To Be A Kid Again
There have been many South Park games in the past; the one that everyone remembers was the first South Park game for the Nintendo 64. Other games in the series include a Chef Quiz game and a tower defense game. None of these games can reach what South Park: The Stick of Truth has done. South Park has been around for nearly 18 years and it took that long to create a great game based on the show. It would be easy to take the most action packed and popular episodes and create the game around it. Obsidian, with the help of the show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone created a completely new adventure that feels like the 18th season of the popular TV series. Trey Parker and Matt Stone written and voiced The Stick of Truth and you can tell.
Not only is the story is fantastic, the writing is hilarious. It stays consistent from beginning to end. The jokes come in fast and it makes sense in the South Park universe and even the video game tropes they make fun of are great. Keep in mind that this is South Park unedited, so if you are easily offended, then stay away. If the comedy were not backed up by great gameplay, then the game would fall apart. Thankfully, Obsidian has made an RPG game that is a fun to play. The difficulty on normal is not too bad. There was a few instances where it got a little rough, but that was just me.
An RPG veteran can likely pass this game with no problems. The bosses are fantastic especially the last boss. Stick of Truth is a turn-based game, but unlike Final Fantasy and other turn-based games, where you would watch the attacks play out, Stick of Truth has more an active feel to it. You can block attacks which only gives you a percentage of the damage dealt instead of the full hit. You have to pay attention because it is possible to miss an open to block the attacks. This makes combat fun and engaging. You do have a friend with you most of the time. Butters, Cartman, Kyle, Stan, Jimmy, and Princess Kenny will join you. Each friend has different attacks and special attacks. Jimmy became my favorite friend in the game. If there is one thing that should have been better was the way the mini-games play out. There is this one mini-game where you would need to do specific actions, but the way they tell you how to do is unclear. It can be frustrating and harder than anything else in the game. As small as South Park is, there is a lot to do in the game. It took me about 14 hours to complete the main quest and I barely scratched the surface of the side missions. After you complete the main story line, you are free to complete any quests you have left like finding ManBearPig for Al Gore or finding Chinpokomon that are scattered around South Park. It is shorter compared to other RPG games, but there are many things to do. It may take 20 hours or less to do everything.
What makes South Park: The Stick of Truth such a great game is its presentation. The game looks just the TV series. I have seen videos and screenshots of the game, but it did not prepare me for how good the game looks. South Park does stutter sometimes, but nothing that breaks the game, at least for me. There was this one moment early in the game where I died and when it load up a quick save, it pushed me back an hour. I had to do some of the early quest again. This happened once, but it did make me manually save often if it happened again. It sounds and feels like South Park with the cast of the show lending their voices. Sometimes when a actor of a TV show or movie put their voices in a game, they sound dull and uninterested. This is not the case Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and the rest of the cast treated the great script as if it was the show. The sound effects and music are fantastic. A few songs that have appeared in the show makes a return here. It would have been great if there was a musical number, but I am not complaining.
It took longer than it needed too, but South Park: The Stick of Truth is that game every fan of the show can enjoy. It is funny, has great gameplay, and a story worthy of South Park. Because the game deals with the imagination of all the kids of South Park, there is no telling what Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Obsidian can do next if there is ever a sequel. If you like RPG games you should check it out. If you are a fan of South Park, buy it. If you do not like South Park then stay away. It took a while for it to come out but South Park: The Stick of Truth was worth the wait.
