South Park: The Stick of Truth

[Correct_Carlo]

Finished it. It was never boring and there were more than a few funny parts (strangely, it's probably the dirtiest/most adult piece of south park ever....even more so than the film or TV show).

My biggest problem with it story wise was just that they repeated too many jokes from the show. Even shitty jokes too....like Morgan Freeman getting a freckle.

Still, giving Randy an abortion to fool guards into thinking he's a woman can't not be funny.

 

[Duraframe300]

And another week where the patch didn't get released.

Boy, I'm sure glad Sony and Microsoft as well as publishers do those quality checks that go on for weeks and demand a insane fee for patches. Sure helped make games get released less buggy. That will sure show those devs if we prevent them from fixing shit.

Because that's how code works.

 

[Falkner]

So, 11 hours. Expected a little bit more, but I knew going in that this would be a short experience. Because of that and the ridiculous lack of difficulty (I can't imagine how it must be on anything lower than hardcore), this is actually the first game I played through to the end since... Might & Magic IV back in 2012. I can't say I didn't enjoy it, though. I'd even say that this is Obsidian's best game to date, for whatever that's worth.

 

[Tigranes]

So I played this for a couple of hours, and saying this is Obsid's best to date just is the most confusing thing you can say. Combat is NOTHING but QTEs, and it doesn't matter what you do at all because on hardcore you can literally mash X and win. I can't speak to the 'writing' because I don't like South Park, but even if this was about a show that I really liked, I wouldn't hold it up as 'good writing', just getting the job done.

Sorry, but I like real RPGs enough that even mediocre real RPGs or terribly flawed real RPGs are far, far better than Hey Guys, Play the TV Show, By 'Play' We Mean Mash X!

 

[Deleted member 7219]

So, 11 hours. Expected a little bit more, but I knew going in that this would be a short experience. Because of that and the ridiculous lack of difficulty (I can't imagine how it must be on anything lower than hardcore), this is actually the first game I played through to the end since... Might & Magic IV back in 2012. I can't say I didn't enjoy it, though. I'd even say that this is Obsidian's best game to date, for whatever that's worth.

I agreed with most of that (although I think some of the combat was a little difficult), but I completely disagree with your last sentence. Have you played Fallout: New Vegas, MotB or KOTOR2? All of those games have alternate paths and choices & consequences, which are entirely lacking from South Park.

 

[Falkner]

Let's go through Obsidian's work so far:

KOTOR 2: RTWP. Writing was not bad, but my god, the combat in the KOTOR games is so mind-numbingly bad (and definitely worse than in South Park).
NWN 2 + expansions: RTWP, bad controls, bad camera, terrible performance.... but really RTWP is already enough to make me turn away in disgust.
AP: heavily flawed cover-based shooter/stealth game. Might score points for its extensive C&C, but the core game is not really good.
FNV: Fallout as an awkward FPS. No, thanks, but no.
DS 3: didn't even finish the demo, but I don't think anyone on here would argue for this game anyway.

South Park is not great, but at least it has turn-based combat (that would definitely benefit from more difficulty, sure) and keeps things fresh and entertaining for its admittedly short length.
I'm not a very big fan of their games anyway, as you might be able to tell. If you can tolerate the worst combat system to plague this genre, preferring MotB is something I could understand. I guess South Park's biggest perk for me is just that it doesn't completely annoy me with one of its core mechanics.

 

[Tigranes]

What's the point of having 'turn based combat' when you just mash X all day? How is 'turn based combat' which is about as simple as a typical RPGMaker game any better than anything? (It's hard for any combat to be more pointless than KOTOR2, but even that was more complex and difficult.)

Anyway, I'm not out to contest your opinion of Obsidian games, rather, I guess it's hard for me to imagine how such a bland, contentless, challengeless, meaningless 'press X' game could be 'better' than anything, no matter how bad its competition.

SP was the first game in a long time that actively made me feel I was wasting my life on a second to second basis, making me feel guilty for playing something so transparently pointless. Kind of like how playing my guitar in my room might be largely 'unproductive', but there's a clear difference when you're repeating an Avril Lavigne song for the 700th time or something.

 

[Duraframe300]

Dat hyperbole. (Not that SP wasn't easy as hell, but seriously)

 

[Falkner]

SP had rather useful status effects and elemental weaknesses and things like armour, shields and combat stances influencing your strategies. It was not mentally challenging, but the system behind it at least is rock solid.
You're also forgetting that even the worst TB combat is by definition still better than the unholy abomination that is RTWP.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Correct_Carlo]

So I played this for a couple of hours, and saying this is Obsid's best to date just is the most confusing thing you can say. Combat is NOTHING but QTEs, and it doesn't matter what you do at all because on hardcore you can literally mash X and win.

That's not true at all. The special moves in combat usualy contain a QTE (which is annoying), but the QTE acts entirely as a trigger and has nothing to do with strategy or how effective a move will be. So your ability to mash X is entirely a pass fail scenario. Either you accomplish the QTE and execute the move, or you don't and it fails.

South Park actually has a reasonably deep combat system, with a whole host of different status effects and combinations of moves that you can use which will exacerbate those effects to increase damage. So its combat system actually has lots of room for depth. The problem is that even on hard, fights are so easy that there's never much reason to use strategy as most special moves will do tons of damage, regardless of the type of damage. Plus, there's a (near) infinite number of potions and each player gets one potion use per turn, which means that there's never much chance of wiping, even on hard enemies.

