South Park: The Stick of Truth Previews and Gameplay Footage
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We have rounded up a few South Park: The Stick of Truth hands-on previews, all based on the opening segments of Obsidian's upcoming licensed title, which so far had an arguably troubled development history, but still seems to have elicited a fairly positive response from the press.
IGN:
Yes, the (role-playing) in this RPG comes from Cartman and his human friends, who are trying to protect the magical (Stick of Truth) from Kyle and the hated elves. The elevator-pitch version of it is presented as a funny 1970's-style cartoon; it's the first thing you see after you press Start. And for all of the absurdity of the South Park source material, the underlying gameplay is solid. Battles happen JRPG-style, where you approach (or get accosted by) an enemy. Fights happen in turns, with standard attacks blending with (PP)-powered special abilities against enemies in row-style formations. It quickly becomes apparent that you must learn to target mages and support classes first before focusing on the tanks. I played as a Thief (you can also choose a Warrior, Mage, or Jew).
Meanwhile, your attacks amplify or dull based on how well you do with timed button presses as you go on the offensive. For instance, one special hammer attack by Butters has you twirl the left thumbstick, then press A when you see a bushel of flames engulf the young Stotch. Take on the wrong enemy before you're sufficiently leveled-up and you will die. I bit the bullet once during a brush-up with a herd of horse-riding Mongorians [sic] and, yep, another reference awaited me at the Game Over screen, as I found myself at Heaven's pearly gates, greeted by a group of smiling Mormons. Collectibles abound, too, such as Chinpokomon. And you also earn a new Perk, such as Protect My Balls (take greatly decreased damage when critically injured), for every certain number of friends you make.
You play a new kid in town, recruited into a LARPing game run by Cartman. A band of Elves (other kids) have stolen the game's crucial relic, The Stick of Truth (a featureless twig) At the behest of your clan's grand wizard (Cartman, of course), you must team up with a friends and hunt down the thieves.
The quest gives you a loose enough excuse to freely roam the entire town, which is full of sidequests, treasure and familiar faces from the show. I wandered North and found Al Gore hiding behind a bush. I found Phil Collins' Oscar behind a mouldy cubena seat. I ventured into Kenny's garage and battled Meth addicts for a bag of strong coffee. Each quest introduces you to new characters, who become friends on a Facebook-style social network. You can bring up the menu to see updates from characters you've met throughout the game, and in some cases, team up with them to fight.
The Stick Of Truth plays to classic RPG conventions throughout with turn-based battles, a big town to explore, NPCs to speak to, items to collect, and quests to perform. Those things aren't particularly groundbreaking in of themselves, but it's the way that they've been wrapped up in the South Park universe that made my time with The Stick Of Truth so much fun. Quick travel around the map and instead of horse-drawn cart there's Timmy and his electric wheelchair pulling a trolley. At home base in Cartman's back yard, Clyde mans the weapon store, while Scott Malkinson and his "power of diabetes" preside over some stables consisting solely of a sand box and Cartman's long tormented cat Mr. Kitty.
That attention to detail did a good job of glossing over the mostly fetch-based quests I was entrusted with too. One of the first, enlisting Tweak to Cartman's cause, meant grabbing supplies for Tweak's Coffee Shop. Simple enough, except the supplies came from Kenny's house on the wrong side of the tracks, and instead of coffee, it was a "special ingredient" from a crack den in the shed, complete with some irate crack heads guarding it. Another, and by far my favorite quest, involved helping Lu Kim rid City Wok of Mongolians by heading over to a nearby tower and beating up all of the Mongolian children.
Combat is a classic, pre-ATB turn-based affair, but after you've chosen whether to attack with melee, ranged or special attack, you'll need your reactions. At every stage of combat, timed QTEs can boost your attack, reduce incoming damage, and give you a chance for a counter attack after a perfect block. These skill elements can really turn around a battle, so watch out for the patterns. There's a meth-head with a serious four-stage attack that you don't want to get hit by twice, at full damage.
