Platform: PC

Developer: Ubisoft/South Park Digital Studios

Publisher: Ubisoft

Release Date: October 17, 2017

Genre: Role-Playing

Nerd Rating: 8.9 out of 10

 

Where would we be, as a society, without the hilarious antics of our foul-mouthed construction paper heroes? Since 1997, South Park has been the main course of Comedy Central’s line-up with its quick wit, thoughtful perspectives, and dynamic characters. In 2014, The Stick of Truth garnered the acclaim of gamers everywhere for its entertaining gameplay within what felt like an actual episode of the show. And now, three years later, you can continue your journey as “Douchebag,” in South Park: The Fractured But Whole. 

Fractured But Whole begins quite shortly after where Stick of Truth ends… like, pretty much the next day. You are still King Douchebag, but unfortunately, the kids of South Park have switched from playing Fantasy to Superheroes and exclude New Kid from the “civil war” between Coon and Friends and the Freedom Pals. In order to fit in with the group, you have to start over again. Cartman- I mean, The Coon- harbors a soft spot for the New Kid, and allows you to become a rookie superhero. Your job is to score followers on Coonstagram to help the Coon and Friends franchise flourish while the group searches for a missing cat, as well as try to take down the Freedom Pals. You are now “The Amazing Butthole.”

The social media mechanic is not new to these games, but Fractured But Whole introduces the use of New Kid’s smartphone. From the smartphone, you can access Coonstagram (an obvious parody of Instagram), Crafting (Etsy), your costumes, powers, artifacts, character sheets, allies, inventory, and a map.

At first, the Crafting and Artifacts apps were a bit confusing for me, especially after just completing a quick playthrough of The Stick of Truth. Instead of buying health or power-up items in various shops, you instead “craft” things like revival potions or health burritos by purchasing base crafting items like tortillas, tape, water bottles, etc. in different stores around the town, or by finding them during missions. Then, you craft what you want in the Crafting app. I felt like it was one step too many, taking extra time to hold the left-click button down to assemble 30 burritos when I wanted to get back to playing the game. I’m still indifferent about the Artifacts app. The point of artifacts is to build up your “might,” which is basically how much ability you have to complete certain missions. For example, in the screen grab above, my might is at 223. For the next main storyline mission, the recommended might be around 300 to 350. To raise might, you have to spend some time crafting artifacts in Crafting, or searching through the drawers or trashcans of the townspeople. Or, you can earn artifacts through some missions. If you attempt a mission that is below the recommended might, it will be more difficult to survive. However, the benefits of the artifact system also include combat and healing advantages for the whole team, rather than just yourself.

The combat, I think, is more exciting in Fractured But Whole. It is still turn-based, but you can have up to three allies on your side, and each attack is unique in style and is befitting to the character executing the move. Kyle (Human Kite) has healing capabilities, Super Craig and Wonder Tweek can combine their powers to heavily damage all enemies on the field, Kenny (Mysterion) has creepy ghost powers that will make him playable even in death, and so on. Stan (Toolshed) likes to repeatedly yell “you’re about to get screwed!” before executing a ranged drill attack, which is a line that I suspect is frequently used in Toolshed x Human Kite fanfiction (there’s a lot of it out there). Each combination of allies can be edited to help when it comes to special objectives during missions.

 

As you progress, New Kid will be able to obtain new superhero classes, and with that, new powers. You will have four different powers at your disposal at all times, but you can mix and match the type of powers.

With the Powers app on New Kid’s smartphone, you can change your powers. You can decide on any combination you wish- At one point, during the final moments of the game, I had a single power from four different classes, which made me a Cyborg-Assassin-Speedster-Plantmancer. You can change up these powers anytime.

Graphics are an odd thing to talk about when it comes to South Park, but here we are. It’s built to look like an episode of the show, with its 2D animation and construction paper textures. But the game is incredibly detailed, and the backgrounds look amazing:

I was cracking up the whole time while playing The Fractured But Whole. It nails the superhero and video game tropes that we’ve seen over the years and is filled with references from the show going back all the way to the first season. After getting used to the weird upgrades system, I had a blast playing this game. It’s filled with surprises and all-around hilarity with several hours of play. Any fan of RPGs or South Park in general, I think, will really enjoy The Fractured But Whole. 

Now, let’s get on that DLC bus for a mini-review!

From Dusk Till Casa Bonita

Release Date: March 20, 2018

Nerd Rating: 7 out of 10 

This DLC takes you out of South Park and to the magical, faraway land of Denver, Colorado, where Mysterion is in need of assistance. His little sister, Karen, has fallen in with the vamp kids and has enlisted the help of the New Kid, AKA The Amazing Butthole. The new campaign lets you explore the innards of Casa Bonita with The Coon, Mysterion, Kyle’s cousin Kyle as Human Kite from an alternate universe, and a new combat buddy: Henrietta.

 

The coolest part about Casa Bonita is the new hero class and powers that Mysterion bestows upon you. Using the Netherborn class, the dark powers of the occult are yours: Grim Fate, Soul Slash, Ghastly Grasp, and Dire Shroud. All of these attacks are unique, and not to mention, fun to watch. Powering up the New Kid is accompanied by some aggressive metal music that really helps put you in the mood to kick some ass. And the best part is that these powers, as well as Henrietta, aren’t restricted to Casa Bonita. You can play with them inside and outside of South Park.

 

Unfortunately, the play time is about an hour, which is to be expected as it is a short-story campaign. However, at the time of this article, From Dusk Till Casa Bonita is priced at $11.99 on Steam, and I think that if it were knocked a few dollars lower, I would feel a bit better about the playtime. Besides the cool new costume and powers, there’s not much else to do at Casa Bonita except for save Mysterion’s sister from becoming a Hot Topic nightmare.

 

From Dusk Till Casa Bonita is the second installment of the Fractured But Whole DLC series, with the text one being titled “Bring the Crunch,” which I assume is going to be centered around Mint-Berry Crunch. I was wondering where he was during the course of the Fractured, but now we know that they were saving him for DLC.

However, Casa Bonita was still enjoyable and gave me some chuckles.