So, in otherwords, South Park has a great combat system with lots of depth for a simple RPG of its sort, but totally shit combat design that never takes advantage of that depth. It's really clear that they spent a huge amount of time designing the combat system, but then not much time implementing its features in meaningful ways when it came to designing individual battles. It's why I'm really hoping someone makes a proper difficulty mod for this game that increases certain enemies and armor stats immunity to certain types of damage (i.e. fire, bleeding, sick, etc, etc), so that you will actually have to plan ahead in regard to what sorts of damage and status effects will work with specific enemies. I don't think there's sense in limiting power or mana potions, but limiting health potions to just one every 3 turns or so would also go a long way to making the game more interesting and challenging.

 

[Tigranes]

As I say, I played two hours and i found that (1) basic attack moves with the right QTE hits can kill 95% of enemies; (2) if you do use special attacks and the like, since there's no movement, very few abilities, and you can even use a potion and attack in the same turn, tactical decisions generally devolve to "hey let's use the attack on the back row since there are 2 enemies, not 1". Yawn. Sure, I agree that it has the good foundations for a system, but when the encounters are as terrible as this, it hardly matters.

 

[Lhynn]

As I say, I played two hours and i found that (1) basic attack moves with the right QTE hits can kill 95% of enemies; (2) if you do use special attacks and the like, since there's no movement, very few abilities, and you can even use a potion and attack in the same turn, tactical decisions generally devolve to "hey let's use the attack on the back row since there are 2 enemies, not 1". Yawn. Sure, I agree that it has the good foundations for a system, but when the encounters are as terrible as this, it hardly matters.

You said a bunch of stuff but never actually explained why they are terrible.

 

[Tigranes]

1. Difficulty in general. You could double enemy HP and attack and it'd still be beatable. Obviously that'd be a shitty fix, but it's illustrative.
2. Opponents don't do 2 actions a turn, when you can.
3. Unsure about opponent special attacks / etc. variety, I saw some but maybe they die too quickly right now to show it all off.
4. Not a great deal of variety in your own abilities and attacks, though that's fine because this is a ~10 hour game you wouldn't really replay.

Anyway, my main point isn't even about what SP system could become or whether it's a good groundwork. The point is whether SP is a fun game worth playing as is. Where other Obsidian games have a combination of flaws & good stuff worth playing for (or not, depending on your tastes), I struggle to see anything that is worth doing and enjoyable unless you're a real SP fan and just enjoy exploring the setting. You walk around and pick up a colossal amount of strangely named loot, half of which is junk. You perform 'puzzles' like shooting drawn ladders. You talk to people and press X. You get in fights and press X.

 

[Abu Antar]

"You talk to people and press X. You get in fights and press X."

I liked this part.

 

[Wulfstand]

The game is really fun, and this is coming from a guy who's watched a few seasons 3-4 years ago, and has barely kept contact with the series ever since.

Cartman oder Kyle?

Also, in regards to the combat being easy: I think it's supposed to be that way. The fact that the whole game played by the kids is also a power-fantasy being played by us, the players, isn't the only commentary that the game chooses to make underneath its fart-jokes ridden appearance.

I find it funny how I'm actually defending a game that two years ago I lacked any sort of interest in. I guess it's because I see it as one of the rare high-budged (it is high-budget, right? If not, it sure does feel that way) titles that I've recently seen as being made for the people's enjoyment.

 

[Wulfstand]

Finished it, and it was an absolute blast. I've never once felt bored while playing it. The game is just choke-full with jokes, it kept me smiling for the entire damn thing. I don't remember having this much fun watching the series way back when.
I hope they'll continue with this series, as it's pretty much my current favorite tv-franchise to videogame adaptation.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Also, in regards to the combat being easy: I think it's supposed to be that way. The fact that the whole game played by the kids is also a power-fantasy being played by us, the players, isn't the only commentary that the game chooses to make underneath its fart-jokes ridden appearance.

I also think it's supposed to be on the easy side, but for more practical purposes - the game is a rollercoaster of jokes and interrupting the ride with frequent defeats, maybe forcing you to hear the same joke several times, would make it a lot less enjoyable. They (correctly) assumed that those interested in the game weren't looking for a challenge, but to simply play an episode of South Park.

 

[Gragt]

I like to think that's what difficulty settings are for: to provide challenge for those who want it and strip it away for those who don't like it.

 

[monkeybadger]

RE: John Walker: your opinion about South Park The Stick of Truth.

I have no problem with your opinion. Everyone who reviews a game has an equal footing. As it should be.

How strange that you resort to art-house posturing. Using "WOT" instead of what is the most puerile attempt to play to street kudos I've ever seen .

Zeitgeist? You cock - you actually used Zeitgeist to talk about a computer game that is basically a fart joke.

I shall be in awe of your pretentiousness until I die.

I mean really

Really

Surely it's a joke.

Zeitgeist for a computer game....you dick

...

 

[Infinitron]

Yahtzee: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vid...-of-Truth-Yes-There-Really-Were-Crying-Koalas

 

[Duraframe300]

I recently checked out the games nexus and according to a modder the game did have female pcs before that got cut.

Man this game has a lot of cut content.

 

[Abu Antar]

I guess this happened when the new publisher took over. probably cut a lot of stuff just to get the game out the door.

 

[Duraframe300]

I guess this happened when the new publisher took over. probably cut a lot of stuff just to get the game out the door.

There were cuts before (And IIRC this particular one may have also happened before), but yeah.

 

[Abu Antar]

You're probably right. I guess the continuous delays this game had was not something that appeared in the latter stages of development. It seems the THQ situation and the lack of money they had didn't help. Cuts were most certainly cut before Ubisoft took over. I just think there were even more cuts later on. I wonder if they'll make any DLC for this. I doubt I will replay the game, but new DLC, I would give a shot.