Shaun Munro reviews South Park: The Fractured but Whole…
After a series of frustrating delays, South Park: The Fractured but Whole is finally here, arriving amid the annual late-year AAA deluge and serving up a refreshing rebuke that’s by turns hilarious, deceptively deep and shamelessly offensive. While it doesn’t quite reach the loony heights of 2014’s The Stick of Truth, it does nevertheless remedy a number of that game’s nagging issues, and will be easy catnip (or rather, Coonnip) for the series’ fans.
The Fractured but Whole knows what worked best the first time around and clings pretty closely to the same formula, yet where The Stick of Truth trained its focus on skewering RPG games, the sequel takes aim at the current superhero movie boom, universes and all. The children of South Park have become divided over Cartman’s plans for a giant superhero movie franchise starring them all, causing them to splinter into two groups; Cartman’s Coon and Friends and Mysterion’s Freedom Pals, who square off in a Civil War for franchise supremacy.
It’s certainly a ripe concept for satire, and Matt Stone and Trey Parker take a typically merciless stab at the green-fuelled excess of Hollywood’s current comic book obsession, even if there’s clearly a subdued love for the genre in here too.
That shell premise is ultimately just the window dressing, though, because much like The Stick of Truth, the new game branches off in innumerable different directions with more subplots than anyone can conceivably keep track of. Whether you keep to the main quest-line or get lost for hours in the wealth of side content, by game’s end it is a dizzyingly, wonderfully contrived mess, but given the story’s many divergences into time travel of all things, there’s no doubt that this is absolutely on purpose.
There isn’t much more to the primary gameplay loop than being handed a mission, walking yourself over to the marker, watching a cut-scene, picking up an object, maybe fighting someone and moving onto the next one. It’s easy to see how some players could feel exhausted by this, especially over lengthy play sessions, so it’s absolutely advised to break up the potential ennui with some of the more oddball optional missions, even if they’re not exactly a million degrees different either.
What does help sustain interest even when the mission design becomes painfully transparent is the hugely improved combat, which now operates with a grid system that players must strategically move around in order to maximise their damage and healing, and avoid enemy attacks where possible. The grid also allows new developers Ubisoft San Francisco to blindside players with some more ambitious and unpredictable boss fights, where enemies will aggressively flank the player from both sides, resulting in some genuinely intense confrontations.
There are a few bugbears, though; special move animations are great fun the first few times, but the inability to skip these 10-20 second clips quickly becomes tiresome, and that’s without mentioning some occasional pre-fight scripted sequences which also can’t be skipped.
Considering that some battles can easily last upwards of 10 minutes, especially later in the game, it’d also be nice to see a battle speed option patched in, because failing the same fight a few times can feel groan-inducingly monotonous due to how painstakingly everything tends to unfold.
For the most part, though, the combat is leagues ahead of what came before, and the sequel’s most-improved aspect. The deeper progression system is also surprisingly addictive, with players being required to find and craft artefacts in order to raise their might number, and thanks to the over-abundance of scrap at your disposal at almost all times, crafting never feels like a chore as it does in so many “serious” RPGs.
Improved though the gameplay is, The Fractured but Whole is a rare game, like its predecessors, where the main appeal is actually the story. Yes, it ties itself up in knots by the time the barmy conclusion comes around, but the journey is nearly a non-stop laugh riot, packed with knowing gags that wantonly mock just about every subset of humanity possible, from the political correctness brigade to rapist priests.
It’s worth reiterating that the game never goes quite as extreme as The Stick of Truth in terms of shock value, but it admirably holds its own all the same, delivering the ruthless satire with an intentionally excessive flavouring of poo, blood and, well, pretty much every bodily fluid possible.
It is a game chock full of unexpected, out-of-nowhere moments sure to have you spit-taking your drink all over your TV, and that Stone and Parker manage to sustain it over a 15-hour campaign and many more hours of side missions is nothing short of astounding. Even when the mission structure began to feel a little tired or I was assaulted by a bug that forced me to reset the game (as happened on a few occasions), the next cut-scene or outrageous boss fight perked me up and left me eager to continue playing.
A big part of the reason it’s hard to put the game down is its staggering verisimilitude to the look of the TV series. Like The Stick of Truth, the paper cut-out animation style is perfectly replicated here to the point that you may not even realise when a cut-scene has ended and gameplay has resumed. The voice work, of course, is exemplary throughout and stunningly consistent with the show; there’s not even a hint of anyone phoning it in here.
For anyone who enjoyed the first game or has even a passing interest in the series, you owe it to yourself to get your hands on this game immediately. It’s not perfect, and anyone expecting a colossal leap from the original might feel a little underwhelmed, but on its own merits, this is the sort of daring, bravura craftsmanship the industry could use more of at this time of the year.
Pros:
+ A worthy sequel that’s brilliantly faithful to the TV show
+ Substantially improved combat
+ A winning mixture of humour both crude and clever
+ Tons of content
+ Excellent sound and visuals
Cons:
– It’s not as fresh as the first game
– There are some irritating bugs
– Unskippable animations
Rating: 8.5/10
Reviewed for PS4 (also available on Xbox One and PC)
Shaun Munro – Follow me on Twitter for more video game rambling.
