I had first attempted to play South Park: The Stick of Truth after it was released for PS3 but it fell by the wayside and I only completed a few quests, and played for only an hour or so. Since then it's sequel The Fractured But Whole has been released, and I downloaded TSoT via the physical copy of the sequel with updated graphics and it's bugs have all been ironed out prior to it's download release. This time I committed between 10-20 hours before completing the game. I completed all side quests, and regularly visited shops and vendors for better weapons and equipment.
The main story of South Park simply revolves around your customized character as a new child in South Park, and your parents send you out into the town to make friends and play in the role-playing Fantasy game the South Park children are playing all the while still in the real world using weapons and equipment. Quests involve everything from helping Al Gore find ManBearPig, to hunting down strange and dangerous South Park minded creatures for Jimbo at his gun store, and even discovering friends via Facebook to unlock new abilities, skills and powers akin to Skyrim's Dragonshout power.
Gameplay is turn-based, and allows time to prepare and plan out your attacks including ranged attacks with lawn darts, crossbows and even throwing stars that also allow you to interract with the environment outside of combat to swords, spears and hammers than can be upgraded. Alike to most turn-based RPG games, the concept to winning battles is to simply counteract an enemy's attacks, effecting them with stuns, gross-out attacks and bleeding that knock down their defenses and attacks.
Outside of game-play and battle exploration of the town, visiting known locales from the television show with much of it's humor and comedy left me laughing regularly as a hardcore fan of the show. On top of it's humor and comedy, exploring the town has many rewards.
The Good:
- Strong story and plot involving Alien invasions, government coverups, Nazi zombies invading the town.
- Hilarious moments of comedy and humor that rewards hardcore fans with nostalgia and new jokes.
-Graphically the game is beautiful for the representation it gives us as a South Park game.
- Strong game-play, exploration elements and combat with abilities, effects and powers you'll only discover via experimentation during combat.
The Bad:
- Only issue I've found is the occasional crash on the PS4, which is not often.
South Park: The Stick of Truth is well worthwhile buying for fans of the television show, there are many jokes and nods to the show that hardcore fans will notice. As for game-play it's a solid game, some amazing battles and bosses to fight as well as general quests and exploration that rewards you for exploring South Park. Well worth picking up for the PS3 second-hand, or wait for a universal download release of the game via PSN.