South Park hasn’t always had the best luck transitioning from television to video games. It hasn’t proved to be an easy task to accomplish for developers of games past. The clever yet sophomoric humor of the long-running television series doesn’t exactly lend itself to a video game with much depth. Needless to say, a traditional turn-based RPG take on the gang from South Park, Colorado was a bold undertaking. Enter South Park: The Stick of Truth. With the guiding hands and valuable insight from creators Trey Stone and Matt Parker, The Stick of Truth succeeds in being a faithful representation of the South Park universe, but it also succeeds in being a legitimately good role playing game in its own right.
In South Park: The Stick of Truth, you assume the role of a new kid in town who must make friends with the colorful group of children from the series. The timing of your arrival couldn’t be timelier, as the children find themselves in the middle of a LARP-inspired battle for the Stick of Truth (a mythical stick that enables the user to control the universe) and in need of a new ally to help turn the tide of battle in their favor. The story quickly devolves into a ridiculous tale of conspiracy and other-worldliness as is typical with most traditional South Park episodes, but the writing specific to The Stick of Truth is excellent. It isn’t long until you’re smiling with glee at a reference to a previous episode, and somehow the game incorporates all of these references while tying it all together with a story that holds your attention throughout the campaign’s duration. It certainly helps that the game is side-splittingly hilarious. If you’re familiar with South Park’s style of crude, rude and crass humor, you’ll feel right at home with Stick of Truth’s writing, and it really shines without any censorship. That being said, if you don’t already consider yourself even a passing fan of South Park, you won’t be converted by The Stick of Truth’s style of humor.
Part of where South Park: The Stick of Truth’s humor shines is in open exploration of the titular town. As you explore a fully connected and realized town, you’ll rummage through people’s things and interact with many characters from the show. Exploration alone is worth the time and effort for even the most casual South Park fans because of the bevy of South Park specific collectibles that are fun to hunt down and collect. Hunting these down is fun and challenging, and will keep most completionists busy well after the game’s final credits roll. The only downside to the exploration is how disjointed the town can feel at times. Loading screens separate you from each character’s house and while load times are typically very short, they can interrupt the flow and thrill of exploration. Regardless, the town of South Park is fully realized for the very first time in The Stick of Truth and it's really fun to run around and cause some trouble in it.
Presentation in South Park: The Stick of Truth plays a major role in making it the most faithful representation of the show in game thus far. For a series whose games have previously failed to capture the look and feel of the source material, it was paramount for The Stick of Truth to present everything in a way that closely resembled the show. Thankfully, the look and feel of South Park is captured fantastically. Just about every major character from the series makes an appearance at some point during the game’s campaign, and they’re animated just as they would be in the series. There are some audio and visual quirks that break your immersion such as overlapping dialogue and disappearing polygons, but South Park: The Stick of Truth successfully brings the signature look of the series to a game with a great bit of success.
If you aren’t exploring the town in The Stick of Truth, you’ll most likely be doing battle with enemies while upgrading your gear in true RPG fashion. As strictly a role playing game, South Park: The Stick of Truth mostly succeeds. For one, the turn based combat is deceptively deep. The game allows up to two moves per turn: one item use or defensive skill, and one attacking skill. This allows for quite a few more possibilities in combat as you can revive a player who has fallen in battle without being penalized by losing an entire move. Battles also require timed button presses for blocking and unleashing stronger attacks, so they can be incredibly involved despite the simplistic, turn-based presentation. Each character’s abilities and skills are also extremely varied in what they require you to do keeping battles in The Stick of Truth from growing boring and stale. This is paramount because battles are typically a breeze. Enemies rarely pose much of a threat, and when they do, health and battle points immediately and fully recharge after each battle. As a result, The Stick of Truth becomes a very easy game to play through without even mastering all of its mechanics.
One of the major drawbacks to South Park: The Stick of Truth’s gameplay is that it fails to fully explain all of the gameplay and battle mechanics it introduces. For starters, the game employs a perk and ability upgrade system, yet hardly ever mentions it. As a result, you could theoretically go the entire game without even purchasing a perk or an upgrade, which is another testament to how easy the game can be. In addition, certain abilities will require some trial and error before you can successfully and consistently pull them off. This is a shame because the abilities in South Park: The Stick of Truth are such a joy to watch when they’re pulled off successfully. Characters’ personalities truly shine when you use their abilities. Helping Jimmy stutter his way through a song that gives the party a strength buff, twirling Butters around as he throws his hammer at an enemy (he later apologizes), or aiming a deadly fart towards a foe never gets old and provide some of the funnier moments in combat. It’s a shame that the combat forces you to shy away from these abilities as a result of having not mastered all of their button prompts. Some mechanics are introduced, and then aren’t used much after that. The battle system incorporates a stance system which enemies use to counter melee or ranged attacks. It adds a strong amount of depth and requires you to think about which attacks to use on an enemy. Unfortunately, after the halfway point, enemies completely abandon this strategy. South Park: The Stick of Truth can be an incredibly deep and engaging role playing experience at times when it embraces all of its mechanics well, but at others, it can feel like a bare bones and simplistic one.
Despite the gameplay’s few missteps, South Park: The Stick of Truth is an incredibly enjoyable game to play, and it faithfully captures the crude spirit of the television show it’s based on. Obsidian have laid the groundwork for more quality titles set in the South Park universe with simple, yet deep combat mechanics and a world full of hidden secrets that will bring laughter to fans of the show once they’re discovered. With a little bit more explanation or tweaking of the game’s mechanics, it could have been an absolute blast to play. Thankfully, the wonderful story, presentation and writing keep you invested and laughing from start to finish. South Park: The Stick of Truth will appeal to both hardcore and casual fans of the series alike. If you consider yourself even a minor fan of the series, you owe it to yourself to try the game out. Just remember to never, ever fart on someone’s balls.
The Verdict
7.8