Taskmaster VR, the official virtual reality-ification of the phenomenally popular comedy TV show, has finally gotten its release date. It'll hit on June 13 this year and, more than anything, show host and creator (Little) Alex Horne is just worried about what players are going to do to him.
"They will definitely do things to me," Horne told PCG in a recent interview, "I wasn't worried until one of the developers told me that if you open the door an inch then people will kick it down and do bad things."
Horne has good reason to worry. Taskmaster VR is, essentially, a replication of the TV show's format. Players have to perform tasks to the exacting standards laid down by host Greg Davies, all under the supervision of a "slightly more sinister" version of Horne himself. Fail, and you can expect to be mocked. "You'll be scolded, you'll be put in your place," said (the real) Horne, which might end up giving players the impetus to strike back, though he takes some consolation in the fact that "I'm pretty sure the clothes are non-removable," so you can't quite subject him to the same indignities he suffers in the show.
As for the tasks you'll actually be doing, the Taskmaster team was "quite keen not to have anything that you've seen before in the show," so as to not give longtime fans an advantage over newbies. That means a bunch of "quantifiable" tasks—think of races, time trials, and other challenges where success is easy to measure—that you won't have seen before, though Horne is eager to get "more esoteric tasks," like the ones where Davies judges a piece of music, put into the game at some point.
It all sounds like daft fun, which is in-keeping with the spirit of the show, though I can imagine fans being a bit let down by the lack of those weirder, harder-to-measure tasks. On the plus side, the game promises a mode that will let you create your own custom challenges using props and materials from the show. Horne says the mode "wasn't going to happen at the beginning," and only made it in relatively late in development, but I suspect it'll be the thing by which the game lives or dies. An infinite Taskmaster sandbox, if it's done right, could make for a pretty great time in VR.
And even if it's not, well, then at least you can have a good time taking out your frustrations on the hosts. "He's so smug, that guy" (the real) Alex Horne said of (the virtual) Alex Horne, "he thinks he knows everything," so at least he understands if you give in to an urge for violence now and then. As for his co-host? "I don't think I was tempted to do anything to Greg… I don't think I could forgive myself," or maybe it was just a fear that "somehow people will find out."
Taskmaster VR hits SteamVR and the Meta Quest 2 and 3 on June 13.
