I’m a huge fan of South Park. Crude as it may be, it has so much clever satire in it. Plus, it gets massive bonus points for being one of the few TV/Movie adaptions that made a really good game to go with it. When South Park: The Stick of Truth released it was getting all the praise from critics and fans alike. It was for good reason! Personally I loved The Stick of Truth. But with the sequel The Fractured But Whole having just been released, I figured now is as good a time as any to pop back and get the last of my achievements unlocked.
So, with that in mind, I strapped myself in with a freshly made Jew and joined the KKK… (it’s not as bad as it sounds, I swear!) Like I said, South Park doesn’t exactly shy away from the crude humour here. One of the classes is the Jew, which plays similarly to a Warlock in that every ability involves suffering. And one of the factions you can join is named the KKK and it stands for The Kingdom of Kupa Keep. See, completely innocent, put down the torches and pitchforks!
That’s the kinda humor we’re dealing with here. Literally no topic was off limits. If it existed, they took the piss out of it. Which is to say they must have tried hard to piss off as many demographics as possible with this game. I’m honestly surprised the PEGI rating wasn’t classed as ‘Nobody’. Seriously, I don’t mean to spoil things, but… nazi zombie fetus! Yes, that is a thing! I can only imagine what fucked up shit is in the sequel but y’know, it is called The Fractured But Whole, so you do the math…
Playing through The Stick of Truth felt like actually playing through an episode of the show, due in no small part to the show’s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone contributing to the script. I wish they did this for more game adaptions. So often, the franchise gets pawned off and the story gets a “close, but no cigar” feel to it. For example, could you imagine a Walking Dead game created by Robert Kirkman? Not that the Telltale ones aren’t good, but it’s hard to beat the creator working on his own creation. The fact that Trey and Matt were willing to put the effort into the story themselves and delve into the world of video games for the first time says a lot about their dedication and it pays off tenfold.
That said, if you aren’t a fan of South Park, The Stick of Truth holds up solidly as a standalone RPG. There’s plenty to do, plenty to explore and the combat wasn’t half-assed. It plays out as your standard turn-based RPG. There’s a full range of status effect, abilities and weapons to keep the gameplay varied but not overwhelming. A lot of the time it does boil down to using the same moves over and over, but whenever you’re tired of that, you can call in a unicorn or have a dog pee on the enemy or just straight up fart on them. Rarely did I get bored replaying the game, even when I knew the story. I still wanted to collect every achievement, search the areas for hidden Chinpokomon and generally build the baddest of badass characters I could.
If you’ve never played the game, I’d recommend giving it a go now. Especially since you can get it for free with a copy of The Fractured But Whole. Whether you like South Park or not, I’d definitely recommend it. That said, it’s not for the faint of heart. If you are easily offended, give it a miss. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some prep to do before playing the new game. I’ll probably have to wash my brain afterwards.
Will you be playing the game? Is it too crude for your taste? Let me know in the comments!