HP and MP refill after battle, so you don't need to worry about over-using your class skills, but the game isn't easy. After the garden invasion, the gloves are off, and I wiped out a couple of times in the first couple of hours before noticing that I had a few potions I wasn't using.
The biggest achievement here is that it looks, plays, and feels like an interactive episode of the show. When Parker and Stone said they were delaying the game to maintain the same standards as the TV show, they were being suitably modest, but that was absolutely essential. The stuttering animation and the script is perfect. It looks exactly like it needed to look.
At first we were unsure about The Stick of Truth's battle plan. Learning the various attacks, blocks, when to guzzle that restorative potion - you have health points (HP) and power points (PP, or (pee pee) as the game obviously goes for) - familiar to playing classic Final Fantasy. Only this is South Park, and in this format the fights at the early stages felt somewhat repetitive, while vocal jibes also quickly became familiar. It needs some more dialogue to throw around in these key fight scenes.
But given a bit of time, as all these kinds of games require, and we got into the flow of it. You will learn new moves, level up, buy new weapons, and can control multiple characters as the story progresses. It still probably won't stop you getting bored of roshamboing - that's a kick (squaaaare in the nuts) - your enemies to the same select number of vocal sound bites though.
We were also disappointed to run into any loading screens at all. Jumping into fights is introduced with lightning strikes that last a couple of seconds before the action is on, while moving from sections of South Park's streets - speeded up by (Timmy Travel) at marked flag points, complete with our favourite chariot-riding character Timmy should you wish - also requires a short pause. But then urgency never feels like the number one factor in this game - it's not as though taking your eyes off the screen for a minute will result in immediate death by wiffle bat.
On the more RPG side of things, South Park offers quite a lot for you to tinker and toy with, in terms of in- and out-of-battle strategies. As with most RPG's, you choose a class and begin your quest. The regular Warrior, Mage and Thief classes are all there, complimented sweetly by something only South Park could possibly pull off; The Jew Class. Each class comes with its own specific perks and abilities, which mainly manifest in your character's unique special ability in battle. You're free to use all the weapons at your disposal, granted you've gathered enough change to afford them, and although your class changes your appearance you'll soon let the host of custom clothing items take over. But the classes don't stop at your personal preference; each ally you're able to add to your party belongs to a specific class and therefore has access to their own brand of special abilities. Choosing who to have at a particular time seems to make a very big difference during fights, but more importantly outside of them. Using your ally's unique ability to take out foes before engaging or distracting them can probably save you a lot of trouble in crowded areas, and it was a treat to see the environment so wonderfully intractable.
It's definitely not Final Fantasy levels of complexity, but the wide range of moves we saw in action while playing, alongside the number of items available, should keep things fairly interesting as you progress through the story.
This is not however a game that RPG fans should pick up if they have no interest in South Park. There has obviously been a lot of time spent on fan service here, with many we expect being happy just playing through it to enjoy the South Park story.
It never felt to us like it had quite the depth of a fully fledged RPG, but more offered just enough while using the hilarity of South Park to usher you on your way through the game.
Speaking of fan service, The Stick of Truth doesn't really hold back when it comes to references. You can, for example, drop into Tom's Rhinoplasty for a nose job, or go visit City Wok for some food. Walk through the town and it genuinely starts to feel a little bit alive.
Speaking with Jordan Thomas, creative director for BioShock 2, Thief: Deadly Shadows, and serving as a creative consultant on The Stick of Truth -- he spoke about the title's development and how the theme of play is something the creators wanted to focus on when writing the game's script.
"If you look at South Park, there's always been a love affair with games that's evident in their storytelling...that the characters have a fetishistic mysticism regarding gaming," said Jordan Thomas, recalling the television series' use of videogames. "The creators would not have allowed the game to be just a joke vehicle, they wanted a proper game."
