South Park: The Fractured But Whole
About
Worthy ancestor
The second part in a series of jRPG-like games in the popular cartoon universe about the of schoolchildren adventures. South Park already had attempted to make quality games, but until recently they were unsuccessful. In this case, the stars converged and the game, like its predecessor, proved to be successful.
Geniuses at work
The developers themselves were the creators of the original show - Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The plot of the game is in no way connected with the previous part, except for the time when events unfold: a day after the events of the previous game. In this iteration, Cartman and the children decide to dress up as superheroes and create their mega-popular franchise, like Marvel. The player joins the action as before in the role of the The New Kid and becomes a witness in the adventures of Cartman and the team.
Key features
Gameplay-wise the game has not changed much: it's still a game similar to jRPG with step-by-step battles and a pseudo-open world, which is divided into story locations. Using a 2.5D player explores the fictional town of South Park Colorado. In the game, classes are available, and they are South Park-style satire on the classic RPG classes. The main change in the combat system is visual: now instead of a static battlefield, players and NPCs can move freely along the battlefield divided into blocks and use its features to create a tactical advantage.
System requirements for PlayStation 4
System requirements for Xbox One
System requirements for PC
- OS: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
- Processor: Intel Core i5 2400 / AMD FX 4320 or equivalent
- Memory: 6 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560Ti / GTX 650 / GTX 750 / GTX 950 / GTX 1050 / AMD Radeon HD 7850 / R9 270 / R9 370 / RX 460
- Storage: 20 GB available space
- Additional Notes: 720p @~60FPS
- OS: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
- Processor: Intel Core i5-4690K / AMD FX-8350 or equivalent
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 / GTX 750ti / GTX 960 / GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon R9 280X / R9 380 / RX 470
- Storage: 20 GB available space
- Additional Notes: 1080p @~60FPS
System requirements for Nintendo Switch
Where to buy
Top contributors
South Park: The Fractured But Whole reviews and comments
I've long since defined RPGs that have this problem as suffering from "Groundhog Day Syndrome". You'll probably see that term pop up a lot more when it comes to reviews of shitty RPGs.
Funnily enough, it seems like the devs of Fractured But Whole actually figured out midway through the game that their battles were tedious in this particular way and tried to fix it by making every major battle a really obnoxious gimmick battle, which turns out to be a godawful way to try to solve this problem and turns a mildly unpleasant experience into an extremely unpleasant experience in no time flat. These two problems combined, as you might expect, aren't particularly good when your game is 90% combat and the other 10% is wandering around the map doing shitty environmental "puzzles", wasting time on the crafting menus, and, oh joy, taking selfies with people!
Which leads me into the second major problem - the writing, which is an awful combination of factors that adds up to "what people who absolutely despise South Park think South Park is" - constant pee pee poo poo jokes that legitimately wouldn't be out of place on a horrible Netflix animated adult comedy, effortlessly lazy low hanging fruit topical humor and your unfunny drunk uncle who thinks he's the funniest guy in the world trying and failing to take the piss out of a bunch of political issues that were already played out half a decade ago over Thanksgiving dinner.
Oh, and an extra dash of "hello fellow kids" with the Instagram culture and selfie culture bullshit, which was so obviously written by a focus group of 62 year old white dudes in stuffy suits that it actually physically hurts. What a stunningly unpleasant game.
If you are a South-Park fan this is a perfect game, it has so many easter eggs and collectibles. I was soo eager to find all the Yaoi and get as many followers on coonstagram. it was fun throughout the whole game and never got boring, i played on hard and some fights were challenging and really fun.
The only thing that was a bit disapointing was the end, it felt a bit rushed and not really thought through.
All in all one of my favorited games of all time :)
Final Score: A-
Microsoft from Deutsch
Microsoft from Deutsch