South Park: The Stick of Truth Review by: tgags123 - 9/10
South Park: The Review of TruthI first started watching South Park last year, when my suitemate introduced me to the show. I was instantly hooked, as the humor used in the show is right up my alley. My suitemate gave me his Hulu password, and I began to make my way through the 20+ seasons. Around the same time I was hooked on the South Park show, South Park: The Fractured But Whole was released. I decided to purchase the game, and it came with a download code for the previous South Park video game, The Stick of Truth. I started to play The Stick of Truth during Christmas Break last year, and got hooked on it just as quickly as I had the show.
Video games based on movies and TV shows generally suck. They appeal to fans and rely on the name to generate sales, while often being mediocre in terms of actually gameplay. The most infamous example of this is likely the awful "Back to the Future" game for the NES. The Stick of Truth is an exception to this generalization. The game has it's own unique story, simple yet fun gameplay mechanics, and a surprising amount of depth. It also does all of this while staying true to the style of the show it is based on.
Gameplay: 9
The gameplay in The Stick of Truth is simple, but very fun. In the overworld, you control a customizable character, as you travel through South Park, Colorado and other areas from the show (including Canada, buddy!) You can interact with certain aspects of the environment, such as opening drawers and shooting things (once you unlock the ability to do so). You can also talk to NPCs, who all have something funny or clever to say. When you run into an enemy, you will enter into a battle with them. Battles are turn-based, and require you to use melee attacks, range attacks, magic (farts), and special abilities to defeat your opponents. In addition to your character, you can also use a buddy in battle with you, all of which have their own special moves. The buddy feature allows you to use a lot of the main characters from the show, including Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Butters. Throughout the game you also find a number of different melee and ranged weapons you can use in battle that do more damage, or do special things such as freezing or burning your enemies. Overall, I have very few complaints about the gameplay. Exploring the town of South Park is cool, and I am a big fan of the strategic combat system.
Graphics: 10
The graphics are exactly what you would expect from a South Park video game. From the characters to the settings, everything looks more or less the same way they look in the show. Since the game is supposed to look like the show and not like real life, I gave it a rating of 10 for graphics, because it achieves this quite well. Additionally, a lot of the animations when characters use their special abilities in combat are also pretty awesome. Visually, The Stick of Truth does jut about everything right.
Sound: 7
If I had to choose a least favorite aspect of The Stick of Truth, I would definitely go with the sound in the game. The music in the overworld is very repetitive, and gets very annoying after playing the game for a while. Characters also have a limited pool of phrases they will use during battle, and while the phrases themselves are funny, they also get annoying after a while because of how often you hear them. That being said, there are some positives in the sound department as well. All of the characters are voiced by the same people in the game as they are in the show (which shouldn't come as a surprise, since the vast majority of the characters are voiced by either Matt Stone or Trey Parker). Additionally, the characters actually speak their lines instead of just relying on text boxes at the bottom of the screen, which is something I like in a video game. Overall the sound isn't bad, I just wish the music was less repetitive and the pool of character phrases was more diverse.
Addictiveness: 8
Addictiveness was a hard category to rate, because while I couldn't put the controller down while I was playing the game the first time through, after I beat the main game and all of the side quests, I didn't have much of a desire to play the game more. If you decided to play The Stick of Truth, you will probably encounter the same thing. While playing through the game the first time, it is incredibly fun and addictive. I frequently found myself saying "ok, just as soon as I beat this mission I'm going to bed," and then staying up for another four hours playing. However, once the game is finished, there isn't much replayability.
Story: 10
The story in The Stick of Truth is fantastic. The game combines a number of plot elements from popular episodes of the South Park TV show with an entirely new main plot developed just for the game. In the game, you are the new kid in town, and you are recruited by Cartman to join his team of humans and defend the "Stick of Truth" from Kyle's team of elves. I don't want to give too much of the story away in case any readers decide to play the game for themselves, but the story continues with a number of humorous twists and turns that you would expect from South Park. Additionally, there are a number of side quests based on the show, including appearances from Al Gore and Man Bear Pig, Kanye West the gay fish, Jesus and Father Maxie, and much more. For creating a new, entertaining story that also perfectly mixes in references from the South Park TV show, I have given the story a perfect rating of 10.
Depth: 8
Between the main story and the side quests and Easter eggs, there is a lot to do in The Stick of Truth. The game took me a while to beat, much longer than I expected it to. I thought The Stick of Truth was going to be more of a joke, the kind of gimmick game you play for the humor, but I was wrong. The Stick of Truth is very much a full-fledged game, with an expansive story and a number of things to do to keep you entertained. The reason I gave it an 8 though, instead of a 9 or a 10, is because of the lack of replayability, which I mentioned earlier in the addictiveness section. There is a lot to do in The Stick of Truth, but once you do everything, the game is pretty much over. While there is a lot of depth, there is also a fairly definitive end point, and for that reason I am giving the Stick of Truth an 8 for depth.
Difficulty: 7
Overall, The Stick of Truth is not that hard to complete. If you continue to buy and equip better items, and use different battle techniques effectively, you shouldn't have too much trouble completing the game. However, one thing that makes it more difficult is that as you level up, so do your enemies. There's a part of the game where you battle Al Gore in a storage unit, and I couldn't beat him. His attacks were too powerful and his health was too high for me. Since it was a side quest, I decided to give up and continue with the main story, with the intention of going back and beating it after I leveled up a but and obtained some better items and equipment. When I went back I was much stronger, but so was Al Gore. The battle still gave me trouble, but eventually I was able to beat it. The only difficult parts of the game are the boss battles, such as the one with Al Gore. However, if you use the right kind of attacks and choose the most effective buddy for each specific battle, beating them shouldn't take more than a few tries.
Overall, I would highly recommend South Park: The Stick of Truth to anyone that's looking to play a simple, fun, and entertaining video game. It doesn't have the complexity of most modern games, though in a way that's part of the beauty of it. You can find The Stick of Truth for sale for less than $10, and for that price I'd consider it a must buy for any South Park fans.
Graphics
10 Sound
7 Addictive
8 Depth
8 Story
10 Difficulty
7
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