I found myself in a situation where I played both Stick of Truth and Fractured But Whole in the last year or so and so I was riding the hype train hard for Snow Day. Ultimately, I was a bit let down in that this game was something entirely different from the previous two.
Instead of the more exploratory world of South Park where you get to visit iconic places such as Jimbo’s, the school, or even any of the kids homes, Snow Day puts you on rails and forces you to exist in a world that would barely register as South Park if it weren’t for the interaction with the regular characters of Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny and some cameos from Randy, Jimbo, Ned, and a select few others. You could have called the world “Generic small town in the mountains” and it still would have fit.
The other big loss to the gameplay are the combat mechanics. Both Stick of Truth and Fractured But Whole were much more tied to the town of South Park but the combat was also far more refined and fun. Stick of Truth gave you kind of an old school RPG feel where you were on one side of the screen and your enemies on the other. Fractured But Whole turned this more into a grid system a la Final Fantasy Tactics, complete with melee, ranged, and AOE attacks. Snow Day elects to leverage the real time combat that’s more familiar to games like newer Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts games where the action is non stop. While it has its moments of fun, it feels like a step back in terms of enjoyment.
That’s not to say it’s all hum drum, there’s new combat mechanics in the form of cards that can manipulate the abilities you have based on your chosen weapon roll out. If you go with the daggers, you might get the bleeding effect or you can reduce the time it takes for you to perform your flying attack after jumping. Going with the staff might give you the ability to split your fireballs into multiples, albeit, at the reduction of individual damage.
Along the way you’ll run into Jimmy who will allow you to leverage the TP you pick up (a central plot line) to upgrade the cards that upgrade your abilities or to swap the cards altogether. Fortunate players who come across Henrietta hidden across the various maps get a chance at special underworld powers which might upgrade all of your cards one level, or replenish your specials, but usually at the cost of sacrificing an ability.
In the end, it’s playable, but I’d recommend the previous to entries well before I’d consider recommending this game.