The South Park gang is back and this time, it’s a Snow Day! Taking a departure from the two previous entries’ RPG venture, the most recent being The Fractured But Whole, South Park: Snow Day! sees Cartman and crew enter the roguelike adventure territory with mixed results.
You once again take on the role of ‘new kid’ during a particularly terrible snow storm. School has closed and the kids once again don their outfits to play war games, beating the ever-loving crap out of each other for glory and cheesy poofs. Not all is as it seems with the snow refusing to let up, so it’s down to the kids to figure out what’s going on.
The general moment-to-moment gameplay sees your customised new kid going through levels, battling other kids and taking on bosses in the form of main cast members. You start off each run with daggers and a bow and arrow, but unlock a few other options as you progress through the stage. Alongside this, you have bonus powers which you can use to aid you in battle, such as being able to put down a healing totem, or using fart powers to propel yourself skyward, out of danger and dealing poison damage to enemies.
The combat itself is fairly simple to get to grips with and is definitely made with co-op in mind. Some enemies carry shields which mean you can only hit them from the back – this presents a slight problem if you’re on your own, but is much easier with mates. If you are playing solo, then bots will fill your lobby when a fight kicks off, meaning you’re never alone. They aren’t always that helpful, though, throwing themselves into situations that often got them killed. I spent one level walking around trying to revive all my dead teammates because the AI couldn’t keep itself out of danger for longer than two seconds – this was a very frustrating five minutes! Playing with others the best way to play, and I really hope the AI can be improved.
Snow Day’s roguelike elements come into play in a few more flavours. At the start of each level run, you get to choose from three random buff cards which will boost either your powers, weapons or your character. More cards can be found during runs and be upgraded before purchasing them using Toilet Paper, a much sought after resource after the snow storm hit in a straight up parody of real life. Sometimes, these upgrades can drastically change how a weapon or power works, so the wand, for example, can go from being a ranged flamethrower to casting chain lightning instead. Otherwise, cards generally just make your stuff better.
With each run’s upgrades being randomised, you get to experiment with a bit of everything and learn what works and what doesn’t. On one run, I managed to bag an upgrade which let me use Cartman’s cat to pee on my enemies, letting me take control of them and then being healed for 50% of the damage they dealt. It felt very strong. These said, powers are charged during battle based off your Pissed Off meter, which fills when you deal or receive damage.
At the start of a run, you also get to choose another kind of buffs called Bullshit Cards. These cards are limited use, but provide some pretty strong attacks in times of need. One of my personal favourites was using laser eyes which came in handy when being swarmed by multiple enemies. Your enemies also get Bullshit Cards as well and will regularly activate them during battle, making your weapon useless or upgrading enemies into vampires, to name a few effects.
You’ll be collecting Dark Matter on your travels, which is used to give you permanent upgrades via Mr Hanky, the Christmas Poo. You can have up to thirty nodes selected, once again being able to tailor your gameplay style. You’ll also discover Henrietta hanging around in levels, offering you to trade up your upgrades for Dark Matter, giving you extra Toilet Paper and straight up just upgrading what you have.
All of this is built around five levels, each of which is roughly on hour long. There is some randomisation to cater to going on multiple runs, but the actual story feels pretty short because of this. It’s akin to watching a very long episode of South Park. The humour you know and love is there, expanded upon to fit the gaming space. It’s not for everyone, but then again South Park never has been. If you’re a fan of the show, that’s probably the reason you are playing this game, with all the cameos from your favourite characters not disappointing in their appearances.
While the roguelike form is all about replayability, I felt little reason to go back and do more once I beat the game. Yes, there are some cosmetics to unlock and maybe some weapons you didn’t try out, but that’s not enough of an incentive to get me back. Some additional challenges are available at launch via free DLC, but again, it’s very short lived content with little reason to return afterwards. Depending on your friends and who you play with, the laughs could carry you through, but that’s lacking with public lobbies or playing with AI.
