The South Park TV series itself needs no introduction, making an uncompromising approach to stray from most television conventions and wholesome day time programming; infamous for offbeat humour and a willingness to break taboos. However veiled underneath it’s abrasive delivery and lowbrow humour lies some intelligent cultural observations and hard hitting satire that has become something of a muted household name. But alongside this success also comes an inexorably bad reputation: A longstanding history of terrible Video Game tie-ins.
Considering Matt Stone and Trey Parkers cultural savvy in general and grounded knowledge of video games, one would think this would be conducive to producing a decent South Park game. So why has any game with the South Park licence been a grating cavalcade of bare bone gameplay and frequently missed opportunities?
Business naivety seems to play a big part of this, approaching game developers whose business ideology is focused more in the attached licence and less in creative collaboration. When signing a contract with Acclaim Entertainment the final product titled simply “South Park” in 1998 had little to offer. It was largely panned by critics due to the scarce ingenuity in the level design, barely passible graphics, as well as some subdued attempts at humour that quickly stagnated along with the repetitive search and destroys missions. The subsequent games such as Chef’s Luv Shack and South Park Rally did not fare well either. The creators themselves are even credited as wanting more involvement with the game licences but given rarely any opportunity.
In an attempt to buck this trend, Trey and Matt decided to directly approach Obsidian Entertainment for a potential South Park game that allowed them complete freedom to contribute to the game’s development. They wanted a game that accurately mirrored the world of South Park, including many famous landmarks and hangouts from the show, creating an inspired game that was in-keeping with the style of the show itself. Fast-forward to March 2014 and what we get is South Park:The Stick of Truth.
South Park:The Stick of Truth borrows and pays homage to the formula of Japanese RPGs, most notably Paper Mario and Earthbound, but with western sensibilities which is reminiscent to South Park’s three part episode “Black Friday”. The game itself seems to take place just after “Black Friday” where the children of South Park are playing an outdoorfantasy game.
The over the top introduction narrated by the character Eric Cartman in itself sets the scene very well and is a perfect mimicry of the 1978 Lord of The Rings animated movie and the 1981 film Heavy Metal. It serves to encapsulate the imaginations of the kids of South Park, as well as being packaged as shorthand to display Cartman’s inflated ego. It also sets the stage for introducing the arrival of the main character, simply known as “The New Kid”.
The New Kid is essentially a blank slate for the player to insert themselves into the town of South Park. At the beginning you are given different character skins, hairstyles and clothes to create a representation of yourself in South Park form.You begin in your new home having just moved to South Park with your in game parents, acting suspiciously and secretive to the reasons of why they opted for the move.
After being brusquely kicked out of your house by your Dad, you meet up with Butters who you save from a kid playing an elf with one swift sucker punch. Butters then leads you to the self-proclaimed wizard king Eric Cartman, monarch of the Kingdom of Kuppa Keep, aided by Princess Kenny alongside. Here you are given the title douchebag and a choice of four classes; Warrior, Mage, and Thief and of course The Jew. It is here you are told of the conflict between the humans of Kuppa Keep, who keep a powerful artefact called the Stick of Truth safe from the Drow elf faction (lead by Kyle and Stan) and you yourself become embroiled in the war.
Once you have chosen your class, your gear and gone through the tutorials with a few metafictional gags, you are free to either follow the main quest line or explore the small Colorado town. The first noteworthy thing is how pitch perfect the overall aesthetic and presentation of the game is to the TV series, down to the shoddy construction paper look and nuances that imitate the workings of the show itself. The navigation of the town can feel a little restrictive as your character can only move on the pavement where perspective is a fixed frontal view. This however harkens back to the earlier episodes of South Park where they did not use rotational perspectives due to financial constraints and a lack of adequate technology.
The abilities, moves and attacks are implemented with alternatives from household items and junkyard rubbish to create makeshift weapons. The characters use wooden swords, hockey sticks, kitchen utensils, hockey gear, street signs as shields, as well as other unsavoury paraphernalia which is something that is not at all surprising to see in a South Park game.
The special abilities in the game use power points (similar to mana points) to be able to cast strong moves with a unique twist that reflects the job class you have chosen (the Jew’s first ability is known as “The Sling of David” described as “casting the first stone”). This also includes unique abilities from the chosen team mate which reflects their individual personality and shticks from the show. Eric can light his farts on fire, Kyle kicks his brother at enemies and Butters can summon his alter ego Professor Chaos into battle. This is unapologetic South Park at its most pure, right down to the prominent use of farts in lieu of magic to both take down opponents or clear paths or obstacles outside of combat; a stark change to the previous entries.
