South Park: Snow Day! Review | Xbox Series X

South Park: Snow Day! is the most recent video game adaptation of the well-known comic animation TV series, a series that has, up until this point, been represented in video games in several different ways, but the most notable example of it is the best title that Ubisoft has produced, The Stick of Truth.

Despite the passage of time, South Park Digital Studios and THQ Nordic have finally released yet another installment of their series, South Park: Snow Day! developed by Question. The idea here is to keep the role-playing elements but ditch the turn-based combat in favor of an action RPG. As we fight waves of enemies and bosses, we'll have to complete the challenges Cartman sets out for us so we can put an end to the snow day that's driving everyone crazy in South Park.

 

The events of South Park: Snow Day! starts with Cartman's mother watching the news, which warns of a severe snowstorm that is currently occurring and is ranked as the greatest snowstorm in the history of the world. Exactly as one would anticipate, his sole concern is to find out whether or not there would be classes. It turns out that his desire comes true, and all of the businesses shut their doors immediately. The severity of the snowstorm, on the other hand, is not sufficient to prevent children from staying indoors. So, Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and the rest of the South Park gang go out and play in the streets while totally frozen.

As you've guessed already, Snow Day in South Park! takes place on a snowy day in South Park. A sequence, visually identical to the show, opens the episode and reveals that the town is being hammered by a snowstorm. As a result, the children are exempt from attending classes and instead spend their time playing games with one another. Once again, developer Question puts you in the shoes of the new kid just like you were in The Stick of Truth and The Fractured but Whole. You have the option to personalize your character, but it is very brief and leave it at that.

South Park: Snow Day! will immediately catch the attention of those who enjoyed The Fractured but Whole even though it feels different from previous experiences. Beyond the typical skin tone joke, character customization in The Fractured but Whole has a more significant influence. Just like in The Stick of Truth, every piece of clothing has its own set of stats.

What's more, you can gather numerous powers to give your character even more options. While the tale can be difficult to follow at times, it ultimately offers your character more agency and reveals new aspects of the other characters that weren't apparent in the original game. You get a glimpse of Tweek and Craig's dynamic, the interactions between Kenny's other persona and the other characters, and a whole lot more when you have to choose between your parents.

 

Like in The Stick of Truth, you get to play as one of the other characters, and it's an intriguing point. In The Stick of Truth, you can only choose one companion at a time; in The Fractured but Whole, you can choose three, and you can't swap between them in the middle of battle. But in South Park: Snow Day!, unlike in The Stick of Truth, you don't get to play as those characters—they're just acting out their DND-esque roles.

The Stick of Truth was built around the innovative ways you could alter or influence the plot by selecting elves or humans, rather than the fact that you could interact with the characters. The story was interesting, the gameplay was tolerable, and the game itself wasn't too lengthy as the playthrough took a few hours. It had its own unique story, goals, and charms, and it was the first South Park game to truly take off.

Sadly, the charm of the first two games—feeling like you're part of the gang or in a South Park episode—is missing here. To a large extent, the plot, characters, and writing are all very South Park. Fans of the show's signature brand of humor and irreverent antics will find plenty to their liking in this. Though it is not as detailed as I had hoped.

Moreover, there aren't quite enough characters for my liking; nonetheless, Randy is present and gets his fair share of screen time. To be fair, the writing, the characters, and the premise are all adequate, but it falls well short of South Park-level supremacy. Nevertheless, it managed to make me laugh, so I suppose it was successful at the beginning.

The problem is, this game doesn't really make you feel like the new kid; it just makes you act like one. All the kids thought this would be the perfect time to go outside and play in the snow, even though it was a very dangerous afternoon. The developers stuck with the fantasy formula once again, but I still kind of wish they had tried something else with the story's visuals. What we have here isn't terrible, though. The first two levels serve mostly as an introduction to the game players are playing, with no story content; levels three and four continue this trend. I wish Question had invested more in the plot considering how simplistic and uncomplicated it is, especially considering how the gameplay is.

