In the world of South Park, Colorado, a world where everything from fourth graders tell you to f*** off, to pedophiles snapping passport photos of nude children at a photo specialists workplace, what more can happen? A lot, apparently, when the status quo of all our favorite stop-motion kids is thrown off by a rather unfamiliar and never before seen face – yours. You, the new kid in South Park, who has moved in with your parents to start a new quiet life in the small town. Thing is, you don’t talk much, and your parents aren’t very supportive.
You head out on your first day to meet some new friends, and end up being recruited to the KKK – the Kupa Keep Klan – by an overweight wizard named Cartmen. From there you begin your trials as Douchebag The New Kid, and embark on a quest to save the mystical Stick of Truth from Kyle the Jew – for he who holds the Stick of Truth is he who controls the universe.
South Park: The Stick of Truth is the first real South Park game we’ve ever been given. Sure, we had a few underwhelming knock offs with South Park characters in previous generations, but nothing of this magnitude. Throughout Stick of Truth you’ll hear more f-bombs and be assaulted with more genitalia and colorful language then you ever expected. It seems Matt Stone and Trey Parker have decided to use this opportunity to do absolutely everything they would never be allowed to do in a television episode.
The plot is surprisingly deep and splendidly hilarious, bringing me to legitimately laugh out loud on multiple occasions when characters would blast farts (known as Dragonborn Magic Spells) or crap in a toilet and then pull the fresh log out to use as a projectile weapon during combat. Every quest has a cutscene that looks identical to a television episode, and the hilarious humor shines through at twice the power. Even the graphics of the actual game look near identical.
Gameplay in Stick of Truth is fairly simple – you’ll move Douchebag around in a 3D plane from screen to screen, meeting new friends and penty of enemies. Fighting in Stick of Truth is a unique twist on a common RPG style fight – turn based moves, allowing both you and your companion one item use and one attack or ability use per turn. What makes Stick of Truth so unique is the variability of the special abilities and attacks: you’ve got your melee attacks, your ranged attacks, your melee and ranged attacks mixed with fart magic attacks, it’s all there.
Problems were few and far between, none of which actually effected my overall experience. Getting stuck in one place until I paused and unpaused the game a few times, not being able to properly figure out how to fart during the tutorials, and a few animations getting cut short or at improper times were the most I had to worry about, none of which would I of remembered had I not written it down.
Must PlaySouth Park: The Stick of Truth is a testament to what good games are: original, funny, creative, and above all: just plain good. With the minds from Ubisoft and Obsidian Entertainment coming together wit South Park Studios, it was obvious that we had a gem in the works, but the finished product truly is a sight to be seen. Ubisoft and Obsidian have been toting this game as “The Definitive South Park Experience”, something which it certainly is. South Park: The Stick of Truth is the best game to hit this generation of consoles in a long time. So go forth, young Douchebag, go forth and save Southpark. Go forth, and be cool.
Be sure to check out our Tips Guide on How to Play South Park: The Stick of Truth
South Park: The Stick of Truth was reviewed on the Xbox 360 with a review copy provided to us by Ubisoft.
