South Park: The Fractured but Whole is a 2017 role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft San Francisco and published by Ubisoft in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios. Based on the American animated sitcom South Park, it is the sequel to the 2014 video game South Park: The Stick of Truth. The game's narrative occurs one day after the events of its predecessor; it follows the New Kid, who has recently moved to South Park and becomes involved in an epic roleplay involving two rival superhero factions vying to create their own superhero media franchises. The superheroes' game unintentionally uncovers a conspiracy to raise crime in the town, bringing them into conflict with supervillains, genetically engineered monsters, the police, crime families, and the new kingpin of crime.
The game is played from a 2.5D third-person perspective, replicating the aesthetic of the television series. The New Kid is able to freely explore South Park, interacting with characters, undertaking quests, and accessing new areas by progressing through the main story. The player can choose from up to ten superhero archetypes ranging from high-speed Speedsters, close-combat Brutalists, powerful Psychics, and healing Plantmancers; each offering unique abilities. The New Kid and up to three allies fight their enemies using attacks including melee, ranged, and powerful farts. Battles take place on a grid, around which participants can move freely. Attacks have specific areas of effect, requiring tactical positioning for attack and defense.
Following Ubisoft's purchase of the rights to The Stick of Truth in 2013, the company moved development of the sequel from Obsidian Entertainment to Ubisoft San Francisco. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were unsure whether to make a sequel to the 2014 game or work on a new film project, opting for the game. Parker and Stone were involved throughout the game's production; they wrote its script, consulted on the design, and voiced many of the characters. The show's composer Jamie Dunlap worked on the game's soundtrack alongside Ubisoft San Francisco, creating music that was heavily inspired by the scores of several superhero films.
Like its predecessor, the release of The Fractured but Whole was subject to several delays. The game was initially set for release in December 2016 but it was postponed for nearly a year. It was released worldwide for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on October 17, 2017. The game received generally positive reviews, which praised the improvements and creativity of combat scenarios and faithfulness to the source material. Reviewers were divided over the story; some critics called it a humorous improvement, while others said it was less effective and relied too much on toilet humor. The game received post-release supplemental story missions as downloadable content (DLC) and a Nintendo Switch version in 2018.
Gameplay South Park: The Fractured but Whole is a role-playing video game that is viewed from a 2.5D, third-person perspective. The player controls the New Kid as they explore the fictional Colorado town of South Park, around which the player-character can be freely moved. A fast-travel system allows the character to be moved between unlocked travel points.
The game allows the player to select one of ten archetypal superhero player-characters; the nimble Speedster, the short-range, high-damage Brutalist, the long-range, moderate-damage Blaster, the weather-based Elementalist, the offense-attracting Cyborg, the long-range, status effecting Psychic, the stealthy Assassin, the gadget-using Gadgeteer, the healing Plantmancer, and the high-damage, swift Martial Artist. At first only three choices are available (Blaster, Speedster, and Brutalist); the New Kid can eventually access all ten classes, freely matching powers from the available classes, for example, the player can use the Blaster's fire blasts, the Assassin's knives, and the Martial Artist's kicks. The player can assign four powers from the classes, three regular attacks, and one ultimate attack. Ultimate attacks can only be used after filling the Ultimate bar, a pool of points shared between the New Kid and their allies that is increased by completing timed button presses during the attacking and defending phases. Throughout the game, the player can select up to three allies from twelve characters to accompany them in battle, each possessing three powers and an ultimate attack.
The Fractured but Whole retains the turn-based combat of the previous game in the series, South Park: The Stick of Truth (2014). Instead of taking place on a static plane, battles are fought on a variable-size grid on which the player and enemies can move freely to create strategic advantages. The grid can contain environmental hazards such as exploding chemical barrels, and lava (red Lego bricks). The player selects attacks from a menu. Attacks can be augmented with contextual button presses for extra damage. Timed button presses during enemy attacks can recover some health after being hit and increase the Ultimate meter. Attacks offer effects including abilities with "knockback" damage, which can be used to forcibly move an opponent around the battlefield and inflict status effects such as poisoning, freezing, burning, and bleeding, which inflict damage over time.
Each attack affects a different area of the grid, requiring strategic positioning to hit enemies and avoid attacks. The attacker can increase damage by knocking targets into each other or into an ally. Healing items can be used in battle, requiring one turn per use. The player can collect artifacts and equipment to boost the player's Might, making them stronger in battle and offering benefits such as increased defense; more artifacts can be used as the player's level increases. The player-character has a DNA slot, allowing them to use strands of DNA to boost attributes called Brawn, Brains, Health, Spunk, and Move. The non-player character, PC Principal, can teach the player to recognize microaggressions in enemy dialogue, which allows the player a free in-battle attack against an enemy. Some characters, such as Jimbo and Ned, Classi, Gerald Broflovski, and Moses, can be summoned during battle; Moses heals all allies while the others deliver powerful attacks.
