South Park: The Fractured But Whole (2017)

South Park: The Fractured But Whole (2017), written and directed by Trey Parker, developed by South Park Digital Studios, Ubisoft, published by Ubisoft

The first South Park game, The Stick of Truth, made fun of fantasy RPG cliches in the style only South Park can. In the role of "the New Kid", you and the South Park kids took part in an epic fantasy tale, where the evil elves had stolen the titular Stick of Truth. The Fractured But Whole begins right after the epic final battle of the first game, but this time around, the kids stop playing fantasy games and dive deep into superheroes.

Again, as the New Kid, you plunge into the fray which begins as Cartman's Coon wanting to find a missing cat and get the promised reward money in order to make his superhero franchise bigger. As this is South Park, the case of the missing cat soon turns into something bigger, not that the kids ever really acknowledge it, as they are more interested in their own game as well as internal strife between two different superhero groups.

The first thing to do is to decide what kind of a superhero you want to be. This determines the types of attacks and skills at your disposal during the combat. As you further the game, you can pick up additional sub-types and get more skills. While there is quite a bit of character progression and creation, it all is played mostly as a joke though. Sure, the skills differ from each other, but the character system itself is just one continuing joke.

The best example of this is, that after a while of playing, you get to choose your character's gender. Up to that point, the New Kid has been male, despite you could choose a more girly appearance for him. The gender choice acts as a platform for more jokes as if you opt to be a girl instead, you cause confusion among people who actually know your gender while others just wonder at your feminity. There are even more jokes when you choose your sexual orientation.

In general, if you are a fan of South Park and the style of comedy it has, The Fractured But Whole more than delivers on that aspect. The world of South Park is just as odd and exaggerated as it is in the series, no matter if it is about the plans of Cartman or the local police worshipping Sub-Niggurath by sacrificing black people to it.

The town of South Park is not fully open from the getgo. At first, you can visit only a handful of locations, but the further you get, the more places you can open. This happens with the help of your awesome farting powers, which can even bend time itself not to mention help you solve some puzzles preventing you from entering some locations. These super farts combined with the abilities of the other superheroes help your progress.

As in every RPG, there's also a lot of combat. You get to fight with such exotic monsters as the Sixth Graders, bums, minions of Dr Chaos, cops and genetically engineered beings with multiple asses. Sadly enough the combat is the one aspect of the game which doesn't really manage to shine with the comedy value. This is mostly because of how repetitive the jokes become, be it the microaggression special attacks or the scrap battle taunt barks, which have very little variety in the end.

The combat itself is built on decent enough of a turn-based system, but as you are mostly going through a handful of enemies and combinations, the novelty soon runs out, especially after you've experimented with the powers of different kids. Luckily you can run off most of the battles, so you aren't forced to do battle more than you want. You can also change the combat difficulty on the fly, so depending on your preferences, you can always opt to go more casual if you like.

There are boss battles and some speciality battles which do bring some variation. Boss battles usually require you to figure out the correct method of killing the enemy or take care of one specific enemy in order to win.

Crafting is also an important part of the game. You can craft different kinds of suits for your little superhero, health potions and other kinds of boosters as well as items to give you better statistics. You do get some of the items from battles or by doing optional sidequests. Getting better power levels is obviously important as it makes combat easier.

For those who like to play dress-up, The Fractured But Whole offers amble possibilities. The game allows you to freely mix and match different kinds of clothes inspired by Marvel and DC heroes. The different suits don't affect your abilities but do provide a nice option for those, who like to experiment with different kinds of looks.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole is a kind of a mixed bag. Just like the first game, it offers a plethora of South Park humour, locations and places to see. On the other hand, some aspects of it, like combat, do start to feel rather repetitive after a while. Not only because of the mechanics but also because of the jokes running old pretty fast.

Then there's the issue with minigames as well. A lot of them have been sprinkled all over the place. During combat, you can cause extra damage or block some of it. The special abilities are tied behind minigame mechanics as well, but these are luckily rather simple. The most annoying minigames are reserved for completely voluntary toilet sessions. While there is an option to use an assistant, I'd really have preferred a possibility to completely turn them off,  as they do get repetitive.

I wouldn't recommend The Fractured But Whole for those looking to play a well-made RPG. I'd rather recommend it for those who are interested in playing a South Park game that is true to its origins down to the style of humour, voice acting as well as graphical style. Despite I haven't watched the series in a long time, there still was a lot of humour in it that worked for me. It is perhaps a tad too long for its own good, mostly thanks to the combat and back and forth travelling, but still, it is fun enough for what it is.