<p dir="ltr">Listening to South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker talk about their work on South Park: The Stick of Truth, one can tell it has been an exhausting journey. The duo talks about the frustrations and the consistent delays that raised plenty of eyebrows from both fans and press. Fortunately, due to the hard work of the comedic duo and developer Obsidian, it seems like the fears were all for naught. South Park: The Stick of Truth delivers the trademark comedy of the series with the skill, wit, and speed for which Parker and Stone are famous. It should be no surprise the game’s cutscenes are packed full of jokes, but there are just as many funny moments packed into the gameplay, South Park is showing developers how comedy in games can be done right.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">The Stick of Truth begins with the player creating their very own South Park character. This character has to be male, but aside from gender is fully customizable. You pick out skin tone, hair style/color, and clothing. The character creation is fun and immediately provides the player a personal touch to the pre-established universe that Stone and Parker have played in for so long. That being said, spending hours gnawing over character creation is not necessary as your character changes constantly throughout the game.</p>
<p dir="ltr">After creating your character, you start the game by moving to South Park. Before settling in, your parents tell you to go out and meet some friends. You barely set foot outside before Butters approaches you and informs you the Wizard King (Cartman) requests your presence, starting you on the game’s grandiose adventure.</p>
<p dir="ltr">What initially grabbed me was the game’s slavish work to build the world of South Park. The game looks exactly like playing an episode of the beloved TV show. The 2D animation, the jerky character walk, it all feels authentic. The game does not feel like an homage, it feels like it is an extension of the show, similar to the acclaimed movie, Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">Traversing the town of South Park is a time consuming process. The world is big. Not as big as other Obsidian efforts, it’s nothing compared to Fallout: New Vegas, but waking from location to location can be a bit trying. Thankfully, the game features a fast-travel system operated by the character Timmy. These fast-travel checkpoints are easy to find and opened early in the game. So if you aren’t interested in spending a chunk of time wandering around South Park, there are time-saving alternatives.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The map provided to navigate the overworld is the larger problem. While the map can show you the general area of your objectives, it fails to provide specific information. This can lead to you wandering around an area, unsure of what to do. There is a quest list where these objectives are listed, but they also occasionally lack specificity. It is not a common problem with South Park’s quest structure, but it pops up here and there. There are also sections of the world&#8211;such as the sewers and Canada&#8211;which deserve their own map but don’t have one.</p>
<p dir="ltr">While you are exploring around, you will acquire loot. Whether you are digging through houses or garages of the characters who populate the world, or grabbing items off of fallen foes, the game consistently provides a healthy amount of items to acquire. The loot consists of everything from armor and weapons to baseball cards and action figures. This can be sold at a few locations where you can also buy consumables to help you in battle. There will also be a few locations to purchase weapons and armor. Armor can be football helmets or tinfoil hats, weapons range from wooden swords to erotic toys. As mentioned before, your character creation doesn’t matter for long because you will be switching through armor and weapons so often your character will consistently have a different look. Changing and altering the look and costumes keep the game fun and fresh, no matter how many hours in your are.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Unfortunately, the menus to navigate these options is less than ideal. Equipping and modifying weapons and armor is done often enough you would hope for an intuitive menu. Instead, it can be an annoying process as you are constantly having to access multiple sub-menus to get the upgrades in the right place or the right armor equipped. Aside from this, the menu doesn’t serve much of a purpose. There is a friends list, similar to a Facebook wall, which is good for a couple laughs, but doesn’t serve a purpose. The menu also has an abilities list of the special attacks you can use in battle.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">The battles themselves are a surprisingly good time. At times you battle alone, but often you are accompanied by one of six companion including Kyle, Stan, Cartman, Kenny, Jimmy, and Butters. Each companion boasts their own strengths and strategy and are useful in different situations. There isn’t enough game to really experiment with all of the available companions&#8211;two aren’t available until about halfway through the game&#8211;but all of them are used at one time or another.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The turn-based combat feels very much like a JRPG, beginning when you strike or are stuck by an opponent. Once combat starts, you pick your action from a wheel of options. You character has a basic attack, a ranged attack, magic(farts), consumables, and special attacks. Meanwhile you companion will have a basic attack, special attacks, a special ability, and consumables that pull from your inventory. When attacking or being attacked, there is a short quicktime sequence to determine the success of your strike. The game is usually upfront about what these sequences will entail, but occasionally things aren’t so clear and attacks will be wasted. The combat is also missing a few elements, such as running away or prematurely ending your turns that seem like innocent oversights. These issues are pretty minor, but they gnaw at the experience from time to time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Once you have completed your quest there is usually a cutscene to progress the narrative. The cutscenes in South Park feel like they are pulled directly from the show. The writing is spot-on and the voice acting is exactly what you would expect. Stone and Parker didn’t phone in anything when it comes to The Stick of Truth. It is an impressive effort.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There was little doubt that South Park would be funny in its cutscenes, but the humor continues far beyond the pre-rendered jokes. There are wonderful nods throughout the world and in combat. Sure there is dumb scattalogical humor, but there are plenty of more wickedly funny moments and a bunch are intelligently tied into the gameplay. The humor is intertwined with South Park in an intrical way, it’s in the combat, quicktime sequences, looting, dialogue, traversal, and choices. South Park shows video games how to do comedy right and proves the mix is not as toxic as many would believe.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">South Park: The Stick of Truth is one of the best comedy video games you can own, for fans of the series it is a can’t-miss. There are hiccups throughout the game, menus could be more intuitive, combat could use some more options, sometimes objectives aren’t explained clearly, but more than anything I didn’t want the game to end. The Stick of Truth offers 12-15 hours of gameplay and leaves you wanting more, a rare feat for a comedy game based on a non-gaming IP. The jokes are woven into the experience with a deftness one would expect of Stone and Parker, and they are accompanied by the solid design from the veterans at Obsidian. It is great to see South Park, and it’s many fans, get the game they deserve.</p>

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