Others might cause you to inflict extra damage on bleeding targets, or let you regain power points when you hit someone that’s Grossed Out. Sure, some might offer armour, but not all of them do. Most special attacks also require button presses for them to come off properly – Princess Kenny’s ability to summon a flood of rats and send them at the enemies requires you to mash left and right to shake them off, or they’ll attack him instead.Įquipment doesn’t offer flat upgrades, instead hurling a staggering variety of buffs at you. It works like the Mario RPGs, or like Costume Quest: it’s all turn-based, but timed button presses when attacking or defending let you dish out more damage or block an assault. Which I suppose is as good a segue as I’m going to get to talk about the combat, which is pretty important because it’s basically the crux of the actual “game” part of South Park: The Stick of Truth.

This doesn’t go unrewarded: other than the amusing little messages they’ll post on Facebook, which doubles as your in-game menu, hitting a certain threshold of friends gives you a point that can be spent on a combat perk. Some will only deign to friend you when you’re already popular. Some will have little quests for you to undertake, like when the local priest tells you to (literally) find Jesus. For the most part these nods are entirely welcome, although they do occasionally venture a bit too far into “pandering” territory.Įveryone has different requirements for friending you. Others, like ManBearPig and the Underpants Gnomes, play a bit of a bigger role.

Most get smaller roles, appearing as side characters or getting little mentions in item descriptions. The battle for the Stick (between Grand Wizard Cartman’s Kingdom of Kupa Keep, and the hideous Drow Elves) forms the crux of the game’s plot, but huge amounts of past South Park characters, monsters, and events are referenced here. It’s not long before you bump into perennial South Park victim Butters, save him from a beating, and get introduced to the kids’ live-action fantasy-RPG battle for the Stick of Truth. You’re the new kid (referred to, naturally, as either “New Kid” or “Douchebag”), and your first quest – issued by your parents – is to get out of the house and make some friends.

South Park: The Stick of Truth smartly sidesteps one of the issues usually faced by licensed games by having you play a silent protagonist who has just moved to town.

South park stick of truth free game