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South Park: The Fractured But Whole review
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by h

South Park: The Fractured But Whole is an open world turn-based RPG that serves as a sequel to everyone's favorite South Park video game (outside of South Park Rally for the PS1, of course) that adopts none of its strengths while amplifying all of its weaknesses and adding in a few more for good measure. There's one sin that I personally consider unpardonable in a turn-based game of this type, and that's when every single battle goes more or less exactly the same way - you'll learn the exact one-to-one sequence of moves that will wipe out every formation of enemies with the least possible amount of hassle and you'll just repeat that over and over again with tiny enough variations that it doesn't matter.

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.

Other reviews7

After loving the first one, I picked this one right away. Enjoyed just as much (if not more) however the comedy is not as good. Anyhow, the humour is still awesome and the dialogues are fun! The gameplay can get a bit repetitive in any difficulty. I platinumed this game (which needs to play in the almost most difficulty) and only died once. Great game!
«Just one more turn»
«Can’t stop playing»
Combat can get a bit repetitive.  Funny game though, and that's what we're here for.
I played this game on the Switch, which was a giant Mistake after thinking about it the loading times are just ass, and the game lags in some areas but i will talk about the game itself.

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 :)
«Can’t stop playing»
The first was great. This one is slightly better. The combat is more interesting in this one. I love the superheroes theme. This game is very relaxing. It’s a bit of a challenge but not too difficult and the story is fun. This one may be slightly less funny than the first because a bit of the shtick may wear off but it’s only marginally less funny.  If they make a third I’ll play it. I’m still in.

Final Score: A-
Translated by
Microsoft from Deutsch
Interim Review: The Expansion of The Stick of Truth is limited to the fact that it is an Extension and not a new Part of a previous standout game! First of All, more Postives: The Game once again reproduces at certain Intervals the good old South Park situation Comedy, which seems lost in the last Season! It's a lot of Fun for quite a while. Also, logical details are still so small, coherent, which you have to pay attention to almost perfectionist embedded! Very to value. Also that many Things are customizable (but then rather only superficial). It's all visually considered to be put together very nicely. Nor have I noticed any major Bugs. Now to the rather Negative: The Game is really very refreshing, funny, entertaining and at a certain Point even varied, until you have to realize that at Some point it can only be played down according to Schema F and you are even happy, if you get it through Has. Scheme F therefore:-The Quests became very long-winded to me from the Middle of the game-The Game decreases in the Course increasingly in the claim-> typical Development history of a Game, until Time Pressure and Coal become scarce = > either a Problem of this Game or of Games Nowadays general-"Puzzles" are simply obstacles, which after a short Thought have been quickly overcome Each time. The Possibilities of The Depth of the game, which would be feasible and are pointed out from time to time, are not seized. 0815 Fights and pure "Grind." In South Park tSoT The South Park atmosphere goes through this Lega-like Game that it has become mega flutes. Each Time, Tasks must be solved with ' Lego logic ' by using any of the Skills learned In the Chord to create monotonous Problem Solutions on and on. Personal Conclusion: No Case 60 € value (even the Original Game [not developed By Ubisoft Thank you] hadn't even asked for so much) [Thank You Ubisoft at this Point!] Personal game price recommendation: €25 does not Buy from Companies such as EA, Ubisoft & Co. Here it is only about Money and about the stupid Pastime of the Consumer, in order to embed it in the Cycle of yield. Reto's Conclusion after Playing Through: Part 1 was just better.
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Translated by
Microsoft from Deutsch
Since the Start reviews are largely negative (in my Opinion unjustified), I decided to give my Opinion and Experience as briefly as possible! The Waiting Time for the Game paid off for me! I Also pre-ordered as a big South Park Fan last Year (Gold Edition), and was a bit disappointed when it was postponed by about 1 Year. But Patience is a Virtue and I'm sure there were well-founded reasons for doing so on the part of the Developers! South Park has been on TV for many Seasons and who knows how much Content and thus playing Time has been supplemented by it ...!?! Anyway, all the current DLCs in the Gold Edition are available with me (Steam)! Granted... The Price was quite lulled, and I would also prefer the current DLC Policy to finally come to an End at Games! For my Review, I play almost exclusively OFFLINE (No matter what Game)!!! So Please don't pay attention to the Seasons! -) I also had a "Black Screen" when I started. Old + Enter has helped-> Again ALt + Enter And You are back in Full Screen mode. I'm sure it will be fixed at some point. The next Reboot (PC + STEAM + UPLAY) was no longer necessary! Update: 28.11.2017-> Has already been fixed! -) Yes UPLAY is required! I then linked my Accounts (Steam + UPLAY), and have no Problem with that! The Game can also be played offline without any Problems. -) Play on relatively up-to-date gaming Laptop (Alienware about 1.5 Years old) on highest Detail without Crashes or other Problems. -) The typical South Park Humor in this Game is simply Borderline Awesome! I also like the Story and the Collection Quests. -) I am very excited about the German Synchro, I would have liked to enjoy "Staff of Truth"! A few Voice Actors are not likely to be identical to those of the Series ... Half as wild! ;-)-) Control with Gamepad (Microsoft XBOX ONE) works for me without any Problems! I would even highly recommend a Controller, because the Control via Keyboard is in my Opinion very challenging-) Combat System and Character Development are redesigned and therefore make me all the more Fun! (Man (s) has to refocus soagr at the Locus:))) )-) South Park Fans will certainly not be disappointed with this Game and I personally look forward to at least 2 Runs! -) Questions will be answered on Occasion (if I am online). PS: Play as Jayna Kitten, the orange Nerdfurie with Nerdy Glasses!
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