South Park: The Fractured but Whole Review

The Fractured but Whole:

After a few questionable South Park games and numerous delays, no one really expected the Stick of Truth to be as good as it was, so it was a pleasant surprise when it came along and blew our expectations out of the water. Whilst its sequel, the Fractured But Whole, is less surprising in its success, it’s no less pleasant. If you love South Park you can stop reading now – this one’s better than the first in every way and it’s full of fun references and hilariously horrible humour.

Story:

South Park is a show I like to leave for years and then binge on all at once so that I can skip the arcs and episodes I’m simply not interested in. With the Fractured But Whole I didn’t get that choice, but luckily I didn’t need it. Tackling the ever waging wars of superhero cinematic universes – a scene most gamers will be deeply entrenched in – I found the farcical plot of Coon & Friends myriad, flatulence-filled adventures to be right up my alley.

The warriors and wizards setting of The Stick of Truth is right where you left it when The Fractured But Whole begins, only to be interrupted by a bored Cartman who wants to shift gear. From there, South Park builds to a truly nutty plot and trots out its regulars and in-jokes at a steady enough pace to make you forget that the game is a little long in the tooth.

Gameplay:

It doesn’t help that it starts cripplingly slow, with the guys hung up looking for a missing cat. It had to start somewhere, of course, but the stocky tutorial area, the drip feed of mechanics and an insistence on minigames involving selfies and toilet breaks left me nodding off. After working my way through the opening hours however I found a tale – and a game – worthy of the investment.

You build your character over the course of a few cutscenes – deciding on your look, superpowers, kryptonite and gender identity as you chat to South Park residents (and have some choices thrust upon you by others, such as Cartman’s backstory that he hands you fully formed). The game never stops allowing you to tweak this, in both the character details and your game-defining traits. Levelling up and unlocking new costumes and powers is a fun and rewarding reason to keep getting into scraps and gaining more EXP.

The battle system is Fractured But Whole’s biggest improvement over its predecessor. It now takes place on a grid, akin to classic JRPG series such as Disgaea and Fire Emblem, and this allows the battles a lot more control and involvement. Positioning your team – and forcibly positioning your enemies – are key to your success, and it’s surprising just how much of a difference this simple shift makes. At the beginning your character will only have one set of specifically themed moves, but soon they’ll be able to utilize an entire suite of superpowers, making them wildly OP. It’s a good thing too, as the game doesn’t shy away from throwing some real challenges at you and killing you liberally, especially in some of the later boss battles (including one with a ridiculously beefy Morgan Freeman).

Playing with powers, adding artefacts and equipment and balancing out your avatar’s gifts with those of their squadmates had me tinkering for ages in menus. Finding a good combination and a winning strategy on the battlefield feels great, and I really enjoyed learning the intricacies of the surprisingly deep system.