South Park: Snow Day! Review

South Park Digital Studios is back in the spotlight once more with South Park: Snowday!, a new 3D adventure continuing the antics of the New Kid in South Park. Right at the beginning I will say that if fans of either the Stick Of Truth or the Fractured But Whole expect the same experience, I can almost guarantee that this will be the first time in your lives that you’ll hate Snow Days.

Same Kid Different Game

South Park: Snow Day! is a Co-op PVE experience that distances itself from RPG elements used in previous titles and instead embraces Roguelike and hack-and-slash elements. Still following a traditional story structure, South Park is going through one of the worst snow storms to ever plague the town – but on the upside, that calls for a snow day. The neighborhood kids hang up their superpowers and capes and revert to the realm of Medieval Fantasy to find out the true cause of the snowstorm.

The 3D world of Snow Day operates on a completely different level compared to the last 2 South Park titles. Players will be hacking and slashing through 5 separate missions each with their objectives and bosses. As mentioned previously South Park: Snow Day! is a co-op title that can be played with 3 other friends. They all take the role of the other new kids but they are of course inferior when compared to the true new kid.

Multiplayer plays a critical role in how some gamers will view Snow Day as a title. While the game has no requirement to play with friends or randoms online, it’s highly recommended to receive a proper gameplay experience. Without other players, during the combat segments bots will occupy the player’s vacant slots and will only serve as meat shields for enemies to slay. The teammate’s AI is very buggy as they will walk into walls, disappear, won’t use their special abilities, or my favorite, just watch you die. The single-player experience will paint the game in the wrong light. Just having one real player is enough to make a difference.

Weathering The Storm

In Snow Day players will have the choice of 3 melee weapons, 3 projectiles, and up to 2 powers equipped as a loadout. While the weapons themselves aren’t very exciting, Snow Day‘s charms come heavily from its modifiers and “Bullshit” cards. Before and during missions players can find the neighborhood Bard Jimmy, selling modifiers for the player’s selected weapons and abilities for an amount of toilet paper. If the pandemic has taught us anything it’s that you can never have too much toilet paper. “Bullshit” cards are special cards with limited uses as they can easily change the tide of battle. For instance, one card players can choose lets them temporarily shoot laserbeams from their eyes. More cards can be unlocked through the levels and each run is randomized so players never know what they can get. Even the enemies have access to “Bullshit” cards keeping players on their feet, especially when you’re suddenly pooping bombs constantly fighting a boss.

Say It Isn’t Snow

With only 5 levels that take less than an hour to complete, South Park: Snow Day! is a short game. While the environments have a variety, aside from the bosses, players will come across the same enemies over and over again. What makes this repetition worse is that all of the kids re-use the same voice both upon encountering and defeating them.

Conclusion

For fans of South Park what we have here can be considered a filler experience. For those itching for a new South Park title this will suffice but just don’t expect this installment to be a worthy replacement for Stick of Truth 2. South Park: Snow Day! is a short and enjoyable experience to be played with another South Park fan. The shift in genre still allows the show to keep its trademark humor while welcoming chaotic multiplayer fun but it’s also that shift that provided repetitive combat and short replayability. At only $30 some might find it a worthwhile pick-up, but it’s more likely you’ll be looking forward to the sun shining elsewhere.