Although it faced numerous delays postponing its release from 2013 to 2014, including its original publisher going out of business, South Park: The Stick of Truth was released this month with a lot of hype and high hopes. The only other major South Park video game for the Nintendo 64 received bad reviews and thankfully, Stick of Truth does not follow in its shoes.
In Stick of Truth, the main character is a new kid in the town of South Park who becomes caught up in the South Park kids’ pretend war of the humans versus the elves. The new kid is quickly recruited by the humans and taught to fight just as the elves invade.
The story of Stick of Truth is absurd but fun, and much of the game’s odd happenings could be played off as the kids playing make believe. The story itself brings in many characters from the show, and even for the most casual fans of the show, the cameos will bring a smile and a laugh.
Many side quests are offered to the player while diving even deeper into the world of South Park. These side quests can be hard if the player is not prepared for them, but they have very good rewards.
Stick of Truth is a turn-based role-playing game much in the vein of the old Super Mario RPG series. Combat includes precise timing of pressing certain buttons such as when the weapon flashes.
The combat in the game is very deep and rewarding. The weapons are varied, and certain weapons allow the player to do a power attack, which is good against armored enemies, or a regular attack, which is good against most other enemies but very weak to armored enemies.
Weapons can also be modified by weapon patches, which add damage modifiers such as burning or bleeding. Certain weapons and pieces of equipment also have bonus stats such as healing the wearer at the end of each turn or giving the wearer more points for abilities when they are healed.
Another aspect of combat is the player’s partner. Random kids from the town of South Park will join the party, and they can be swapped out in battle or while walking around. Each kid has different abilities and a class such as Butters, who is a paladin and can heal or use his hammer for strong attacks.
All these aspects put together make combat entertaining and often more challenging than might be expected from a South Park game. Battles will take some thought as to what weapon to use or what partner to bring in.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of the show, were heavily involved with Stick of Truth’s development, and it shows with all the inside jokes, characters and locations. However, for hardcore fans of the show, some of the jokes are recycled and may feel old and a little less funny.
Regardless of any old jokes, Stick of Truth commands an incredible amount of entertainment with its humor. The items used in the game and their descriptions are hilarious and add insight to the world of the show.
Stick of Truth is the first time there has been a complete map of the town of South Park. For anyone who has watched the show, it is incredibly neat seeing the entire town, including trademark locations such as the school or the City Wok restaurant.
Along with the detailed map, the game has a lot of places to explore. Very early on, the player can go into Cartman’s room and see his closet full of items he used during the show. As the game progresses, they can do the same for all of the major characters. As the player walks to an early objective, they are stopped by Al Gore, who warns about Manbearpig, just as he does in the show.
The game itself looks crisp and even better than the show in HD. Stick of Truth looks like it was made the same way Stone and Parker make the show and the details really pop.
One issue is that at random moments, the game will lag some. This issue has popped up on all versions. However, the version played on the PC only saw a few moments of stutter, but nothing game-breaking or distracting.
Stick of Truth is not only a great South Park game, but it’s a great role-playing game as well. Obsidian has a good track record with role-playing games, and Stone and Parker’s involvement with the development allowed for good gameplay combined with humor to make a fun and interesting game.
