South Park: The Stick of Truth Preview and Impressions
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Stick of Truth is about the largest LARPing session you have ever seen. The player takes on the role of the new kid in town and is forced to go make new friends while his/her parents go (wrestle) in the new house. If the new kid tries to go into the house, the father appears in the upstairs window, obviously naked, and yells, (I TOLD YOU TO GO MAKE FRIENDS!) Yep, you're definitely in South Park. As the new kid wanders down the streets, he's instantly pulled into this giant LARPing session with all the kids of South Park. The fourth graders are led by the Grand Wizard Cartman, and their job is to protect the Stick of Truth from coming into the clutches of the older kids playing the elves, the Goth kids playing the vampires, and various other groups of kids that we were not shown at this time. However, if these other groups of enemies are half as creatively employed as the vampires, it will be brilliant.
The new kid can take on the role of a Cleric, Mage, Fighter, or Thief. All combat is done in turn-based style, but combat requires players to deploy their attacks and spells very strategically. For example, it's best to save the largest attacks until the very end, as these can finish off large groups of enemies who are well on their way to death. If you use them early on, you'll take out a chunk of health, but the healers will repair any damage you've made. In addition, you can only use your largest attacks once, so they must be used wisely.
God Hate Geeks offers some impressions:
This morning's closed-room demo displayed Trey Parker and Matt Stone's fully customizable world of fuckery. Your ass-inine avatar can heal with Cheesy Puffs and Revive Tacos; spew emotive twilighters with the most hilarious RPG weapon animation ever Dragon Breath; chuck some Fucking Ninja Stars at (Asshole) neighborhood Elves; and get locked out of your pathetic parents crib while they play (house) to their monthly Lifetime movie marathon which only leads you to discover Cartman's moms' Vibroblade. The environments are just as insane, as the Rock of Insanity will force players to endure a Star Trekesque hypnosis and awkward flashcut silence of.. well.. insanity?
It's those humorous nuances that seperate this game from all previous RPGs. And he animations are so terrifyingly close to the cartoon, even your fluffed-up roomie strolling by your LCD will mistake this Stick for the animated sitcom itself.
And so does Insert Coin(s):
I'm happy to say that after today's gameplay walkthrough, you're all going to be very, very happpy with the end result. Not only is the dialogue innappropriate and hysterical, but the spin on classic RPG functions to tie-in with the show are absolutely jaw-dropping funny. For instance, the small group of people I shared the room with could not stop laughing after we were treated to an attack that featured Mr. Slave sitting on an opponent while the player rapidly tapped A in order to squeeze the enemy into his buttocks. (This description does not do it justice at all, but just try to visualize.) Much like the show, the true focal point of the gameplay footage was Cartman's dialogue. Every single line out of Eric's mouth had the room rolling, it's rare to have an entire room simultaneously laughing when it's a pre-recorded video playing, but this game successfully did it.
Spotted on the Obsidian Entertainment forums.
