14 DAY TRIAL // When South Park: The Stick of Truth starts, the voice narrating a short video is that of Cartman, the fattest of the gang of four boys that stand at the center of the cartoon universe, and it’s pretty easy for the player to understand that he is in the middle of a fantasy game created by the entire youth population of the town.
Armor is clearly made from household items that can be repurposed, weapon descriptions suggest that the blades and bows have other initial destinations, even the abilities that each character can select and use seem somehow rooted in a sort of real world, even if it plays by slightly different rules form ours.
The story setup is interesting because if speaks about a fantasy within a fantasy, a game created by a series of kids that are themselves the result of the imagination of show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
As South Park: The Stick of Truth progresses, the lines between the real town and the imaginary one tend to blur even more and the game often reminded me of a surrealist film, mostly because it wants to blend a wide variety of characters and themes that no longer allow a gamer to firmly state what is “real.”
The creators of the animated series and developer Obsidian both have extensive experience with storytelling and they know how to keep the player engaged.
South Park: The Stick of Truth Diary benefits from that and manages to become a rare occurrence: a video game that can blend fantasy combat, superpowers, Pokemon-like creatures, and Al Gore without ever making gamers protests that such disparate elements should never be brought together.
On top of the insanity of battling Mongol hordes in order to be able to then summon a hyper powerful version of the owner of the Chinese takeout store, the two entities responsible for the game have also achieved the difficult task of keeping it constantly funny.
There are plenty of moments when the humor is based on body parts and extensive swearing but Parker, Stone, and Obsidian also create more elaborate situations that generate more intellectual-driven laughs.
I was never bored by the dialog in South Park: The Stick of Truth Diary the first time I was exposed to it, and there are still moments when I chuckle at the taunts that Cartman uses, even if I heard them tens of times already, and that’s a huge accomplishment.