First Gameplay Look At South Park: The Stick Of Truth (Video)

South Park: The Stick of Truth has been mired with setbacks in the past. It was supposed to come out in March of this year, but development was pushed back when THQ filed for bankruptcy and Ubisoft picked up the publishing rights. The game has been slated to release this holiday season, but the lack of a definitive release date is certainly cause for concern.

Fortunately, gameplay footage of the game has surfaced on Reddit. The video below features what appears to be the first gameplay footage of South Park: The Stick of Truth. It was taking at Fan Expo, a gaming/anime/comic book/TV/Film convention held annually here in my hometown of Toronto.

Warning: If you don’t like story spoilers of any kind, don’t watch beyond the 5 minute mark.

What’s remarkable is how authentic the storytelling is in comparison to the South Park TV series. It’s childish, crude, vulgar and outlandish, sprinkled with comedic timing and genius. Cutscenes act out like episodes of South Park, with familiar pacing and dialogue.

The gameplay itself looks fun to play. You can take out enemies using your skills and the environment (break water pipe, then drop light fixture to incapacitate your foes), plus you enter turn-based combat when an enemy comes up to you, similar to what happens in the Paper Mario franchise. Once you engage in battle, you can decide what attacks, items or commands to use via an option wheel. As we saw in the battle versus “Grand Wizard” Eric Cartman, QTE’s can take into affect for certain battles and certain attacks. It would be in Ubisoft’s best interest if that mechanic would be used very lightly, but that remains to be seen. After battle, you can loot the enemies for treasure.

All and all, South Park: The Stick of Truth seems to be a legitimate RPG game to go alongside the TV series, not just a monopolized cash-in. Hopefully it will launch on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC later this year.