South Park: The Stick of Truth
After successfully shitting myself attempting to hurt my foe with fart magic, my team mate, Princess Kenny, gets his chebs out to distract the enemy and cause the opponents to miss a turn. Shouting obscene phrases and using humour to poke fun at everything, including censorship and beating up homeless people, it could only be South Park.
The story is simple; a new kid moves in to the quiet mountain town of South Park and has to make some friends. The children are all playing a massive game of Dungeons and Dragons and raging a war over The Stick of Truth. With such a basic premise it paves the way for a battle system as well as an RPG element to level up and dress your character in D&D style.
Plot is central to the game and plays out in classic South Park fashion. It all starts like another episode and everything quickly escalates. Before the day is over an alien invasion seems imminent with the government covering it up extremely poorly. Without spoiling anything else, the story is the games' strongest point and delivers to fans of the series with vulgar humour and plenty of references to older jokes.
Gameplay is uncomplicated, with you taking control of a personally designed character and exploring around the world of South Park. Since the story uses the premise of Dungeons and Dragons, the combat system follows suit. Where the children have designed their own armour and weapons, it allows the fighting to appear childish but interactive and entertaining enough to remain interesting to the show’s fans.
Fighting is the core of gameplay but unfortunately it doesn’t get very deep. It is a turn based battle system which prompts the player to press certain buttons to block or power up attacks. Although the creators have stated this was added to make players feel part of the battle, it was clearly included because the battle system is too simple. Weapons can be upgraded and attacks powered up, but watching the same animation and repetitively mashing one button can get very boring. Unfortunately battles don’t change, while foes will get tougher and you will never have more than one companion during a fight, leaving no room for a rapid escalation in difficulty.
The comedy really shines through as the world of South Park has been recreated to near-perfection. The characters will all be leading their lives in stupid and tongue-in-cheek ways for you to explore in side quests. Travelling the world and interacting with show favourites is a genuine pleasure, as every environment has characters on hand to blurt out random obscene lines. It is one of the few games that has ever given me a real reason to travel everywhere on a map, just to take in the wealth of content in terms of comedy and fun to be had.
Only one problem may deter series fans as they happily make their messed up way through the game. Censurers have been placed to protect the fragile minds of the adult players from seeing certain scenes deemed a tad too disturbing. The creators have still had fun here though as they happily put up some relaxing music and mockingly describe on screen what is actually happening, retaining the show's satirical feel.
Although the game will likely be exceedingly enjoyable for regular viewers, anyone who isn’t a fan of South Park will find little reason to venture here. Jokes come thick and fast and are a selling point to fans, feeling as it does like another episode from the series. Combat is fun, even when repetitive, and the exploration is entertaining, but not enough to keep an unseasoned player interested enough to see the game past its fifth hour. However, for ardent South Park acolytes, The Stick of Truth will, to ad-lib the show's title tune, see to it that players have themselves a time.