Developed and published by Ubisoft, in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios, 2017's 'South Park: The Fractured but Whole' is a video game in which the player controls the character of the New Kid, a silent, but deadly protagonist, taking part of a heroic live action role-playing game, involving, two competing 4th grader superhero factions fighting to create their own superhero media franchises; while also, meanwhile trying to solve, a local crime, in order to help fund their project. Along the way, the journey also brings the player into conflict with various memorable characters including the local elderly population, ninjas, the sixth graders, rednecks, the Hooters-parodying Raisins girls, and others in a turn-based combat system. Without spoiling the game, too much, while, it doesn't make much sense, why this sequel retain the turn-based combat of the last game over real-time button pushing; seeing how it not-longer, seem to parodying games like 'World of Warcraft' & 'Final Fantasies', but instead, Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Regardless, I do have to say, the gameplay for this game has greatly improved since 2014's 'Stick of Truth'. Instead of taking place on a static plane, battles now can take place on a variable number of grid sizes on which the player and enemies can move only according to his or her respective grid and move set; all viewed from a 2.5D, third-person perspective. Alongside with that; are the encounters of avoiding environmental hazards such as exploding chemical barrels, lava, and items, blocking the path, during boss and key objectives fights. This forces the player to become more like a strategist, as he or she must position, their avatars in the right spot, so that they can cause the most maximum damage through 'knockback' or 'status effects' such as poisoning, freezing, burning, and bleeding to death to slow them down; while, also minimizing the effect of blows from their foe. Additionally, the New Kid possesses the ability to manipulate time with their farts, which can be used in battle to skip an opponent's turn, temporarily pause time to inflict damage out of turn. . If that doesn't help the player enough, the gamer can also select up to three allies from 12 different characters to accompany them in battle, each possessing three powers and a powerful ultimate attack. Certain, non-playable characters, can also be summoned during battle with powerful attacks or healing abilities, making certain game systems like crafting items to heal & artifact system to improve powers seem useless. Also, depending on what types of powers/classes (speedster, brutalist & blaster), the player picks in the beginning; the fights can range from somewhat modest in difficulty to easy pickings. Nevertheless, as the game goes on, and when other abilities such as Elementalist, Cyborg, the long-range, Psychic, Assassin, Gadgeteer, Plantmancer, and Martial Artist are accessible. The difficulty setting really does take a nosedive. Even after being able to modify the New Kid's appearance, superpowers, gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity at any time in the game as a difficulty level slider. It doesn't really add much to the fights of the turn-base combat system. Death or losing in the second half is very inconceivable, unless the player like to do stupid, suicidal or reckless things during battles. Regardless of that, at least, the player can somewhat move freely around the fictional Colorado town of South Park, outside of battles. A fast-travel system allows the character to transport between unlocked travel points. Still, there is certain areas of the town are inaccessible, until the player solve the puzzle or gains certain allies that can use the New Kid's farting power to overcome obstacles. It is also necessary to take selfies with the town residents to complete certain story missions, however, looking for Yaoi art, does little to affect gameplay. On the technical glitch side, I did hit several instances where the game became unresponsive after returning from suspend and I had to force-quit and restart it. As for the game animation; it looks and sounds so much like the show, that at a glance it could easily be mistaken for a really long episode when you're not in combat mode. Nevertheless, certain frames of animation seem to be missing voice dialogue. You can really tell, that production was rushed, a bit. As for animation, it can get tiresome at times, due to the large amount of repetitive cut scenes, playing out, while doing obstacles. Sometimes, I wish, there was skip button to speed it up. As for cringe-worthy moments. It's pretty tame, compare to the last game. After all, Nazi fetuses, depict anal probing by aliens and the player-character performing an abortion was really shocking. That said, 'South Park: Fractured, but Whole' still delivers its share. I just wish, the writing was just a little more solid. The story was all over the place. Even some key characters seem to be missing. Where was Mint Berry Crunch or Cthulhu!? Nonetheless, overall: I did like 2014's: 'South Park: The Stick of Truth', a lot better than 2017's 'South Park: The Fractured, but Whole'. Nevertheless, 'South Park: The Fracture, But Whole' is still, lots of fun!! It's certainly has more highs than lows. In the end, you just got to ask. What Would Brian Boitano Do? He would probably go play this game. So do the same! It's worth playing, even with its flaws!
South Park: The Fractured but Whole
(2017 Video Game)
Howdy Ho! I had great fun playing this game! 'South Park: The Fractured, But Whole' was Awesom-o!
12 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers