Let's Talk... South Park: The Stick of Truth

It’s no secret that licensed properties and games have a dark history, especially South Park. Whilst most licensed games feel like soulless cash-ins riding off the success of a popular TV series or film, it’s a pleasant surprise to say that The Stick of Truth couldn’t stay any more true to what has makes South Park such a simultaneously infamous yet beloved series. All the over-the-top set pieces, the political jabs, the constant flow of jokes that makes you feel awful for laughing at. It all feels so distinctly South Park, and your feelings on what that actually means are detrimental to whether this game is for you or not.

The Stick of Truth opens with the game’s completely silent protagonist, aptly named “New Kid” (or just “Douchebag” to some), moving into his new house in the sleepy mountain town of South Park. All details of your previous life are withheld, except that your lack of voice has some mysterious dark history to it. New Kid joins forces with Grand Wizard Eric Cartman and his human faction the KKK (Kingdom of Kupa Keep) as they seek to return the apparently hugely important “Stick of Truth”- which has the alleged power to control the universe, according to the ever-changing rules of their little game- from Kyle and Stan and their Elven faction. As you’d probably imagine, the story is a load of totally insane, yet hilarious, crap that gives you ample excuse to roam the fairly small but densely populated world, which takes him from the depths of Mr Hankey’s sewers to the mystical lands of 16-bit Canada.

Hopefully that'll make up for all the awful deeds this game makes you do...

The show’s tradition of constantly 1-upping itself with somehow even more offensive, controversial and just plain outrageous jokes and biting satire. The Stick of Truth feels like the writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone to use their apparent love and appreciation for the classic video games of yesteryear and the tropes of high fantasy to craft an adventure that simultaneously pokes fun whilst also serving as a thoughtful homage. Weapons and items are all everyday objects that somehow hold magical properties, cardboard forts that can withstand intense pummelling, and a school that quickly turns into a complete warzone. The game does an excellent job of consistently turning the ordinary into fantastical and hilarious set pieces, and all shown through the twisted imagination of a couple of kids.

Although the continuing nonsense of foul-mouthed kids acting out insane fantasies is a regular theme in the story, it’s only a mere fraction of the sincere weirdness the game has to offer. Alien abductions, government conspiracies and a Nazi Zombie virus are just some of the unbelievable madness that the game spits out at a lightning fast pace. The lasting quality of the humour can be accredited to the game’s ability to know when to keep going with a joke and when to move on, as well as the fact that it never holds the player back to say “look how crazy that was” and simply rolls with every inch of its insane madness from start to finish. There are a couple of instances where a joke or scene lingers a little too long, but the game usually knows when to move on.

The combat features a nice variety of delightfully dumb of spells, abilities and summons

The RPG side of the game is nothing to write home about, with exploration usually leading to more quests, loot or just more jokes, and the turn-based combat just being fairly simple with its focus on hitting the right timing to achieve maximum effect. The combat is fun and there’s a certain satisfaction from mastering the rhythmic button prompts, but don’t come into the game expecting anything more than a frankly rudimentary (and very easy) combat system. Besides, most of the combat is just in service of making another joke anyway, whether that is through the ridiculous Final Fantasy summons or the ludicrous animations or button sequences required to pull off some moves. The RPG side of the game is fun and well-made, but you may be disappointed if you’re looking for a deep and lengthy RPG since South Park only lasts around 12 hours.

One of the game’s key mechanic is frankly is a bit of a clunker. Since it’s a South Park game, this mechanic is naturally a farting mechanic, which, if that’s what your into, may funny the first few times but quickly gets old. Farts are a form of magic in this world that can be used on parts of the environment and in combat as an offensive spell. Such farts come in the form of a handful of spells, the most powerful being crudely named “Nagasaki” of all things. To “perform” a fart, you have to hold down the right stick and used the left stick to find the right “frequency”. It’s a little awkward to pull off and can be somewhat unresponsive to properly execute, but fortunately there are only a dozen or so instances where you are required to use it and I almost never used it in combat.

The combat is simple but satisfying, and like the rest of the game its full of dumb jokes

Ultimately though, your feelings on South Park and its own brand of insane and offensive humour are essentially the only thing that should impact your interest in this game. As much as saying “fans of the genre/property will enjoy this more” gets a little tiresome, it cannot be overstated with The Stick of Truth since South Park’s humour can be hilarious to some and downright offensive to others. South Park is a fantastic example of a licensed game done just right and is possibly one of the best licensed games of all time, not that there’s much competition…