Instead of taking on the role of one of the established characters, players will create a brand character who is the new kid on the block. As this New Kid, players will forge alliances and come into conflict with others while making a name for themselves in South Park and its surrounding areas.
Of course, comedy is the backbone of South Park -- and The Stick of Truth pulls absolutely no punches when it comes to its humor. As a videogame, Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and the developers at Obsidian were able to craft a story that parodies many tropes and cliches of the medium, while at the same time creating something that speaks to the themes of engagement, play, and obsession in ways that could only be done in a game.
As you might expect, South Park's initial target is the video game genre The Stick of Truth finds itself part of, gently mocking the tropes of the RPG while using them almost wholesale. But they are implemented with a light touch. The Stick of Truth is developed by Obsidian, a studio that certainly knows its way around an RPG after its work on Fallout, Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. A heady history, but the RPG mechanics of The Stick of Truth have largely been simplified, leading to a game that's more akin to Nintendo's brilliant Paper Mario RPGs than anything from Obsidian's back catalogue. Depth appears to be there if you want it with perks, skill trees and weapon buffs aplenty but the initial impression was one of accessibility. This will appeal to South Park fans first and RPG fans second, with the former reassured they should be able to pick up The Stick of Truth without being baffled by its mechanics.
You navigate South Park on a 2D plane in order to mimic the cartoon's visual style, though you are able to move in and out of the screen to explore your environment. Moving around is a cinch, but as it stands the structure of the map itself is somewhat clunky. South Park's roads are layered on top of each other, with connecting roads intersecting them, but planning your movement is trickier than it should be. There is Timmy's fast travel, located at certain points around the town, though it seems a shame to forego exploration due to wonky map structure.
It's a rare gripe in an otherwise slick and fast hour. The early quests are predictably busywork, having you scoot around town to familiarise yourself and meet characters as you go. First up is to recruit Token, Tweek and Craig to Cartman's faction. Many inhabitants of South Park can be friended on Facebook as you meet them, which unlocks perks and more messages on your timeline.
For starters, after customising your character and choosing their class (Fighter, Mage, Thief or Jew), Cartman asks what your name is. Yet the name entry system doesn't work, leading to a prompt asking: "Are you sure you wish to be called Douchebag?" with no way of choosing 'no'. Thus, you're known as Douchebag for the remainder of the adventure. This is the sort of game we're dealing with here.
The gaming in-jokes continue throughout the game's first section. One NPC, fully aware he's saying the same lines over and over again, justifies it by telling you: "Cartman says we can't deviate from the script". Later, as you roam from quest to quest, Butters observes that "we're sure doing a lot of walking here".
Even the traditional turn-based battle system, which The Stick Of Truth adopts, is not immune from mockery. "I'm gonna kick your ass!" yells one foe. "No, dude, you gotta take turns," Cartman replies. "That's how they used to fight in the olden days." When you defeat him, instead of him dying in a traditional puff of smoke, he instead runs off crying.
"We want to track what the player is doing and so we created punchlines that let you know that we are watching," explained creative consultant Jordan Thomas. "We want the game to respond to what you are doing." He said a lot of work had gone into "contingent humor in the game, meaning player-driven humor."
"You are exploring the town and having it laugh at you based on what you do," he added. "You can't get that from the show and you really can't get it from that many games."
Talking of loot, this is another excuse to load in the gags. Players can pick up essential stuff for use in combat, as well as junk that references the South Park world, with the added benefit of being tradable for upgrades.
Characters pop up to give quests, and also to populate a Facebook-style page, another place to seek out jokes and memes. Likewise, the classes evolve in ways that are designed to tickle ribs.
"It is intoxicating to have fun with video games," said Thomas. "I haven't really been able mock games from the inside before."
Finally, people with a stronger stomach than me might want to check PewDiePie's two Let's Play videos (here and here). On the upside, they're videos of the PC version, which we didn't have a chance to see so far (and unfortunately looks like a rather barebone port), but on the downside, the host is one of the most obnoxious I've ever seen on YouTube.
