get weirder as Wilson’s fear, anxiety, and paranoia (?) sets in. I used Touch to open cabinets looking for clues to help unravel the mystery. Stranger and stranger things started to happen, culminating, in this demo, with a teddy bear coming to life, mauling a nurse, and then chasing me down a hallway (in VR I could’ve turned around, the developers told me, but halfway to my own panic attack I simply said, “Nope. Not doing that!”).

Though it’s not out until next year, Wilson’s Heart carries a lot of promise, from its clever use of Oculus Touch controls to its unique presentation. My optimism is only increased by the fact that it stars former RoboCop Peter Weller (sounding a lot like his Batman from the animated adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns) as Wilson along with decorated actors Rosario Dawson and Alfred Molina. Plus, it’s being crafted by Twisted Pixel, the veteran studio responsible for such Xbox Live Arcade hits as Splosion Man, Ms. Splosion Man, The Maw, Comic Jumper, and others. Let’s see if they can do horror as well as they pull off adorable character-driven games.

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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.