"You gotta fight dirty, dirty like a coon" - The Coon aka Eric Cartman.
South Park: Fractured But Whole is a Superhero themed tactical turn-based role-playing game (with adventure game elements) developed and published by Ubisoft and it's affiliates in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios. It's a sequel to the fantasy themed RPG, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and based on the popular long-running adult-animated comedy show created by Trey Parker & Matt Stone. The game and the show uses politically incorrect dark-surreal humor and satires everyone and everything including themselves, that makes one of the reasons why the franchise is popular. As The Stick of Truth satirizes and parodied the fantasy genre, Fractured But Whole does the same with the Superhero genre, cliches and, tropes with a funny twist.
Story
You don't have to watch the show to play the game as it stands on its own, it also acts like an extended episode special or a movie. The story was written by Trey Parker and takes place in the dysfunctional town of South Park, Colorado. After the the events of The Stick of Truth, a superhero named The Coon aka Eric Cartmen assembles his team "Coon 'n Friends" to look for a missing f*cked-up dysfunctional cat named Scrambles. If they find the cat, they'll get a $100 reward and they can use they money for their "superhero franchise". Other heroes in the team include The Human Kite aka Kyle, FastPass aka Jimmy, Captain Diabetes aka Scott, Mosquito aka Clyde and Super Craig aka ...Craig. You'll meet their competing team, Freedom Pals and meet other heroes, anti-heroes, villains and anti-villains; and they all make fun-of popular superhero characters mostly from Marvel and DC.
You are "The New Kid" in South Park and also a new member of Coon 'n Friends, you can pick your powers and costume of your hero, but you have an mysterious backstory. Your superhero alias is called The Amazing Butthole because of your default fart powers such as Time Farting. Over time throughout the progression of the game, you'll pick your gender, race/ethnicity, religion and etc. like any typical RPG, accept it's hilarious.
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| I'm so bored... |
The story is so good that'll replace your life, but I couldn't breath sometimes because I was too busy laughing my ass-off most of the time. All of the jokes are pretty clever, but some of the jokes can be pretty dark and screwed-up but funny in the same time, that's South Park for ya! There's one rule in comedy, if the joke is funny, you know it's true. The plot's iceberg gets deeper as soon as you keep progressing throughout the main story missions.
Gameplay
More improved than it's predecessor, the game uses a turn-based combat system. The player can start a fight by punching the enemy, unless the enemy otherwise attacks the player. If the player attacks the enemy first, the player gains 'combat advantage' where they will get the first turn, but if the enemy attacks the player first, the enemy will get the first turn. When combat starts, the floor area becomes a chess-like grid. The turn order is displayed in a timeline at the bottom right corner of the screen. Players can move their character and buddies in specified areas of the grid marked in blue. The combat reminds me of Chess.
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| This is 4D chess, but more brutal. |
When you meet a character named PC Principal (making fun of the woke PC crowd), Microaggressions will sometimes appear during combat. It will occur when an enemy gets a turn and quotes a "microaggression" like a slur or something else, which would allow the player to have a chance to punch the opponent during the enemy's turn.
Different abilities affect different areas of the combat grid. A diagram under a power's icon allows the player to view the ability's range; pressing the control for the ability will show the affected areas of the grid. Players can end their turn or cancel an ability by using the appropriate control. Combat automatically ends when either the player's team or opposing enemies are defeated.
Players are able to select one of three classes at the beginning of the game: Brutalist, Blaster or Speedster. Additional classes can be unlocked as you progress through the game.
The gameplay is not only for combat, but objective and you also have to be tactical and strategic to complete a battle. One great thing about the turn-based combat system that gives you time to think, however some battles are timed, so watch out!
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| Um, I can explain... |
When you're not in combat, you can freely roam around the town of South Park. When you explore the town you will encounter enemies in the streets such as Sixth graders and Ninjas and enter combat mode.
Throughout the town, you can fast travel by going to a Fast Travel station to let Fastpass take you to another station anywhere in South Park via his Fast Travel station network.
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| This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them! |
You can go to stores to buy inventory such as new costumes, artifacts, consumables and etc. Artifacts gives increase of your "Might", making you more powerful in combat. Consumables lets you create power-ups, health items, costumes, and artifacts.
The combat is stable and fun, and I really like the adventure-esque exploration.
Sound and Music
The sound is clean is crystal clear with an option to use Dolby Digital or DTS Digital Surround. The music can sometimes be generic, but not all of them; some are good and pretty catchy like each battle music. The music was composed by the television series' composer, Jamie Dunlap.
When you die in the game, Dan Hill's song, "Its a long road" plays, this is the ending theme song that plays in Rambo: First Blood.
Extras
Explore South Park to find and collect all 40 Craig and Tweak pretty fag-fan art and you can display any of them on your virtual in-game phone menu as a wallpaper. That's cool. The one with Craig and Tweek looking at the stars is my favorite.
You can take in-game photos/selfies and post them to Coonstagram and gain followers. Coonstagram is a parody of Facebook's Instagram.
There is this stock market mini game satirizing trade and stock as a gambling machine. It doesn't give you in-game money (I wish it did as risk and reward), but can give you an economic status on your character sheet.
After you beat the main game, you can still do side quests and mastering challenges, but after that there isn't much to do and no other extras.
Overall
I've completed the entire game in normal difficulty under 38 hours, the story is good, the jokes are funny and almost all of the individual characters are unique, likable, and well-remembered (even if you haven't watched the show). The mini-games are okay and the extras are decent, but short. The base game has a few glitches, but it is playable without a patch or update off the disc. There is story-based DLC, but it's completely optional, you don't have to have it. I just wish they were later re-released on disc, but Ubisoft did this get some extra cash. Overall, this is an excellent and well-made game and one of the best RPGs I've ever played, I had great time. Yet whether you love or hate South Park the show, it's hard to deny the care and polish put into Fractured But Whole. Highly recommended for mature and intelligent grown-ass adults. 8.5 out of 10
For PC players, the game contains the infamous Denuvo Anti-tamper DRM; 5 different PC within a day machine activation limit. If you have a decent computer you should have no problem running the game. For PS4 and Switch can you play it offline straight out of the box.
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