South Park: The Stick of Truth

9 Overall Score
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10

Awesome story | Amazing graphics | Truly Authentic | High replay value

Slight framerate issues | Lag on entrance/exits of scenes | No Online Co-op

Game Info

GAME NAME: South Park: The Stick of Truth

DEVELOPER(S): Obsidian Entertainment & South Park Digital Studios

PUBLISHER(S): Ubisoft

PLATFORM(S): Windows, PS3, Xbox 360

GENRE(S): Role-playing

RELEASE DATE(S): March 4th, 2014

Come on down to South Park and meet some friends of mine!

With all the teasing and release date delays, South Park: Stick of Truth is finally here! People all over weren’t sure if Obsidian had what it takes to turn this beloved TV show into a video game and do it justice. Sure enough, they succeeded. Matt Stone and Trey Parker wanted to create a game that was just the like show, meaning you felt like you were playing the show with cut scenes, huge interactive facets and all keeping true to animation and style of the television series. I heard they were brutal and strict throughout the process and to me it paid off. They majorly tip their hat to all the fans and give them an adventure they won’t forget while still providing a lot of familiar things from the show to laugh at and discover.

south-park-the-stick-of-truth-kupa-keep

If you watch South Park and remember the “Black Friday” Episodes where they parody Game Of Thrones this is where the game takes off, after those episodes. You are the new kid in town your parents are making you meet friends. Promptly after you run into some familiar characters and are introduced to two factions; Cartman’s Humans and Kyle’s Elves. Your job is to make friends and survive each day while going on awesome missions and explore the town of South Park. One of my favorite little side missions is to collect all the chimpokemons. They created thirty and you’ll get to find them all throughout the town.  You’ll also encounter Al Gore, discover government conspiracies about aliens and Taco Bell. It’s all quite entertaining, something you’d expect from South Park.

south-park-the-stick-of-truth-classes

There are a few starting classes to choose from in the game. You can decide between a Warrior, Mage, Thief or a Jew! I sure enough laughed hard when I saw those options and could not resist the temptation to play the Jew class. Overall, each class plays slightly different. Each has a special ability, but every class can use all type of weapons. You’ll even have the ability to use Magic or Farting Magic, which is based mockingly on Skyrim’s Dragon Shout.  Using the Dragon Shout, your farting magic can be quite cumbersome when you learn the tutorial. Eventually you’ll get used to the controls and it won’t derail from the game too bad but I felt it was a bit overcomplicated right off the bat. I had to sit there and do the Squeeky Sneaker tutorial like 10 times before I got it down. Once you succeed you’ll have a mighty magic to use from your arsenal.

south-park-the-stick-of-truth-battles

Gameplay for South Park: Stick of Truth is quite smooth, they stuck to a traditional turn based Paper Mario-ish Role Playing Game. You have your potions, special ability attacks or heals, ranged attack, and regular attack. In addition to that you’ll have buffs and debuffs added to the mix like bleeding and “grossed out”. You’ll have to strategically figure out if you should heal or cure yourself from these ailments during battle. I found this not only entertaining and challenging but extremely fun as well. You can even raise and lower the difficulty on a whim to cater to your gaming needs.

south-park-the-stick-of-truth-battle-system

You will occasionally run into frame rate issue. A glitch here and there or delayed frames when you enter or exit a scene or room but overall it doesn’t distract from the game. The sound is that of any South Park episode, Obsidian and South Park Studios stay extremely true to the explosions, all the voices and all the nuances you would hear in any episode. Even the music itself is hilarious. They created a couple new music tracks that loops and you can hear Cartman singing things in the music as well.

south-park-the-stick-of-truth-HUD

The thing about this game is that it’s done very well and is crudely beautiful. You know all things are done intentional and add that perfect vibe. You actually feel like you’re playing a South Park episode. You don’t have a dirty GUI all in your face. On the Xbox 360 if you hit left on the d-pad the HUD will show up with quests, map, etc. One thing to note is that the Matt Stone and Trey Parker actually had to map out South Park for this and they did an excellent job. In doing so adds so much context to the show now when I watch it. You’ll be able to explore each of the kids house, including Stan, Kyle, Cartman, etc. There are a lot of jokes based on a variety of episodes so be sure to look out for a ton of fun Easter Eggs. The main way you get around levels is free form exploring or you can use Timmy’s quick travel spots to jump around on the map, which comes in handy.

The Recommendation

I love this game (South Park: The Stick of Truth), if it was a person I’d marry it. Seriously though, Obsidian did a kick ass job and I would never play another South Park IP unless it had the same involvement as this with Matt Stone and Trey Parker. They all did an excellent job working together to make this authentic and it shows. I would recommend this game to any South Park fan or role-playing enthusiast. I’m not a turn based RPG fan and I loved it, it’s very easy to get a hang of. There is a high amount of replay value to this title so you’ll find yourself wanting to try new things or explore places you didn’t think of prior since there are a lot of side missions. This is everything I would have asked for in a South Park game plus more. If you are on the fence about picking up South Park: The Stick of Truth then think again and grab yourself a copy. This is a game you won’t want to trade in.

 

 

SHARE THIS POST

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Myspace
  • Google Buzz
  • Reddit
  • Stumnleupon
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Technorati
getamikeON
Author: getamikeON View all posts by
Managing Partner/Editor-in-chief and owner of GameGravy & NintendoFever – Mike spends most of his time working with the top brands in the Game industry & Advertising. Fun Factoid: he is also a musician and song writer. Google+ Author

Comments are closed.