South Park: Snow Day! Review

I am not a fan of South Park. I don’t watch the TV show and was never interested in doing so. This background should tell you all you need to know about how amazing the RPG games around the property were. The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole are excellent games that anyone, not just South Park fans, can enjoy so long as they have a taste for more raunchy humor.

So, imagine how high my expectations were when another sequel to those fantastic games was announced. This time, it was going to take the form of a 3D shooter and it was going to focus on a multiplayer element. Sure, drifting from the original style that defined the first two games and the game genre were some red flags, but the game could be fun, right?

Okay, let’s not beat around the bush anymore. South Park: Snow Day! is far from being a worthy follow-up to the previous two games that came before it. In fact, it’s even a bit of a stretch to consider it a game that would please South Park fans since it feels like it runs on autopilot for most of its runtime. Let’s dive further into this pile of snow and see why.

The story of South Park: Snow Day! brings back the New Kid. This time, the town is caught up in the middle of a catastrophic snowstorm that brings about the cancellation of school. Thus, every kid in town, including the New Kid, goes out to play their D&D-like game. However, there are new rules that are there to prevent the New Kid from becoming OP, much like in the last two games. We’ll talk about these rules when we get to the gameplay section.

As you might imagine, there is a reason why the snowstorm happened in the first place, and, of course, Kyle was the first one to suspect something was afoot. Of course, everyone will soon follow suit as they try to figure out what caused the snowstorm. They soon figure out that it was caused by a forbidden magic spell that not anyone could cast, and the plot revolves around figuring out who could’ve possibly cast such a spell.

Did I make the story sound fascinating? If I did, that’s good because the game’s pacing is anything but. The way this game delivers its story is through sequences where you go from Point A to Point B where you watch the next events unfold and mistakenly accuse someone of being the spellcaster. Like how in one section, Kyle accuses Stan of being the caster, and then the party goes to defeat him, but before we can do that, we need to do a sidequest to overpower him.

The way this game’s story progresses feels like it’s going through the motions, and honestly, it leaves me wanting to go back to the RPGs more than anything. By comparison, both of the RPGs had more compelling stories that revolved around the New Kid. In this game, the New Kid takes a back seat since their story relevance is pretty much discarded as they are no longer OP because of the new cooperative ruleset.

If you have any sense of what South Park is about, you know where the story goes. The villain turns out to be some petty douchebag, Cartman turns out to be a traitor because of a selfish reason, and the conclusion is some sort of backward moral that’s supposed to be played out for a joke more than anything. You know, the usual South Park shtick that has given me a bad impression about it the very few times I glanced at it.

If you thought that I was talking about the story when I said that South Park: Snow Day! was on autopilot, you’ve got another thing coming. The gameplay of this game feels incredibly slapdashed and limited. Not only do you have access to a laughable amount of weapons and skills (only three of each), but you also have an equally limited Upgrade system that introduces such magnificent features as: “better running speed.”

As I said before, new rules have been introduced in order to make the New Kid less OP. These new rules come in the form of a roguelike card system that makes me wince every time I have to mention it. In short, you have to use a selection of cards that can be given to you at random throughout the course of your journey. These cards will grant buffs to your skills or the weapons you’re using. Cards are refreshed after each level you go through.

However, enemies also have access to these cards, which they can use to buff themselves in battle. Additionally, they can activate what’s known as “Bullshit Cards,” which, when active, produce a game-changing effect that could potentially turn the tide in their favor. Expect stuff like projectile-reflecting shields, massive projectiles, or the ability to call upon reinforcements. Don’t worry; you will also have the ability to use your own BS cards. However, they have a limited amount of uses.

The game is a wave fighter. You go from section to section, defeating hordes of enemies. Enemies range from melee to ranged fighters. Each stage ends with a boss fight that has its own unique gimmick. There are five total stages; yes, the game is short. You could speak to Henrietta to get to the game’s challenge mode (which is free DLC) to fend off even more waves of enemies while playing with the card mode.

The worst part is that the game just feels so empty. Hits lack impact. My character looks like he’s just flailing my arms and throwing stones at nothing when performing attacks. The developers of this game expect me to tell my friends to play this game with them over the course of multiple hours, especially after the boring campaign ends? I have a far more engaging experience playing Payday 3 or Helldivers 2. I had trouble even asking a single friend to stick around after just an hour of gameplay.

Overall, South Park: Snow Day! is just a boring video game that fails to meet the grander expectations that the previous two games already set out. It’s almost fascinating how massively disappointing this game is, especially when we already know what the South Park Digital Studios is capable of. It’s a shame because the creators of the series have said before that they wanted to establish a sort of meta-universe that is connected to the show through this game.

Some people might think that the shift from 2D to 3D is the true culprit of this, but I couldn’t care less about it. The game could take on a pixel art style for all I care so long as it was an equally engaging experience to The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole. And no, I’m not going to accept the fact that it was because of the change in genre because there are co-op shooters out there that have amazing storylines.

If you’re looking for a budget title that is more of a time waster than anything, and you’re a die-hard South Park fan, give this game a shot. Otherwise, steer clear from this one, as it won’t offer much, even if you’re a fan of shooters or roguelikes. The last thing I’ll have to say about this is that if I had a nickel for every time a South Park game set on a snow day turned out to be bad, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s odd that it happened twice.

Reviewed on PC (code provided by the publisher).

South Park: Snow Day!

South Park: Snow Day! is a roguelike shooter experience that is short and extremely mediocre to the point of being bad. While it isn’t incredibly broken, it still fails to provide a meaningful experience, especially compared to the games that came before it. The shift from 2D to 3D isn’t important at all. Rather, it’s the incredibly repetitive and boring approach it takes alongside its formulaic plotline that makes it feel like one of the worst episodes in the series.