 

The story's biggest flaw is that it is confusing. Much of the plot and most of the characters seem to be glossed over. The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole both have extensive cutscenes that wove your character into the lives of individuals, prompting feelings of sorrow and guilt. On South Park: Snow Day!, as a player, you feel strangely detached from the tale. No matter how you finish the quests, the tale will continue.

It's unclear how your character is related to the rest of the cast. When you've finished beating up the other characters in a scene, they won't talk to you again until you fart on them. Tweek, Craig, or even Tolkien will strike up a conversation with you if you strike up an interaction with them. At the table, the four protagonists converse amongst themselves; during cutscenes, they address your character solely to deliver instruction. And that's after you wasted time-fighting them rather than engaging with them as personalities.

You will enter the core gameplay mechanics following character customization and a short instruction. South Park: Snow Day! is a four-player cooperative action game where the objective is to defeat an unlimited number of adults and children. Depending on the level of difficulty, each of the five levels might take anywhere from twenty to forty minutes to complete. The levels are really solid. Every single one is unique, and they all culminate in a showdown with the boss. Each level has its own unique set of enemies, or at least the most challenging ones.

Each level brings a new opponent that can annoy you; however, your standard goon and all enemies will always appear in the following levels. This game is more than simply a massive horde mode; it's also not a PvP game or a live service game. Once again, up to four players can go on five really simple levels, most of which consist of destroying opponents. Approximately 90% of each level is devoted to battle, however you may be assigned a few minor missions now and then.

 

The gameplay of South Park: Snow Day! is a bit of a mishmash of different elements. It satisfies the requirements for the type of game it is, but it does not give the impression that the developers went above and beyond the bare minimum in terms of innovation. In melee, you have three weapons, and in range, you have three more.

Each of the three melee attacks deals roughly the same amount of damage, but they have slightly varied effects; for example, the shield stops enemies' attacks. Even though it's common knowledge that weapons deal damage regardless, I prefer range weapons because they feel like they do something different, in contrast to melee weapons, which, despite the appearance of one heavy weapon, feel almost identical to knives.

Furthermore, South Park: Snow Day! features cards, which are an integral part of it and add another layer of complexity. There are a variety of cards that can be at your disposal, such as a bubble shield that provides protection or a totem that can heal you. There are a good number of offensive ones, such as charging like a bull or putting down a defense turret, and these give some dimension to the game.

But you can utilize them once your rage levels are high enough. Additionally, there are your Bullshit cards, which allow you to unleash incredibly powerful attacks such as projecting lasers from your eyeballs, calling upon meteorites, or enlisting the support of goons. You should hold off on using these cards until the big times because they are not plentiful.

Each level in South Park: Snow Day! begins with a limited selection of three Bullshit cards for you to choose from. At the beginning of each level, you have the option to select a small number of cards; as you go through the level, you unlock more options. These cards are usually enhancements for your character. Some of them have been extended to do more damage, while others have additional features. Either way, they're all here to assist you. In addition to using toilet paper as currency, you can use it to improve your cards. You'll find it scattered throughout the level. To level up, you can use toilet paper, and it will make your character's cards more powerful.

 

Dark Matter, the leftovers of Mr. Hankey, is another form of currency you will come across. Your characters can acquire permanent enhancements and bonuses in this way. The third form of in-game currency is PP, short for "Platinum Points," which you earn just by completing challenges and use to purchase in-game cosmetics. At least not for now, you can't purchase it using fiat currency, cryptocurrency, or any similar non-fungible token. But with all of these different currencies, the cards, and everything else, are relatively easy to handle. It raises the game's level of complexity beyond that of a simple action game in which you defeat infants at increasingly easier levels.

At most, combat in this game is passable. The quality can be lacking; it's not horrible, but I simply didn't enjoy it very much. It's not always pleasant, and there are moments when it seems extremely poor. The range weapons were so ineffective in comparison to the melee weapons that I hardly ever used them. The hefty Axe was the one melee weapon that came close to feeling decent.