The combat itself is pretty simple. To be able to use each ability effectively you have to either click or press a particular key on the keyboard when the game prompts you to, in order to maximise or decrease damage potential depending on reaction. The difficulty gradient in battles is really only truly measured by how well you react to the button prompts as well as how the player reacts to particular types of enemies.
Enemies have various stances which a player must be aware of such as Riposte which counters your melee attacks or Reflect which counters ranged or magic attack. Enemies can also be shielded depending on their armour which can absorb attacks a selected number of times and requires a multiple hit attack in order to penetrate it. When the enemy attacks you it’s essential that you learn to time how to block through left clicking, which can reduce damage by half and determines if you survive an encounter or not. each of these stances/abilities have a counter and once learned the combat is fairly easy and mimics the idea of button sequences seen in Quick time events. This is something that seasoned gamers might find detracting from the game.
One of the key mechanics of the game is to gain perks to help improve your character in combat, which are gained by making friends on the game’s pseudo Facebook. This also serves as a menu screen for equipping new items, abilities and perks. The layout of the menu screen however can be slightly jarring at times, where particular options are not always readily apparent.
The content of the story is probably where the game shines through, and feels like playing an interactive episode of South Park. As previously mentioned, the game can become very metafictional, parodying current gaming treads such as the frivolousness of audio logs, inorganic dialogue trees of NPCS and the obsession of making Nazis or Zombies a focus as antagonists.
The plot and scenarios in game covers a large gamut of South Park’s style and stark profanity, rife with the same offensive humour most people are accustomed to from the show as well as including references from older episodes. Sometimes however this feels slightly novel, where ancillary characters and events from old episodes are reimaged and repackaged to work within the game’s continuity feeling like a re-tread of old material. This is however neatly balanced with the game’s own unique narrative that tells its own story which culminates to some very memorable moments. A lot of the content is definitely not watered down and almost makes a point to be as offensive and off-colour as possible. If you’re not a fan of South Park or easily offended, it should be obvious that this title is not for you. Three of the most memorable battles in the game really pushed boundaries and can easily offend someone with more sensitive dispositions.
There are some scenes deemed so offensive that certain countries have censored a few key moments of the game. This move seems to contradict the ethos of the creator’s free speech policy as a whole; however it seems evident that there was no real work around. The digitally downloadable versions of the game do not seem to block out these scenes and players in regions where the game is censored can still play virtual copies uncensored. The more observational of fans will also notice quite a few flaws. While the map tries to tie most of TV series continuity into the game, there are still key locations missing, like the Raisins Bar, Hell Pass Hospital (admittedly on the outskirts of town) and Dr Mephesto’s Genetic Engineering Ranch.
The side quests are also not as varied or in great supply and at times displays some surprisingly missed opportunities. It seems baffling that Mr Garrison was given so little exposure in the game as his depravity and outlandish weirdness would make for boundless material in the game. It can be speculated by some that these omissions may be included in some form of extra downloadable content however this seems very remote.
You can also collect memorable items which serve as memorabilia from past episodes that you can sell however do not really serve beyond this. There are a few in-game memorabilia that can be used as weapons or armour, however most collectables have little purpose other than just being obligatory collectables and give little incentive for players to explore in search of them. As some of the items do take some effort to acquire it would have been interesting for them to be used to unlock a quest line or to unlock some sort of secret event.
Mechanics of the game in combat have a few broken elements also. When in combat if an enemy is riposting and on your turn you have no PP left or magic to attack you cannot switch out a character or miss your turn. This forces you to melee, meaning inevitably you will have your attack parried while taking damage, for something that is unavoidable. This is a very big oversight by the designers and is a pretty basic mistake that should have been rectified early in development.
The game also seems to control how you level with level 15 being the level cap. There are a few battle instances you can encounter that are visible on screen and can be repeated by scrolling the screen away from location, entering a few new buildings or using Timmy’s Fast Travel option. Levelling from this method does seem excruciatingly slow however, as experience is more plentiful from battles occurring in the main quest line.The enemies also seem level alongside you with no opponents above or below your own, creating a steady controlled gradient of character growth . This seems to take a massive RPG element out of the game, where levelling does not give you much of an advantage over enemies.
Despite having a few flaws, slight accessibility problems and little in the way of replayability, The Stick of Truth is a memorable experience that successfully breaks the mould of the prior South Park games. Trey and Matt’s influence proudly shows itself within the game’s content, and reflects a auteur approach to their video game adaptation, with no holds barred humour and creativity that resonates with the show almost too perfectly. South Park fans will not be disappointed in this game.
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