South Park The Stick of Truth was praised for many things, and I personally gave it a favouritable score even despite it being heavily censored in Australia. Stick of Truth was so good that I even contacted the Classification Board about it, something I never thought I'd do for any game, let alone South Park. That was how much I enjoyed the game. (Full review of SOT here)So since the announcement of Fractured But Whole, I have kept a keen, albeit guarded, outlook on the series. I kept my expectations low so that when the game would eventually come out, I would have a fresh perspective, to which I'm happy to say I had during my time playing.
Fractured But Whole isn't perfect, but it still has enough to improve from its predecessor.
The storyline begins immediately from the previous game. You play as King Douchebag AKA New Kid, fighting to protect the Stick of Truth when suddenly, Cartman changes the game as something only the Coon and Friends could solve has appeared; cats have started disappearing from South Park, and Scrambles has a $100 reward. To start their Superhero franchise, the boys set off to find Scrambles for the reward (and gathering followers on Coonstergram), as trouble begins to loom over the horizon.
The story, admittedly, isn't as strong as the Stick of Truth. Fractured But Whole spends so much time focusing on Scrambles, only to abandon the plotline as soon as the second begins. Don't get me wrong, the beginning and middle are still incredible, but its ending leaves more to be desired than what we got. A special mention to the writing as it is phenomenal in the game. The jokes and puns are what you'd expect from a South Park episode and does well to once more immerse you in its world. I was particularly captivated with the Tweek/Craig storyline, and any parts discovering more of the New Kid (Although I was sad being unable to choose "Australian" after all the crying Koalas I got last time - I would have even forgiven terrible Australian accents after choosing that).
While having plenty of side missions, a large portion and the most time consuming are primarily fetch quests: collecting Yaoi fanart of Tweek and Craig, distributing mugshots, finding cats, etc. Speaking of, the main missions now include boss fights against key people/characters, and unlocking your Buddy, who aids to unlock different areas (Human Kite flys with your farts, Captain Diabetes destroys obstacles, etc).
Gameplay wise is fantastic; instead of being turnbased, each confrontation is contained in small bockbased combat (very much like standard JRPGs), characters needing to overcome barriers, and areas to damage enemies. Missions can also do the opposite where hurting only the boss is key, or keeping enemies contained to specific zones, or even simply fleeing from the battle. This does well to help break up the combat sections, especially once the City Ninja start tracking you down.
Sound effects are more or less the same, minus the new Superhero abilities, which is where they shine. Musical score also experiences the same sort of issue, but does well to help incorporate in the areas that need it for nostalgia.
Customisation is by far the biggest improvement over the previous game. Players can choose their gender (although not until unlocking your Superhero powers), religion, race, even your own weakness. And the mass amount of clothing options is easily more than the previous game. Players can choose their abilities from a set of classes (Unlocking more as you progress), and their clothing as they progress. Power bonuses all depend on what you find/create, from 9 Balls to god damn Fidget Spinners, each improves you/your team and your stats. Crafting new artifacts/health boosts, mixing your abilities from different classes, taking selfies with everyone you can find in the game, there's so much to do to make your character how you want them to be.
Voice acting is brilliant, and really helps to show what affect having the creators of your game's basis can have overall. NPCs do often have Same Voice Syndrome, but this can be mostly ignored if you don't fart on every NPC like I do.
Graphics have been inproved, especially colouring and lighting in cutscenes, while retaining that familiar SP look and retaining the previous game's style. I didn't experience any game breaking bugs, but glitches did occur here and there, mostly resulting in a duplicating glitch of characters (Ms Cartman being the worst offender) or essentially freezing combat due to two conflicting parties joining in (Cops assaulting the New Kid after starting a fight with Crab People, for example).
Personally speaking, I do still think Stick of Truth is a better game, if only in story alone, but Fractured But Whole simply has so much more meat on its bones than its predecessor. Toilet mini-games, visiting the Canadian Wall, turning back time with your farts, everything clicks so well in this game that despite the flaws, it improves on so many areas from Stick of Truth. It may kill Trey and Matt, but I firmly believe one more, one final game, may finally perfect this series of games involving the New Kid with the powerful farts. Developers, take notes.
Fractured But Whole - 7/10
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