Highlights
- South Park: Snow Day is a departure from its predecessors, with potential similarities to the BioShock franchise in terms of gameplay and combat style.
- Question Games, the developer behind Snow Day, has a strong track record with industry veterans who have worked on successful titles like BioShock, Thief: Deadly Shadows, and Dishonored.
- The design of Snow Day is expected to showcase influences from BioShock, particularly in terms of level design and combat mechanics, creating a unique and engaging experience for players.
South Park is one of the most popular and enduring comedy franchises of all time, and the last decade has seen much of that success replicated in its video game adaptations. When South Park: The Stick of Truth launched in 2014, it greatly exceeded many players' expectations, delivering a consistently funny and well-honed RPG experience that delighted veterans and newcomers alike. Recently, South Park: Snow Day was announced from developer Question Games, seemingly continuing the narrative from The Stick of Truth and South Park: The Shattered But Whole. However, South Park: Snow Day appears to be a vast departure from its predecessors, with developmental details leading some to believe that the title may have a lot in common with the BioShock franchise.
Little is known about South Park: Snow Day, aside from its focus on co-op gameplay and transition to a 3D art style. However, its developer, Question Games, consists of a team of industry veterans, who have lent their efforts to some of gaming's biggest and most successful titles. Among the most significant of these titles is BioShock. While South Park: Snow Day's few confirmed details portray a vastly different experience to the universally acclaimed FPS, the developer's history suggests that fans may see some of BioShock's unique qualities adapted for the title's combat-heavy gameplay.
Question Games' Prior Work Speaks Volumes for South Park: Snow Day
Many fans are concerned about the new direction that South Park: Snow Day is taking the series in. This is likely due to fans being unfamiliar with the title's development team, Question Games. However, most of these fans, if not all, have encountered the team's prior work. Comprised of roughly 50 members, Question Games' team of developers has contributed to various unique properties over the years, many of which went on to become fan-favorite series.
In addition to working on the BioShock, the Question Games team's previous credits include Thief: Deadly Shadows,Dishonored, Eldritch, and the original South Park: The Stick of Truth. These titles speak volumes about the quality of Question Games' individual members, as many are still revered as industry high points, cult-classics, and even genre pioneers. Additionally, the team's connection to The Stick of Truth, the very title that kicked off the South Park franchise's modern video game success, stands as a profound qualifier to their taking the reins on Snow Day. Together, Question Games' long history of success and work on prior South Park properties is more than enough to erase any doubt that it is qualified to take the series' third entry in a bold new direction.
South Park: Snow Days' BioShock Influences Will Shine Through Its Design
While South Park: Snow Day won't feature BioShock's sci-fi horror elements, the latter's level design and unique combat features will likely shine through. Both the BioShock and South Park series are host to a wide range of characters, locations, and storylines. Snow Day sets the stage for Question Games to leverage their prior experience to combine the best of each into one cohesive experience. Particularly, Snow Day's unique premise and level design opens the door to some very direct BioShock connections.
South Park: Snow Day's announcement trailer showcased a few glimpses into its real-time gameplay, which displayed a hectic and surprising combat experience. Question Games' title seemingly pits players against groups of South Park characters in large arena-style levels. While doing so, players are able to find and utilize powerful skills and abilities to gain the upper hand. Both elements bring to mind the hectic and fluid combat of BioShock's Rapture, which saw players utilize both plasmids and weapons while fighting waves of enemies in complex arenas. As South Park: Snow Day approaches its 2024 release, the developer will likely share more information and gameplay with fans, making its BioShock influences even more apparent. Until then, players can rest assured that Snow Day is being developed by a studio that has both the industry experience and franchise appreciation required to meet or exceed fans' expectations.
South Park: Snow Day is coming to PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S in 2024.
