Howdy neighbor: South Park: The Stick of Truth Review

Screenshots and artwork provided by Ubisoft.

The PC version of “South Park: The Stick of Truth” was reviewed, and is available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. The game was provided by Ubisoft.

Television’s famous quiet little mountain town makes its return to gaming, this time with an “epic fantasy” role-playing game as its backdrop.

“The Stick of Truth” is comparable to a consistent season of “South Park” with the added bonus that it’s interactive and enjoyable in its own right. It stands well as an RPG, and shines in terms of writing and art design.

The characters and story are on par with your standard “South Park” episode. Cartman, Kenny, Stan, Kyle and the rest of the 4th grade boys are around, along with other South Park residents. The story follows an all-powerful item called The Stick of Truth and the shenanigans that follow after it’s stolen. You play as the new kid in town, who you can customize to your heart’s content. And if you don’t like the way your kid came out you can use the local plastic surgeon to change your looks.

Everything in “The Stick of Truth” echoes Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Elder Scrolls and The Witcher. Of course this is all powered by the imagination from the boys of “South Park,” so everything looks like it was built by a nine- or ten-year-old.

The difference between a full season of “South Park” and “The Stick of Truth” is that it follows a long story arc in which you are one of the central characters. Things happen, and as one would expect, crazier things happen and continue to happen.

Love em or hate em, the main cast in “The Stick of Truth” is composed of characters like Eric Cartman and Butters Stotch.

A good chunk of the main cast is involved in the story, and there’s an unprecedented amount of references and cameos from the show. This game caters especially to those that have been following the show since its inception, and as someone that’s seen the show on and off the past couple of years I greatly appreciated the references and cameos.

After completing the tutorial you’re free to explore the overworld: South Park. You can explore the local neighborhoods and the many strange locations within the town that include the local abortion clinic, the Tweek Bros. Coffeehouse and the sewers. While the overworld is not as vast as that of games like “Skyrim” or “Dark Souls,” the “dungeons” you encounter throughout the game add depth to the world.

During your journey you’ll encounter several groups of enemies that include elves, hobos and other factions you might not expect. Upon encountering these enemies you’re thrust into combat, which is pretty engaging.

The combat takes very heavily from games like “Paper Mario” and “Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga.” Those games feature combat that is reliant on pressing buttons at the right time to do the most amount of damage and use of appropriate attacks against certain enemies.

“The Stick of Truth” takes these mechanics and adds a nice South Park flavor to combat. Having appreciated this system prior to “The Stick of Truth,” it’s no surprise that it works very well in the game. The timing attacks give a greater satisfaction when you pull off a devastating fart attack.

Combat may not be as deep as other RPGs, but it’s deep enough to allow you to form strategies when dealing with certain enemy types. There’s multiple layers in the combat from status effects, armor and shields. There’s even summons you can use after completing certain side missions in the game. Once you get the hang of the battles and the system, the game rewards you when you take advantage of weaknesses and use proper defense against powerful attacks.

Unfortunately this leads to developing strategies that allow you to one-shot several enemies. I had a formula to annihilate any random encounter in 2 turns or less late in the game. While this removes some of the depth with normal battles, boss battles shake things up and force you to be on your toes.

The setting of South Park is recreated so well, it feels like you’re taking part in an episode of the show.

The game also allows you to have a buddy supporting you. The buddies consist of Cartman, Kyle, Stan, Kenny, Jimmy and Butters. All of them have different abilities that can greatly assist you in combat, although you might find yourself liking certain buddies more than others. I ended pairing up more with Cartman, Butters and Jimmy, because I prefered their moves in combat. For example, fire farts are really good against enemies that are weak against fire, so Cartman became an invaluable asset.

