South Park: The Stick of Truth was like Final Fantasy 7 and Diablo
2 moved to South Park and had a baby, with some of the puzzle
elements of Sanitarium and the button mashing of Dante's Inferno (the
game, obviously) thrown in. Needless to say, it was by far one of the best
games I've ever played.
Naturally, I expected a great
storyline and hilarious writing. It did not disappoint on that score.
It was like a long episode of South Park. However, I was genuinely
impressed by the game play, which I'll discuss. I'm trying to avoid
spoilers. Without any connection to South Park whatsoever and a
standard, yet predictable, fantasy storyline it would have still
been a good game. Not a great game, but a good game. It borrowed (and
satirized) elements from many different RPGs. The fast travel, for
example, consists of calling Timmy to pull you somewhere.
The story begins, like most, with
character creation. You assume the role of the new kid who moves in
next door to Butters, who soon takes you to Kupa Keep (Cartman's backyard)
where you join his forces. Like most fantasy RPGs, you get to pick a
class, like fighter, mage or Jew (Cartman is the NPC who leads the
character through this part). Each offers different skills, etc,
though the player character will have the ability to use “magic”
(farts) regardless of class.
The combat works about like Final Fantasy. It's turn-based, and each character has different skills and
abilities. You fight with one ally by your side (Butters, Kenny,
Stan, Kyle, Cartman or Jimmy). Each turn you can attack, use magic,
use a special ability or use an inventory item. The items are pretty
standard, health potions (cheesy poofs, snacky cakes, etc), mana
potions (cans of beans, burritos, etc), strength potions (Weight Gain 4000) and revive potions (basically
a phoenix down, but in taco form). Some can also be used to attack or
provide skill bonuses. You can also get summon spells, which call upon some
powerful character, like Mr. Slave or Jesus to assist the player in
combat, not unlike summon materia.
Unlike Final Fantasy, the attacks (and
blocks) all require some timed button tapping, holding and
occasionally some mashing (and it actually refers to it as “mashing”
in the game...instead of the “tap B rapidly” or whatever. Most of
the special abilities required a degree of button mashing, often in
sequence, much like Dante's Inferno. Unlike Dante's Inferno, you can
poop...and pooping requires button mashing.
Aside from the potions I mentioned,
there is a variety of weapons and armor available in South Park. They
all require a certain level, and give different bonuses (aside from
being silly), just like every RPG ever. You can even add modifiers to
your weapons and armor, just like the gems and runes in Diablo 2 (I'd
like to toss a few in a Horodrics cube and find out what happens).
Armor patches and weapon “strap-ons” can add additional types of
damage, like fire, frost or the especially lethal “gross out”
damage. Unlike Diablo 2, your inventory is almost unlimited (you can
only hold ten of each type of potion), and you can move patches and
strap-ons.
There are also items you can use to
modify your appearance (like in Fable), but they serve no practical
purposes (like many things in Fable), except for in certain quests. There is also
a large quantity of junk that can be looted from all over the map. In
traditional RPG fashion, one tends to walk into every accessible room
and take everything that isn't nailed down. Much of this stuff
relates to specific episodes. It can all be sold in shops, though I
never really found it necessary. I usually seemed to find better
weapons and armor than what the shops carried, and I was never really
short on cash. Some of the descriptions were funny to read though.
The world of South Park is fairly
open, with a lot of side-quests. While combat rewards the player with
experience, quests cause the people he or she helps to become
Facebook friends. Gaining Facebook friends allows the player to get
more perks, which grant a variety of bonuses. The quests offer an
impressive variety; they aren't a bunch of repetitive “bring me X
random items that are occasionally dropped by such and such monster
(I once wiped out a significant portion of the Zehvra population
trying to obtain four hooves. You'd think each one would have exactly that
many),” like you get in World of Warcraft. They're all pretty
unique.
There are a decent amount of puzzles
required, primarily to get places, and the player is required to use
magic and other skills outside of combat to do this (I don't want to
say what specifically and spoil anything). It's a bit like
Sanitarium, especially in the level at the end where you can assume
forms from each of the previous realities to get through different
obstacles in the last world. Manipulating the environment can also be
used to take out enemies before entering combat. Each buddy also has
special skills, like Jimmy's “Bardic Access” that are sometimes
required.
I can't really say much more without
running the risk of spoiling something. I don't exactly have
complaints, but there are a few things that could be better. First it
needs to be longer...it was 29 hours (keep in mind, I kick ass), but
I want to play more, damnit. At least they could hurry up with the
DLC. Anyway....second, there were some bugs. Not as bad as some
games, but there were some. Last, I noticed that the character's
choices don't effect the storyline much. The same was true of Final
Fantasy, and Diablo 2 (well, there weren't really choices), but I do
like games (Mass Effect, Fallout or even Dragon Age) where the
character's actions do have some effect on the story. Despite the
freedom to roam and the availability of side-quests, the story is
completely linear.
Overall though, it's definitely one of
the best games I've ever played. I highly recommend it to everyone
who owns an xbox, playstation or computer (or at least knows where an
unoccupied one is). It helps if you happen to be familiar with South
Park, and it helps if you happen to be familiar with common tropes in
fantasy RPGs, but neither is necessary to enjoy the game (I
am both a huge South Park fan and a serious gamer, so naturally I thought it was fucking awesome!).
