Trey Parker and Matt Stone come back with a sequel to the critically acclaimed South Park: The Stick of Truth. This time the theme is superheroes, and South Park: The Fractured But Whole, as befits the cult franchise, pulls no punches. This time it satirizes the DC vs Marvel competition in the form of a Marvel's Civil War parody.
A return to South Park The perfectly recreated map of South Park from The Stick of Truth is back, now with even more places to explore. Use your character's incredible fart powers in combination with South Park regulars' to access new areas, including the rooftops. Look for loot in strange places, it is certain there will be some.
New theme So you saved the day in The Stick of Truth? Big deal, get with the times. Cartman and crew now care only about creating the next best superhero franchise. South park: The Fractured But Whole features twelve superhero-themes classes, including the Speedster, Cyborg, and Karate Kid.
But the true power of The Fractured But Whole is in the farts of player character, powerful enough to rip apart the fabric of time itself, among other things. The superhero theme extends to the customization, with generic and class-specific costume elements available at character creation. Improved gameplay South Park: The Fractured But Whole greatly improves on the systems first put in place in The Stick of Truth.
The combat system is revamped, now taking place on a grid, allowing character to move around, making careful positioning a key to victory. The twelve classes are fundamentally different and have assigned classic roles like healers or tanks, which will matter for the gameplay. The changes greatly deepen the combat system without making it unmanageable or unclear.
The show's creators still in control Trey Parker and Matt Stone worked very closely with Ubisoft, providing voices, writing, essential suggestions and more. Thanks to that South Park: The Fractured But Whole still holds true to the style and atmosphere of the original show, much like The Stick of Truth did. Locations and characters straight from the source material come back better and more plentiful than ever before.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole feels like a superhero-themed extra-long episode of the show. South Park: The Fractured But Whole preorder versions and bonuses The game is available for preorder in four different versions. Standard features just the base game, with no additional content.
The digital Gold Edition includes the base game, as well as the Season Pass, a number of in-game costumes and a bonus perk. Finally the Collector's Edition includes all of the above AND a six-inch figuring of The Coon, Cartman's superheroic alter-ego.
I struggled to find negative things to say about this game. From start to finish, South Park: The Fractured But Whole had me in stitches. It’s the perfect of blend of smart and silly. It is magnificent and absurdly ridiculous in a way that only South Park can pull off. It’s the best possible excuse to laugh about everything and everyone you know you’re not supposed to.
The Fractured but Whole is a welcome sequel, maintaining the standard of quality set by the previous game and, in a broader sense, all of Parker and Stone’s work. Every aspect is overloaded with both smart and immature jokes, the combat is an improvement, the game is bigger and longer, and the sneaky moments of sincerity make you recall the charm of childhood in surprising ways – just like the show.
UbiSoft managed to bring the same authentic South Park humor and atmosphere as Obsidian did with the previous game.
TV show stalwarts should breathe easily and those on the fence about the game’s penchant for outrageous humour to definitely give it a go for the sake of its fantastic gameplay. However, if South Park has never been to your taste, The Fractured But Whole makes no attempt to change that.
Typical sick humor, clever satire, and underneath all the great RPG with great combat design – this is the new South Park game. Not very good logic puzzles are the only unsuccessful thing in this great game.
While South Park: The Fractured But Whole improves on Stick of Truth in a lot of ways, the whole experience feels somehow less grand. Although the game is slightly longer, probably lasting most players 20-30 hours, it doesn't push the boundaries nearly as far as Stick of Truth, and the poor pacing towards the end of the game definitely detracts from the overall experience. That said, there are a huge number of highly memorable moments peppered throughout the game, and it's an experience South Park fans won't want to miss.
The Fractured But Whole is more of the same. It's occasionally hilarious, but often misses. Not even an updated combat system and interesting new skills can disguise that fact that it is just The Stick of Truth in a different and less-interesting costume.
October 3, 2017
South Park: Fractured But Whole warms up with the release of its launch trailer. Watch video
September 25, 2017
South Park: Fractured but Whole hits the gold phase and celebrates it with a new trailer. Watch video
