South Park: The Stick of Truth
Producer: Ubisoft
Release Date: March 4, 2014
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Rating: Mature
Genre: Role-Playing Game
Funny Fantasy
Written by Josh Schilling
South Park: The Stick of Truth was a hotly anticipated video game that was initially supposed to be released in 2012. After a bunch of delays, some bureaucratic morass, and a bankrupt publisher switcheroo, the time has finally come to explore that quiet little red-neck podunk white-trash mountain town made famous by the television show of 17 seasons from the creatively twisted minds of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. There have been a few attempts in the past to recreate the South Park experience in video game form, but none have come close to the quality that people have come to expect from the show’s progenitors. Trey and Matt have decided to throw their weight behind this new South Park game, and what results is pretty much in line with what you might expect. That is, of course, if you were expecting a well-written, completely over-the-top, laugh out loud experience.
The Stick of Truth is a turn-based, role-playing game that stars you, the gamer, as the proverbial new kid in town. After you decide between Fighter, Mage, Thief, or Jew as your character class, the story starts when your parents implore you to find some friends. You stumble upon the kids in town locked in an epic fantasy war between the Cartman-led humans of the Kingdom of Kupa Keep (note the acronym please), and the elves led by the Elf King Kyle. When I say the war is epic, it is epic in a fourth-grade kids kind of epic. Large, bed sheet-tented forts in back yards make up the home bases and the weapons are rudimentary and mostly wooden. Bottles of water can cure you of ailments, tacos can revive a fallen friend, and “magic” consists largely of concentrated flatulence. The kids of the neighborhood are engaged in a good natured, but super cereal quest to obtain the titular Stick of Truth which has the imaginary ability to…well…do anything.
The greatest part of this game is the ability to explore South Park during your quest. You get to see all of the major sites as you would see them on the T.V. show, rendered two-dimensionally as God intended. The locations look exactly like they should, and the entire game plays out in the style that made the show famous, which means it’s poorly drawn and poorly animated. Once you get acclimated to your surroundings and to the foundations of the story, you then learn how to fight. This game is a turn-based RPG, very much in the style made famous by classic Final Fantasy games. There is actually some good, strategic combat that requires some thought in the execution of battle, and the upgrades you decide upon can truly make a difference in the outcome. After some preliminary bouts against your rivals, things escalate rapidly. In the style that fans of South Park will be readily familiar, everything ramps up and takes about 10 left turns to places that are at the same time logical and unexpected.
This game is an homage to South Park in general, and it seems like each and every episode of the TV show is referenced in some way, with just about all of the familiar and not so familiar characters making an appearance in one facet or another. While that may be great for fans, the uninitiated might be a little overwhelmed by the absolute craziness that transpires. As a fan of the show, there were still some points in the gameplay that shocked me. It’s as if Trey and Matt played Saints Row: The Third and said to themselves, “Yeah, we can outdo that,” and then went out and did it. This game would be jaw-dropping for people who have never seen South Park, and is definitely not for children or the easily offended, but for fans of the show, this game is an absolute must play. Anything and everything is on the table, and no one is safe from ridicule…just like you would expect.