These cards in South Park: Snow Day! are fun to use because they alter the strategies of battles and allow you some personalization, but they don't change the game in any significant way. They bring a small amount of depth to the otherwise superficial fighting. The fighting isn't very deep, the status effects aren't really meaningful, the enemies are all pretty much the same, and overall, it fails to appear like a lot is happening here. After only a couple of hours, you'll have seen pretty much all of the combat in this game, and it begins to become a bit monotonous.

The AI in this game is simply poor, which is another reason why I started to find it dull. This game's AI is terrible, both for your friends and your enemies. They seem to have a knack for getting themselves trapped in places and have terrible finding ways on top of that, and I've seen them accomplish virtually nothing at all, even when attacked, on multiple occasions. Occasionally they're on top of things and will pick you up in that manner when they need to revive you, but in other instances, I wouldn't know what's happening again.

 

Unfortunately, the terrible AI squad is something you'll have to deal with. This isn't your average game where you spend half your time fighting and half exploring the globe; in fact, you'll spend the vast majority of your time-fighting. There is little to no action on the stages that do not involve combat. Aside from a few simple tasks, every single one of them will eventually lead you into battle or a boss encounter. Not to mention how bad the boss fights are. One bad thing is that they make me think of Suicide Squad.

South Park: Snow Day! does not include local co-op and without local co-op, the cooperative focus game would be incomplete. To be honest, I find the idea of no local co-op to be a little absurd. I was stuck playing the whole game by myself with the awful AI friends, and I was always amazed by how they did absolutely nothing while being attacked. Perhaps playing in co-op makes this game even more enjoyable.

Perhaps in co-op you can overlook the mediocre combat and enjoy more engaging battles; after all, you each have your deck of cards, so you can unleash a barrage of assaults on your adversaries. Playing in a group is much more enjoyable than playing alone, so I'd rather suggest anyone playing this game, not to play solo. But if you do, you'll be the only one with special attacks, and you'll have to kill most of the foes while your allies do nothing.

Nevertheless, I find the presentation of this game to be fairly good. Even though I had my doubts about it before its release, I ended up enjoying it. The game makes a good transition to 3D, and the overall visual design is nice. The game's surroundings and character models were nicely done, and I never experienced any frame rate drops. Also, fans of this series will appreciate the abundance of visual nods to the South Park universe.

 

Although the music was quite uninteresting, the voice acting was excellent. But it was far from good in terms of stability or the number of bugs it had. There were some issues; the most frustrating being the one in which I became completely mired down in the surroundings and had to start the level over from the beginning. From my perspective, the game could have benefited from a little more polishing before release.

South Park: Snow Day! also lacks substantial content. If you're looking for a short campaign, you can easily complete this game in under four hours. The game features five levels with three different difficulty settings. Each level has its unique mix of random events, and if you complete all of the levels, further challenges will appear, adding another couple of hours of gaming. However, in terms of content, this game is lacking.

Thankfully, the game ends just before things start to grow monotonous or uninteresting, and concludes without dragging on for too long, which is always good. If you're expecting a sequel to South Park: The Stick of Truth or South Park: The Fractured But Whole, you'll be let down. It's completely different. When it comes to the South Park plot, dark sarcasm humor, etc., it completely skips over a lot of what the series might give. It's amusing at times, but not quite as funny as South Park, but it's entertaining all the same.

Put simply, I am hesitant to recommend South Park: Snow Day! to anyone who isn't a fan of South Park. In my opinion, the gameplay isn't solid enough for anyone to have fun with this. This game becomes tedious in a very short span of time. The jokes in the previous two games were a major selling point since they made the otherwise dull gameplay more interesting. Alternatively, the game's humor is nonexistent, and the gameplay becomes exceedingly dull.

 

For those who love South Park, however, I believe the simplistic mechanics of South Park: Snow Day! won't be a deal breaker. As a fan, I was dissatisfied with the game because of its short length, lack of material, restricted exploration, low difficulty, and limited gameplay. If the developers are listening to their fans, I really hope that they make the next South Park game much better than this one.
 

Azfar Rayan (@AzfarRayan)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed