[Summary 7 out of 10]:

You are the New Kid, your task is to recover the Stick of Truth from the elves who have stolen it right out from under the noses of the Grand Wizard of the Kupa Keep Klan, Cartman. But infiltrating the elves’ stronghold reveals that perhaps Cartman and his Klan aren’t the good guys here, and perhaps there’s a much bigger mission on the horizon than the mighty Stick Of Truth (with which the holder controls the Universe).

While you try to uncover the mystery you’re also running around town, meeting people, doing little jobs, and trying to build an army with which to declare the ultimate power of the Universe once and for all.

 

What it’s like:

Honestly, it’s like running around inside of South Park. If you’ve watched even one episode of the television show, everything within this game will be instantly familiar. All your favorite characters make an appearance, and a few new ones are concocted to fill needed roles. There are places you know, and lots of secrets to be found.

The game itself is a RPG with turn based fighting elements. Every second of the play is completely dripping with South Park flavor, there’s never a moment in which something jars you out of the moment.

 

The Great:

Being in South Park. Hearing the voices of the characters you love, getting to see the characters they choose for themselves in the game within the game. Playing with the other kids in a way that before now was only dreamed about. From the very first moments, it feels like one giant episode unraveling before you while you get to take part.

The humor in this game is fantastically crass. It goes above and beyond anything you’ve seen the South Park kids do and say previously. There is a line drawn in the sand of what society deems offensive, and this game saunters right across it and keeps walking into the sunset. There are moments where what you’re seeing might make you pause and think “Oh, Jesus…”, but the appreciation that there are still people out there who won’t bend to politically correctness quickly overcomes whatever horror you might be feeling. And yes, even the most crude of you out there are going to feel at least one moment of horror.

 

The Good:

The controls are very easy to pick up. Even if there hadn’t been a very well made tutorial for everything, I don’t think that anybody would have any issue in playing this game. But the tutorials are great, and on top of that, when you need or want to do a special move, the game tells you again how to pull it off. That might be slightly annoying to some, but I found it useful, especially after playing the game for several hours at a time late at night.

The weapons in the game are common household items called by other names and wielded as if they’re actual weapons. Something about this really tickled me, as did the lack of bleeping over the swears and the random items that can be picked up and sold for the pocket change that will help in upgrading. Which brings me to the money system. You pick up junk and don’t get hundreds of dollars for it, which is nice. It makes it feel like you’re really a kid playing a game with your friends. Instead of wandering around with millions in gold, you’ve got maybe $20.15 that you saved up.

You aren’t thrown into the game as one of the characters that has already been established in the show, which is nice. It means you get to create and customize your character almost however you want. You don’t get to choose your gender, but everything else is up for grabs. The ways that you get to customize are also really fantastic. Everything from makeup to hats to the armor that you’re wearing (added bonus: the armor itself can be altered with color changes). You can even, should you so choose, get a nose job in town.

The story and the adventure that it takes you on are a lot of fun. How everything in the game is set up and the reasons why your character is doing the things that they’re doing make sense. It’s got a very good backbone to help it stand up, and I found myself quite impressed. Not only does it all make sense within the South Park framework, but it makes sense in the way that kids play and the things they’ll use for props.

Every character has their own fighting style and special powers. Not only within combat, but out in the general world, as well. If you pack along Stan in your party, you can command him to call his dog to pee on things. It makes for interesting combinations and lends a need for strategy for certain parts of the game. You aren’t, however, stuck if you’ve chosen party members who don’t work well in the fight you’re undertaking. You’ll lose a turn, but you can swap them out mid-battle.

The Bad:

Weapons and armor don’t seem to upgrade very well. I played with a level 4 weapon well after I’d passed level 4. I don’t think I changed it out until I hit level 11 at least, and that was without any of the equipment patches you can get applied to it. I tried the “more powerful” weapons I discovered, but for a very long time, nothing was better than the bow I’d picked up. It gave me very little incentive to try new things when it came to weapons AND armor. Armor for me was basically there for aesthetic purposes, and sometimes for the little bonuses they gave, though I mostly just applied the patches that I wanted onto the armor and went with it. After the first couple changes, I didn’t pay attention at all to what the actual armor stats were.

Combat is a little too repetitive and slow, if this had been another game that wasn’t drenched in amusement for me, I might have found myself irritated by the combat. As it was, I was entertained enough that I didn’t notice too much except on the more difficult fights.

There were points in the game where I would get new weapons or armor from another character, or because I’d done something, and the game would change it out automatically, not giving me the option to continue on in what I was wearing or at least opening up the inventory screen for me. The first time this happened, it said that I’d gotten new stuff and I should go look at it, I didn’t immediately realize that it had already put it on me, and I waded into battle missing the items that I’d gotten used to fighting with. Needless to say, I died. There are some spots where this makes sense, like when you’re going to bed. The others, though, it just became a point of irritation.

The biggest issue I have with this game is that I don’t feel like it has any replay value. No matter what character class is chosen, or which side is picked in the quest for the Stick, the dialogue and missions stay the same, the ending of the game is the same. There’s no change in outcome whatsoever, outside of achievements that can’t be popped unless you play through again. I feel like a game like this should have at least a little bit of difference depending on what you do and what choices are made. To not have any difference at all makes the idea of playing through again unappealing at best.

 

 

Conclusion [7 out of 10]:

A fun and entertaining game with lots of laughs packed into it with a few flaws that can’t be easily ignored. A good game if you’re looking for something that will make you laugh, but not if you’re looking for something with leveling mechanics that make sense or that you can play again and again immediately.