Review South Park The Fractured But Whole Is a Great Excuse to Revisit the Kids
Anyone who's watched South Park during its 20 years on the air knows it entertains by harmonizing offensive characters, shocker storylines and waggish writing. Interactive South Park is no different There are moments in studio Ubisoft San Francisco's South Park The Fractured But Whole guaranteed to make you cringe. But the irreverent roleplaying game, out October 17 for PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One, counterpunches with amusing side missions, engaging battles and a steady barrage of take-no-prisoners quips. Remember The Coon, the Batman-esque racoon-themed superhero South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone created for season 13? He's back, once more played by Cartman, who has to assemble a squad of do-gooders. But instead of pretending to be wizards and elves as in the last game, everyone's roleplaying superheroes, including Kyle as The Human Kite, Craig as Super Craig, and you as your superhero alter ego. Like The Stick of Truth, you'll start by choosing a profession and picking a class, including types like Speedster, which gives you an arsenal of fast-paced abilities, Brutalist, a close-ranged powerhouse brawler, or Blaster, which can deal fire damage. In classic roleplaying fashion, each character brings their own strengths and weaknesses to battle based on their traits and class. Super Craig is ideal for dishing out damage, for example, while The Human Kite is a useful healer to have on board. Cartman's gang is at odds with Butters, who plays the villainous Professor Chaos, as well as another group of heroes known as the Freedom Pals, which were originally part of Coon  Friends but split off to form their own team after a disagreement. This group includes Stan as Toolshed, Tweek as Wonder Tweek, and Token as Tupperware. Cartman's longterm plan for Coon  Friends is to turn it into an ultra-successful entertainment franchise, as Marvel has done with its superhero roster. But for the purposes of this game, Cartman is on a mission to find a local cat that's gone missing. As is always the case with Cartman, there's an ulterior motive here he wants to snatch up the 100 reward for returning the cat to its owner before the Freedom Pals can get to it. As the new kid in town, your first objective is to prove that you're worthy of joining Coon  Friends by completing a few simple missions and gaining followers on the Instagram-inspired fictional social network Coonstagram. The bigger following you have on Coonstagram, the more influence you hold in South Park, which boosts your hero rank and makes you a more formidable opponent in battle. While much of the game involves scouting the town of South Park for items and characters to complete missions, the heart of the game is its battle system. The good news is that its creators have at least partly rectified the The Stick of Truths simplistic fighting sequences. Like its predecessor, The Fractured But Whole uses a turn-based battle system, but you now move your character on an isometric grid to attack, with where you are on the board determining what you can do and to whom. It's a nice upshift that adds nuance to combat, though you wouldn't mistake it for the depth of a tactical RPG like Fire Emblem. The Fractured But Whole wouldn't be a South Park game if didn't occasionally disgust and poke fun at real-world issues. There's no shortage of that in this game, and that's evident from the moment you build your character. Choosing a darker skin color makes the game generally more difficult. Later on, you'll get ridiculed and assaulted because of your gender, no matter how you choose to identify. At some point you'll find yourself fending off a pair of frisky priests trying to get handsy with you in the back of the town church. It's all in keeping with Parker and Stone's relentless commitment to keeping observers of whatever stripe off balance. And that more than anything is what makes the game worth a look. The new combat enhancements and crafting elements aside, it still feels like you're playing through a hilarious episode of South Park, where nothing is sacred, and everything and everyone gets skewered. 4 out of 5, Buy now Windows PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One