The New Kid can manipulate time with their farts; this ability can be used in battle to skip an opponent's turn, pause time to move around the grid and inflict out-of-turn damage, or summon a past version of the New Kid to join the battle. The New Kid's farting power can also be used to reverse time, fix objects, and pause time to avoid obstacles or fast-moving targets. Some areas of the town are inaccessible until the player gains specific allies who can use the New Kid's farting power to overcome the obstacle: Captain Diabetes can be sent into a rage that allows him to move heavy objects; the Human Kite can fly the New Kid to otherwise unreachable heights; Toolshed's sandblaster can clear paths that are blocked by lava that cause the player to combust; and Professor Chaos can launch a hamster from the New Kid's rectum to reach and sabotage electrical panels.
The player can modify the New Kid's appearance, superpowers, gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity at any time in the game. Gender choices include male, female, and non-binary. Costume items can be collected, mixed together and recolored but have no influence on the New Kid's abilities. The New Kid's race selector is represented as a difficulty level slider, with lighter skin being easy and darker skin being harder. The slider does not affect combat but affects the amount of money the player can receive and the way some characters speak to the New Kid.
The game has three combat difficulty levels, which affect the power of enemies in relation to the player; "Casual" (weaker enemies), "Heroic" (normal enemies), and "Mastermind" (stronger enemies). A crafting system allows the player to use recovered or purchased resources such as duct tape, glue, sports drink bottles, and taco-related products to craft items such as healing burritos and quesadillas, costumes, and artifacts. The player is encouraged to explore the wider game world to defecate in toilets in a mini-game, find yaoi art depicting intimate moments between the characters Tweek and Craig, or take self-portraits with town residents to increase their followers on Coonstagram, an Instagram-like social media feed. The player must amass a certain number of social media followers to complete certain story missions. The character's cellphone serves as the game's main menu, containing items including the inventory, character profiles, and active quests.
Synopsis
Setting
South Park: The Fractured but Whole is set in South Park, a fictional town in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The game's events occur one day after those of its precursor, The Stick of Truth; the player again controls the New Kid, a silent protagonist. The children abandon their fantasy role-playing game to become superheroes and create a superhero media franchise. Unable to agree on who will get a film or Netflix series, the characters split into two rival factions, Coon and Friends and the Freedom Pals, and vie to create their own franchise first.
Led by the raccoon-clawed Coon (Eric Cartman), Coon and Friends operates from the Coon Lair, the Coon's basement. The group includes The Human Kite (Kyle Broflovski), the life-leeching Mosquito (Clyde Donovan), the super-fast Fastpass (Jimmy Valmer), the powerful Super Craig (Craig Tucker), and the New Kid. The Freedom Pals are led by the telekinetic Dr. Timothy (Timmy Burch), and includes Mysterion (Kenny McCormick), Toolshed (Stan Marsh), the weather-wielding Wonder Tweek (Tweek Tweak), and mechanized Tupperware (Token Black). Other heroes include the hacker Call Girl (Wendy Testaburger) and super-strong Captain Diabetes (Scott Malkinson). The heroes' journey brings them into conflict with groups including the local elderly population, ninjas, the sixth graders, the Hooters-parodying Raisins girls, hobos, Kyle's cousin Kyle Schwartz, and the supervillain Professor Chaos (Butters Stotch).
The Fractured but Whole features characters from the series' history, including: Stan's father Randy, Butters' father Stephen, Kyle's father Gerald, the school principal PC Principal, Moses, Seaman, school counselor Mr Mackey, Detective Yates, strippers Spontaneous Bootay and Classi, Big Gay Al, gun enthusiasts Ned and Jimbo, Father Maxi, Jesus, the Crab people, the Memberberries, Towelie, and a Kanye West-inspired Gay Fish. The game also features Morgan Freeman as a taco shop owner. Locations from the show featured include the City Wok restaurant, the Peppermint Hippo strip club, Kenny's House in the abandoned, gentrified district SoDoSoPa, the classier Shi Tpa Town containing Skeeter's Bar and Jimbo's Guns. The Memberberry Farm and the road to Canada are also featured in the game. Many of the characters are voiced by South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Plot Cartman and the other children decide to play superheroes with the goal of launching a superhero media franchise by finding a missing cat and claiming the $100 reward. The New Kid joins the game and Cartman provides them with a tragic backstory; having witnessed "your dad fuck your mom", with Cartman apparently not realizing that this is normal.