I've never watched more than a couple of the more infamous scenes from South Park before, so my interest in this game was largely due to Obsidian's involvement. That said, I enjoyed my time with the game so much that I will probably start watching the show at some point and the sole reason I'm including this game in the review dump is because I want people to still give the game a chance without feeling pressure to have watched the show first. It's that good. The writing is sharp and wonderfully irreverent, the depiction of the different social groups is very on point (though obviously exaggerated to a South Park degree), and it made me laugh more often than any game I can think of in recent memory (though that might just be proof that comedy is a lacking genre in gaming). The gameplay is very straight-forward for an RPG, but there is an attention to detail that is hard not to appreciate. I enjoyed the battle system and the leveling up enough that I didn't ever try to avoid battles, but Obsidian also wisely kept the random overworld encounters reigned in to the point of inoffensiveness. The visuals are great too. They do a great job bring a cartoon world to life in videogame form and there is a certain art to the lazy/garish look that the show and game share.
Verdict: Don't skip this one. It's clearly a labor of love from the show runners and Obsidian helped them bring it to life perfectly. The game is the perfect length too. Even if you haven't seen the show you should still give it a shot.
I don't understand why it's such a big deal, though. I mean, if you're like most people here, you've probably got hundreds of games in your library already, and there are probably at least a few clunkers in the bunch. What makes Bad Rats so bad that you wouldn't be caught dead owning it? Humor me here, I'm trying to understand this.
