The Stick of Truth should be every South Park fan’s dream: arriving in town as generic new kid, players quickly find a self-aware RPG with a distinct Elder Scrolls/Game of Thrones vibe. As is tradition, events escalate and sinister forces descend upon the quiet mountain town, leaving more than just the titular stick at stake.
At a glance it’s visually indistinguishable from the show, the lack of HUD a shrewd choice. Though a juddering frame-skip issue frequently rears its head when screens scroll (on 360 at least), cutscene transitions are seamless, and the whole affair feels authentic, with regards to audio/visuals at least. South Park’s greatest strength is riffing on the zeitgeist – each episode has a mere six-day production cycle – and the game loses something without topical references. It’s dense with fan-serving detail – a trip to Canada is a particular treat – but sadly that’s not enough.
Though keen to poke fun at RPG tropes, ultimately its subversion is superficial, with a wealth of uninspiring fetch quests, unchallenging minigames and turn-based combat that has a tendency to drag. It’s a shame, because so much attention has been lavished on animating your buddies’ special moves – a personal favourite being Jimmy’s ‘Brown Note’, which sees him blowing a bowel-loosening tone from a pipeline-sized Alpine horn, causing foes to soil themselves – but sitting through the same sequences time after time saps amusement.
As expected, it’s crammed with lewd material, worshipping at the altar of fart gags, though at times feels like a middling clip show of classic episodes – jokes rehashed, old content remixed, sound snippets familiar and repetitive. Don’t expect an RPG of great length, depth or replayability, either – after 14 hours, mopping up the last side quests and collectables, I’d seen everything on offer.
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TSoT is the best, most faithful South Park game to date, but it’s still just an okay game. That said it might also be your only chance to fart on a flaming, used tampon and hurl it at Nazi zombie fetuses, unless they make another Postal.
Version Tested: Xbox 360. Played for 14 hours.
