Here is a list of things I would never expect to see adapted into a VR game: number one, the 1993 Bill Murray film Groundhog Day. No, yeah, that's pretty much it. Yet here we are. As developer Tequila Works recently announced on the PlayStation Blog, Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son is pretty much that. Simply put, it's a VR game about a man reliving the same day. That man is Phil Connors Jr., the son of the character played by Murray in the film. So while it isn't a Bill Murray simulator - I'm telling you, that would be VR's killer app - it does sound like the next best thing.
"For Phil Jr., today is the worst day of his life," creative director Paul Rubio explained. "He’s trapped back home in Punxsutawney, the small town he thought he’d escaped - where he can’t even get a decent cappuccino - and he’s going to have to repeat the day over and over until he learns the true value of friends and family."
The characters in every one of these time loop tales – whether by magic, technology or inexplicable circumstance – are forced to relive the same events over and over again until the cycle is broken, often learning a few things about themselves along the way.
This is Tequila Works' second VR game after The Invisible Hours, but you may know the studio for the delightful adventure game The Sexy Brutale or the striking platformer Rime. With Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son, Rubio said "we wanted to go a step further by making the player an active, disruptive element in the story, giving them more narrative choices to have a key influence on the storyline."
"James Siciliano of Rick and Morty and Joshua Rubin of Telltale lent their expertise to help us build this original story from the world of the beloved movie," Rubio said. "We have developed an ever-changing experience through deep branching narrative gameplay and full interaction with all NPCs. Because what would you do with eternity if there were no tomorrow?"
Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son is scheduled to release on the PlayStation Store for PSVR later this year. It will be co-produced by PlayStation's VR division and MWM Immersive, and will also be available on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift according to Tequila Works' website.
These are the best PlayStation VR games that aren't about Groundhog Day.
