South Park Stick of Truth - Xbox 360
I finished Stick of Truth. My initial reactions were quite negative. The combat is like the Mario rpgs, except enemies don't telegraph attacks well making blocking a matter of trial and error. I didn't like that, especially with many enemies attacking multiple times in quick succession with cheap, non telegraphed attacks that quickly eat away your health bar until you finally figure out the timing for blocking them or just abuse healing items. Other things that annoyed me with the game were the tons of missables, and the fact that you can't max out your character's abilities, typical pet peeves that I have with a lot of rpgs. That's not even mentioning the technical issues with the game that have been widely reported
However, in the end, the game won me over because while it fails to be a great rpg, it completely succeeds in being a great South Park game. All the humor and cleverness that you expect from Matt and Trey is in full effect. In fact, the game in some ways outdoes the show simply due to not having to deal with any of the restrictions of being on TV. F bombs are dropped without any censorship, and things are shown in this game that I don't think they'd get away with on Comedy Central...and that's really saying something given what that show HAS gotten away with. Bottom line, this game is hilarious and has truly memorable moments that I won't forget. It's also one of the most offensive games I have ever played in my life. If I have any complaints with the story it's two very minor ones:
1. Much of the story content feels like, "South Park's Greatest Hits" with a lot of stuff you've already seen on the show, recycled and presented in different ways here. It's like they had a checklist of all the show's most memorable and iconic bits and had to redo them in some way in the game. You'll see familiar things like the City Wok guy fighting the Mongolians, the Goth kids trying to prove they are noncomformists by forcing you to conform, Al Gore obsessing over Manbear pig, etc, etc. Much of the game is familiar territory, but having it all be interactive somehow makes it all fresh and when the game DOES throw fresh content at you, it's pretty damn hilarious and memorable
2. Given that the game has been in development for eons, there's not a lot of the topical type stuff that South Park is known for here. On the plus side, this make it much more unlikely that the game will feel dated in 10 years.
One other minor gripe is the game's over use of fart jokes, which comes across as juvenile. That's always been a problem with South Park though, it fluctuates between genuinely smart and clever, and downright childish and stupid. That's one reason why Futurama is arguably a better show. I wouldn't mind seeing Obsidian take a crack at that license.
Gameplaywise, while it's not the deepest rpg and annoying in some respects that I mentioned earlier, there are a few things I liked. The environment comes into play a lot in this game. Often times you can completely avoid combat by using something in the environment to take out your enemies in hilarious ways. Also, the summons are hilarious, as are some of the special abilities. This may be the only game I've ever played where I can say I used a summon spell to have a gay man shove an enemy up his ass or summoned the son of Christ to gun down some nazi zombies. Fuck yeah!
When you get right down to it, this is a game for South Park fans, not that I am the most hardcore fan of the show myself, but I've seen enough of it to appreciate a lot of the funny content here. I don't think this game will appeal to people not familiar with the show. Most of the fan service and references will go right over their head, a few went over mine as I've not consistently kept up with the show in recent seasons. There also isn't much here for someone just looking for a great rpg. One should approach this as an interactive South Park movie, and you'll walk away satisfied. It pays to be familiar with the Black Friday trilogy as well as this is for all intents and purposes the sequel to that mini event. And people complaining about the game's length are idiots. I spent the better part of this past weekend just playing this game trying to do every side quest and get every achievement, and didn't quite finish doing those things. If you're playing this game for an hour or two a day it can last a while and give you your money's worth. I'm sick of people complaining about game length, especially since most of the people who do probably have huge back logs. That's what happens when every game you buy takes forever to beat.
EDIT: This may be the first game I've ever played to employ a skip cutscene feature as an actual part of the game design. That's the kind of clever stuff you see in this game
Weirdly, the disc says Sonic R is the Saturn game but it is a port of the PC version. Either way, it's still an acquired taste.
