1. All things considered, I do not think Obsidian could have done very much more than they what they did w/ South Park™: The Stick of Truth™. It'd be a good game w/o its South Park™ license and, sometimes, it feels like it's a good game in spite of its South Park™ license.
2. I am hesitant to say that the graphics for South Park™: The Stick of Truth™ could not be better because the last time I said that, it was about the original Mortal Kombat. This said, any still from the game could just as easily have come from the South Park™ TV show. It's a perfect likeness. The graphics for South Park™: The Stick of Truth™ could not be better.
3. The same holds true for the sound. It's the same sound design as South Park™. I mean, yeah, they could replace the entire sonic tapestry of the whole game w/ Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and it would be way better but I think the aim here was to recreate the feel of a South Park™ episode not just to be timelessly and face-meltingly awesome... unforturnately.
4. I could write a boring and badly incoherent book on my mixed feeling about the type of humor in South Park™ so I feel like I need to bring it up. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone come from the Lenny Bruce school of comedy where you don't shy away from hateful language but instead sing it out w/ the idea that you can take away the power of said language by ridiculing it. I like this idea in theory but in practice it has definite downsides. For example, while lots of characters play the roll of distasteful bigots on the show, none do so often as Eric Cartman who has become the franchise's de facto leading man over the years. There is considerable effort put into making Cartman seem awful and unlikable--which ostensibly would make people want to not act like him--but here is the issue: Cartman is funny. People don't want to be Cartman but they do want to be funny like Cartman and the way Cartman is funny is by being a bigot. I don't think the show was made w/ the intent to be bigoted or hateful and certainly don't think people are bigoted for enjoying it or even emulating its humor but if you are telling me South Park™ didn't normalize the kind of language Cartman uses and make it just a little bit easier for some people to use that same language hatefully, I'm telling you you're wrong. Sorry you had to hear it from me.
5. Also, there are way, way too many fart jokes.
6. You play as the new kid in town. You start off playing a rather involved LARP game w/ the usual South Park™ cast of characters and, as you'd expect, this escalates to a Nazi zombie outbreak. Most of what you do is go around and recruit other people to fight on your side.
7. The combat reminds me quite a lot of the Mario & Luigi games for Nintendo handhelds. It's turn based but there is also a rhythmic element w/ careful button presses so you don't feel like you are mashing one button the whole time. You have meters for health, special moves and magic, the former two of which reset after each encounter which really lets you go all in and use all the strategies at your disposal.
8. Inventory management is probably the biggest pain, gameplay-wise. You've got unlimited storage but it's just fussy and annoying to deal w/. All your gear can have little enhancements you can add and it just got on my nerves going through everything after a while. To make matters worse, lots of missions require you to wear a particular set of clothes so you are forever having to change against your will, each time needing to re-equip the enhancements.
9. Other than your player character, you can also bring along a variety of South Park™ characters with you. You only get to bring one at a time and sometimes one or the other is needed in some particular situations so you don't get a choice. The extra characters level up w/ you and you don't manage their equipment, which is a good thing since, as per 7, inventory management is a chore.
10. South Park™: The Stick of Truth™'s version of its titular town is a good size for a game and, by that, I mean it's pretty small. I like sprawling game worlds as much as the next person but there's something to be said w/ keeping scope more limited and letting the player really get to know the whole thing.
11. Makers of humorous games please take note: there is no joke funny enough to be repeated in every single fight sequence for a long stretch of gameplay. The need to constantly be funny seems to hamstring The Stick of Truth™'s pacing from time to time. Rather than trying make every single item in a game funny, focus the humor into sections that are actually funny rather than trying to cram dumb jokes down my throat for the entirety of a fifteen hour game. I don't need every weapon to be a piece of poo or a dildo. I don't need to solve every puzzle by farting on it. It's fine. I can enjoy a game w/o it trying to make me laugh every ten seconds.
12. Going through this all mentally, I have a lot of complaints about South Park™: The Stick of Truth™ but I do actually enjoy South Park™ and I enjoyed actually playing The Stick of Truth™ even more. It doesn't make you run all over a giant map and gets to its point rather quickly, making for a dense and high quality gaming experience. It's a bit pat but I feel like it's sufficient to say: if you think you'll like South Park™: The Stick of Truth™, you will.
13. Points™
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