Customization is also important for combat, as the weapons you equip, the clothing you wear and the modifiers you can activate are essential. Unfortunately your clothing and weapons do not level up along with you, so you have to upgrade to stronger weapons and clothing in order to survive later battles. The ability to customize your buddies is absent, so you can’t dress Cartman up as the Coon. For the sake of the story, it makes sense to keep the buddies out of customization and puts a greater focus on customizing yourself. Fans of micromanaging in RPGs may not appreciate this, but others might appreciate the greater focus on customizing one character instead of seven.

Outside of combat, you’ll encounter some puzzles that require the use of special items you’ve acquired along with fart spells. These puzzles keep the flow of the game consistent, and might even save you a couple of battles since you can incapacitate enemies using the environment.
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Bug watch:

Having been developed by Obsidian, known for having bugs in their games, I didn’t encounter anything game-breaking. I encountered minor bugs such as having to tap twice a certain direction to move.

I did goof up for a while in regards to inputting commands similar to DDR; as there came a point in the game where I was inputting commands through the WASD keys (typically the movement keys on PC), but I realized the game required input from the directional keys. Not really the fault of the developers, although it wasn’t quite clear that it was asking input from the directional keys.[/alert][/one_half]

If the gameplay or story doesn’t resonate with you, the art style and overall world of “The Stick of Truth” is probably one of the most impressive video game worlds I’ve encountered. The near perfect effect of making you feel like you’re interacting with the South Park universe is just fantastic. The wizards behind this great feat managed to recreate the unmistakable style of the franchise to the point. The art style and voice acting takes huge advantage of the world, and I can’t imagine any other South Park game not using this formula in the future.

The game also takes advantage of the “South Park” universe, as the game is loaded with references and characters. In order to properly appreciate these references and characters you need have seen enough episodes to understand what goes on in “South Park.” I would advise to anyone who intends on playing this game to watch the Black Friday trilogy if they haven’t seen it. Those episodes function as a prequel to the game, almost.

The biggest factor impacting your enjoyment of “The Stick of Truth” is the humor. Again, if you haven’t seen “South Park,” this game will feel foreign. It’s loaded with shock value, fart jokes, pop culture references, poop, extreme violence, gross stuff and several other things that would be considered offensive. If you have seen the show, the previous sentence sounds about standard for a South Park episode. It shouldn’t be surprising such things remain in full force in “The Stick of Truth.” There’s many surprises that await players, and I would advise to avoid watching gameplay videos to avoid having any of the jokes spoiled.

Despite coming in about 14 hours, “The Stick of Truth” offers enough humor to fill an entire season of South Park.

The Verdict:

I appreciate funny video games. One of my all time favorites is “Conker’s Bad Fur Day,” a game that was actually inspired by “South Park.” It feels appropriate that South Park has its own funny and good video game adventure to boot.

Your enjoyment of this game is determined by how you enjoy the humor put in place by Matt Stone, Trey Parker and company. If you think “South Park” is total poop and a waste of your time, don’t even bother with “The Stick of Truth.” If you think “South Park” is pretty okay, you enjoy a couple of episodes and enjoy a light RPG, then there’s a good chance you’ll get enjoyment out of the game. And if you are a die-hard “South Park” fan, this is probably the greatest thing ever since AWESOM-O.

The gameplay is solid but not fantastic, and the steady stream of humor throughout the game kept me laughing. I secretly wished there were original songs in the game like in the South Park movie. Nonetheless, the references and humor keeps the game fresh. There’s also replayability since the four classes available to your character function differently.

Again, in order to really get enjoyment out of “The Stick of Truth” you have to at the very least enjoy some “South Park” episodes. The game also ends up being really easy in the normal difficulty, so I’d advise to up the ante if you’re blowing through enemies without hassle. I beat the game on the normal difficulty after 14 hours, but I also plan on having another go around with another class and on the hardcore difficulty.

With video games aiming for photo realism and top notch graphics, South Park’s style is simple, but more effective than other games. It’s definitely one of the best licensed games I’ve played, and definitely the funniest licensed game to hit the market.