South Park: The Stick of Truthhas aged incredibly well — which isn’t something you’re able to always say about a series as intentionally offensive as South Park.
Despite releasing 11 years ago,Obsidian Entertainment’s RPG still looks indistinguishable from an episode of the show. It’s holding up in a way that only games aiming for a specific aesthetic instead of bog-standard photorealism can.The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Alien Hominid, and more recent titles likeCupheadandHarold Halibutshow that art style triumphs over fidelity every time. Which is what makes it so funny that the best part of the game is the moment when it decides to stop looking quite so good: the trip to Canada.
A Hilarious Trip Up North
Stick of Truth’s journey north of the border is one of the greatest examples of a one-off level, or a bit in a game, where it leaves its established gameplay behind to briefly explore something new. Often, these moments are poorly executed. It’s the reason why people hate stealth missions in non-stealth games. If I spend 99 percent of the game running around and swinging a sword, chances are that forcing me to sneak through a one-hit kill bandit camp is going to be a bad time.
But, when done right, one-off levels are incredible breaks from the norm.Titanfall 2’s ‘Effect and Cause’is one of the most transcendent missions ever made, and its primary mechanic is quickly abandoned by the next.Half-Life 2’s ‘We Don’t Go To Ravenholm…‘is the game’s only foray into full-on horror, and it’s still one of the game’s most beloved and talked about levels 21 years after launch. Games are built on repetition, and theyhave to be— otherwise they’d be five minutes long. But the instances when developers tweak the gameplay just enough to create a refreshing experience are the moments that often stick with players the longest.
The Stick of Truth’s Canada level is one of those moments. Going to Canada isn’t, strictly, a surprise. You can visit the border before this mission and are turned away by a border guard (with the classic egg-cut-in-half face that all Canadians have in South Park). And before the trip to Canada, you need to get a passport photo.
A sequence that quickly devolves into one of those intentionally offensive moments we alluded to above, thanks to a photographer with less-than-honorable intentions.
8-Bit Of A Surprise
You’re sent to Canada to track down the source of rumors in the girls’ group so that you may convince them to become your allies. This involves translating documents from an abortion clinic from French into English, and only South Park’s neighbors to the north can help. When you finally make it past the border, you’re treated to one of the game’s best surprises — a surprise that’s only possible because series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone a) are gamers and b) were intimately involved with the creation of the game. Canada, it turns out, is a top-down, 8–bit kingdom straight out of an old-school RPG likeDragon Quest.
Canada is presented (completely inaccurately) as a feudal kingdom beset by dire wolves (like regular wolves… except dire) and multiple rulers who hate each other. French is only known in Montreal, so you’re sent on a series of fetch quests, including one that has you killing the Bishop of Banff and bringing his, uh, family jewels back as proof.
Or accepting his offer to take his spare pair of pig, uh, family jewels instead.
The whole sequence is an awesome surprise, and an excellent example of knowing the medium you’re writing jokes for. The game as a whole (and this sequence in particular) only works thanks to the perfect mix of comedy writers who intimately understand video games l and a studio in Obsidian that knows how to make great RPGs. 11 years after launch, I’ve fallen off South Park, but I’ll always be up for a return trip to Canada.
