South Park: The Stick of Truth

I really like South Park. I began watching the show in the early 2000s and have loved the characters and their brazen, twisted sense of humor ever since. I also have a deep admiration for RPGs; exploring vast new worlds and building my character over hours and hours has captivated me for years. Yet when I heard that Obsidian Entertainment was developing an RPG based on the long-running franchise, I was quite skeptical. Perhaps it was that the South Park name hasn't brought forth many good games in its near two-decade run; perhaps it was my grand disappointment in Obsidian's previous broken projects, Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol. My doubts likely resonated from a combination of both. However, I am here to tell you now, duders, that South Park: The Stick of Truth is a hilarious adventure that perfectly captures the heart of the show while offering engaging and surprisingly robust RPG elements.

You begin The Stick of Truth as the newest resident to the quiet mountain town, the New Kid. You're a silent protagonist whose unknown past is kept comically vague and hidden by your parents and who is soon sent out to make new friends. Not long after leaving your house, you come across Butters (my series favorite) decked in makeshift fantasy attire who becomes your first Facebook friend before leading you to his kingdom, the KKK (Kingdom of Kupa Keep. Chill out). The KKK, lead by Grand Wizard Eric Cartman, is in the midst of a violent war with the Elves—headed by Kyle and Stan—over control of the titular Stick of Truth, a seemingly useless piece of bark that grants its owner control of the universe.

What follows is a humorous and utterly ridiculous journey that sees you and the expletive-spewing kiddos getting in waaaaay over your heads as aliens, shady government officials, Nazi zombies, and Canadians make appearances during your quest in one way or another. It could appear a bit much at a glance, especially when you consider all the side quests and the laundry list of collectibles to obtain. Yet even with its slew of characters, its multitude of surprises and reversals, the story is well-paced, seldom feeling rushed and almost never feeling drawn-out. Much of this can be credited to the game's writing by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who have penned a fart-fueled, disgusting, funny, and absolutely absurd script that feels much like an over-arching, serial (but not super serial) season of the show.

And just like one the show's episodes, Stick of Truth has its share of controversial jokes and topics, perhaps even more so because of its longevity. Even as someone who's seen the majority of the series' most blue moments, there were times where I had to just take a breath and go, "...woah. Umm, alright. That just happened." But with that, players, please keep this in mind: this game was made for South Park fans. If you're an individual who finds it difficult to consider the show's crude humor... well, humorous, you shall find no solace in this game riddled with ball jokes, children beating the snot out of each other, nudity, and things coming out of and going into people's butts.

In addition to the game's laugh-laden story, Stick of Truth also features full-fledged RPG elements and mechanics. Upon meeting Cartman, you choose your character class from four options: Warrior, Mage, Thief, or Jew. Each comes with its own unique set of abilities for use in combat, but other than that, I don't believe there's much difference to how battles play out. Along your journey, you'll acquire a remarkable number of melee and ranged weapons, armor sets, patches and "strap-ons" that add additional effects to your equipment (fire, ice, "pissed off" and "grossed out"), but other than level requirements on each item, the game's entire inventory is open to you, no matter your class.

Combat has you engaging in turn-based battles with a variety of enemies including the aforementioned Elves, Mongorians, meth heads and dire bears ("You know what dire bears are, right? They're like bears—but they're DIRE!"). The combat at the beginning is quite simple, letting you perform basic attacks with timed button presses for added damage a la Paper Mario, but quickly expands to include elements such as enemy position and stance effects, specific traits and tactics for each enemy, and buddies who fight alongside you with their own attacks and abilities (Butters was my go-to, but you can also swap between the four main boys and Jimmy). The difficulty of the fights leans a little on the easy side, but most encounters still offered plenty of opportunities to experiment with different approaches. I would also like to add that I don't like turn-based combat at all. I much prefer real-time encounters, and yet I found this game's battle system accessible, engaging and highly entertaining.

My one gripe about the combat system has to do with the flatulence-charged magic and summon abilities. At some point, you realize you have amazing control over the abhorrent vapors that emanate from your butt. You're then able to incorporate these powers into combat scenarios as well as when you're exploring the world in order to gain access to hidden areas or get the jump on enemies, but I found myself more often using them outside of combat than in. I just didn't find them all that useful in battle, especially in later parts of the story when a good portion of your enemies have a tolerance for your farts. The same can kinda be said for the summons, which call upon certain memorable characters, like Jesus and Mr. Slave, to show up and wipe out all enemies during a fight. I know, the way I just put it makes summons sounds awesome, and their appearances are often funny, but they come with some catches: they can only be used once a day (once every sequence, of which I think there are only three), you have to travel and talk to each character in order to regain the summon, and you can't use them in boss battles. Overall, I found myself deciding on other methods I deemed more useful.

I would now like to talk about the greatest achievement of The Stick of Truth, and that is its adaptation of the source material. It's striking. It's absolutely striking. The look of the town and its inhabitants, all the main and secondary characters interacting with you and each other, the countless winks, nods and easter eggs littering the houses and businesses and areas—it's all painstakingly and faithfully represented in this game. I often caught myself smiling as I walked down the streets of the town, saw and subsequently talked to familiar faces of the show, or found the most subtle of references in some well-hidden chest. The true heart, the essence of South Park has been so beautifully captured in the most magnificent array of vulgarity and dick jokes with The Stick of Truth.

South Park: The Stick of Truth is a game that, given its franchise's sour track record of games and its developer's recent shortcomings, shouldn't be as good as it is, yet it excels in almost every regard. It's by far the most consistently funny game I've played in recent memory, and its gameplay features enough depth and variety to encourage experimentation throughout its run. If you're at all a fan of the series, the Obsidian and South Park teams have crafted a well-designed RPG and love letter you should definitely check out.