South Park: The Fractured but Whole Review

South Park: The Fractured But Whole was developed by South Park Digital Studios, and was published by Ubisoft. It is a Superhero RPG taking place in the South Park universe.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole’s story takes place after the recent episode that aired on TV. The game focuses on what happens after Coon and Friends split up to form two different franchises. One named Coon and Friends the other named Freedom Pals. This is an obvious shot at DC and Marvel with South Park characters who looks like superheros from each side. The story in this title was very true to the show, feeling like a long episode of the show, which is great for fans as they can enjoy all the references found throughout the game. Most of the story is separate from the show except from what I've mentioned. If you haven't seen the show with the prequel don't worry as this is viewable in-game.

Gameplay in this title is very similar to the original game, except this time the children of South Park are playing superheroes. You again take on the role as the new kid in town, after you have finished helping the kids of South Park in The Stick of Truth you have to start over again from scratch as the kids are now playing superheroes.

Luckily, combat has been improved and has made some important changes. In the original you had no freedom to move your character at all while in combat. Now you can move your character and it has repercussions on that particular fight. With four characters in your party, you can have up to four companions fight alongside you. Each character has four unique abilities along with an ultimate move. These range from healing to shielding your allies, which can make the difference when you are up against a boss. Each character can only move a number of spaces, which leads to a huge tactical meta while in combat. If you are outnumbered in a fight you can still easily win, you just have to time your moves and play smart. While the combat has been improved, the underlying issues from the original are still here. The combat is repetitive and very bland after you have seen all of the moves that are available.

As I said before, players control the new kid, this time named Butthole, lending his skills to help Coon and Friends figure out what has happened to all the cats around town. While doing this you encounter many characters from the show and even some guest appearances. The map is kind of the same in this sequel apart from a new and modified locations. However the new map has been updated, including references to the newer seasons and has been reworked to be themed around superheroes. The new map was great to explore through the first five hours of gameplay, however after that there weren’t too many additions that made me still want to explore and find all the collectibles or go to people’s houses and peek inside. In the original all I wanted to do was explore the whole map and find all the collectibles. I just didn't feel that urge here.

The side quests were very fun and introduced me to many characters that you wouldn't meet unless you went out of your way, such as the police detective. This is a shame as many of these characters are iconic to the South Park show, and players can potentially miss them because they didn’t want go over to this place, beat up some dudes and then speak to a quest giver again.

The humour in this game is very selective, you may find it funny or you may not. It's filled with toilet humour and pop culture references/jokes. It's very similar to the show. If you don't enjoy the show, this definitely won't change your mind.

The art style is very true to the show here, from the houses and rooms looking almost identical to the show’s version to the way the characters walk. I fell in love with the original game’s faithful recreation of the show, and it's no different here. In the original there were complaints that the houses were all identical in the form of layouts. Unfortunately that hasn’t changed here as nearly every house's layout is identical however most of the rooms are different and have lots of references to the show in them.

The audio is also very true to the show, with the same voice actors from the show reprising their respective characters in the game. The music is very similar to the series with the same music being in the game. For example when I was fighting a boss I was shocked to find that the song (Kyle's Mom’s A Bitch) was in the game. It's moments like these that really show how great this game is great for fans and I can't say that enough in this review.