Launched in 1997, South Park now has over 300 episodes and 26 seasons. In 25 years, the inhabitants of this small Colorado town have become an important face of pop culture, absurdly and satirically denouncing the daily lives of Americans and more broadly the world. Politics, religions, consumer society, celebrities, everyone is there.
Over the years, South Park has become more and more popular, notably thanks to the writing of Trey Parker and Matt Stone who never stop finding good ideas to bring their series to life. On the video game side, it was a little more complicated. After five not very convincing games between 1999 and 2012, the series found its perfect formula to be adapted into a video game in 2014 with The Stick of Truth, then in 2017 with its sequel: The Fractured But Whole.
With Trey Parker and Matt Stone at the helm, the two games (developed by Obsidian for the first, and Ubisoft for the second) offered us the chance to be immersed in an interactive episode. We thus became a real actor by embodying "the new guy" who had just arrived in South Park. Taking up the codes of the series, with its 2D graphics, we found the soul, the atmosphere, the humor, the accuracy of the writing of Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
After these two excellent opuses, acclaimed by fans, players and critics, we thought that all South Park games would now adopt this structure. We were wrong.
In 2022, this new opus is teased, before being officially unveiled in 2023. South Park: Snow Day is part of the same universe as The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, which can be considered a sequel. On the other hand, forget the 2D side. This new game offers you a rather special 3D rendering and seems to completely revisit the gameplay mechanics that were put in place with the first two titles. Is this change positive? Let's take stock right away.
South Park: Snow Day
The beginning of the South Park: Snow Day adventure is very good, almost perfect. We are treated to an introductory cinematic, made with the same engine as the series. As with The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, we feel like we're watching an episode of the series. The cherry on the cake is the original French version with the voices of Christophe Lemoine for Cartman, William Coryn for Kyle and Kenny, and Thierry Wermuth for Stan. We also find Marie-Laure Beneston for the voice of Lianne Cartman, the mother of young Eric. A real little treat for the ears. As a reminder, the first game was not entitled to the French version. While the second, which was developed at the time of the voice actors' strike, had an unofficial French version.
The city of South Park is therefore paralyzed by a huge storm with a deadly blizzard. There are already several deaths recorded throughout the city, and in such a situation, the Colorado government has no choice but to close the schools. For Cartman, Stan, Kyle, Kenny, Butters and the other students, it's a snow day, allowing them to have fun together rather than go to study. The perfect opportunity to put on their costumes of mages, elves and wizards (like in The Stick of Truth) to imagine new adventures.
This is when things start to get less joyful for players and fans. The introduction of the game allows us to discover the 3D side that struggles to convince us. Whether in the environments or the character models, the latter are less beautiful, less detailed and less faithful to the series. The movements are quite messy and the first preconceptions that we had during the trailers are confirmed very quickly in the game. The same goes for the French version which is ultimately not so faithful. Some kids do not seem to have their original voice. But the worst, probably comes from the dubbing of the ordinary inhabitants or NPCs during the fights, which is clearly not up to the standard of the series.
Fight to save the city
With South Park: Snow Day, forget everything you discovered in the first two games. It's not an open-world, you don't have a level, there aren't as many loot items to find, you won't be able to create and craft your outfits throughout the adventure, and there are no more turn-based battles. Similarly, the heroes of South Park are absent from a large part of the adventure. Moreover, it will no longer be possible to fight alongside Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, or Butters. From now on, the heroes of South Park are relegated to the background, and some of them will appear in the game's rare cutscenes.
South Park: Snow Day is a game designed for multiplayer and cooperation. Thus, the game doesn't offer much to sink your teeth into. The narrative side is also set aside, with a story that fits on a post-it note. The game offers you an adventure divided into five chapters, which will ask you to go from point A to point B through five zones where you will have to face waves of enemies. Sometimes, you will have secondary objectives, asking you to bring objects back to certain people or to flee from danger, while fighting the many enemies that will get in your way. But that's all.
All the missions are summed up in fights, rough and repetitive, throughout the five chapters. Fortunately (or unfortunately), it will take between 40 and 60 minutes to complete a chapter. So, you will be able to complete this South Park: Snow Day in about 5 hours. The only condition is not to die or leave a chapter along the way, otherwise, you have to start it over from the beginning. Indeed, even if you play alone (accompanied by three bots), the structure of the game is designed for multiplayer. Thus, even when playing alone, offline, it is not possible to save in the middle of a chapter.
The story is not really sought after and goes quickly, very quickly, unlike The Stick of Truth or The Fractured But Whole which offered very advanced adventures and really faithful to South Park, not hesitating to go "always further". Here, the adventure will be quickly dispatched, with a cutscene at the beginning and end of the chapter, very little dialogue, often, not up to the standard of the series. We're not even talking about the dialogue loops during the fights, often the same ones, which are even less qualitative than the rest of the game.
The fights still bring some good ideas, like being able to invoke bonuses and special attacks through collectible cards that can be stored in a binder. But here again, we will regret a fairly limited number of cards.
The fights quickly become redundant and messy, with sometimes too many enemies in the same area, causing a lot of confusion. You have two attacks (one melee and one ranged) then special skills to help you. Among these skills, you have for example an ability that allows you to send cat urine on your enemies, who will then be disoriented and who will fight at your side for a few seconds. It will also be possible to place a health totem on the combat zone which will allow you to regain life points, again for a few seconds. You don't have any special moves, you just have to spam the attack key to perform combos or send shots from a distance.
If you play alone, you will be accompanied by three other "new students" randomly generated by the computer and who will help you in your battles. Fortunately, the AI is rather intelligent and is really useful in attack or defense to revive our teammates. The bots that accompany you also manage to retreat when their life starts to be critical, in order to regroup near a health totem. But here again, we regret not being able to at least play with the students of South Park. As you will have understood, the ideal will therefore be to play online with three other friends to discover this adventure together.
In terms of weapons, do not expect to be spoiled for choice, the game offers you three different melee weapons and three different ranged weapons. In total, it will be possible to buy around twenty items of clothing, which will not provide any additional skills during combat and will just change the appearance of your character.
A low-end South Park
If this South Park: Snow Day had come out before the first two games, we could have found a little more positive in it and it would have been (perhaps) a little surprise feeding great hopes for the continuation of the license in video games. Alas, after The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, it's a cold shower.
We end up with a much less ambitious game, not offering much to do except to chain together again and again combat arenas. There is no content once the game is finished, no open-world, nothing. Three-quarters of the important characters from South Park are absent (Mayor McDaniels, the Chief of Police, Officer Barbrady, all the girls from the school: Wendy, Bebe, Shannon…).
Ultimately, the best moments remain the intro and the end of the game, which give us the impression of watching an episode of South Park, rather well written for the occasion.
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