The Fractured But Whole
So a quick summary of A Stick of Truth. Even now rewatching that intro scene voiced none other than Cartman brings the biggest smile to my face. Of course Cartman is the grand wizard, leading the mere mortals against the dark pointy dagger ears. Also of course.... Kyle is the leader of the wood elves, Kenny is a princess, Stan is some generic warrior, and Butters is the innocent noble Paladin.
I absolutely just LOVE how they handled your character as "the kid" or Sir Douchebag as he's known to the common folk. Your parents talk about you like some unaware idiot (which you are) and you moved to South Park to run away from something. Their conversations, like much of the writing done by Matt and Trey is hilarious. Of course I had to choose the jew character class... and together with the Kooper Keep Kastle we'd get anal probed with Randy, crash land a UFO new taco bell that infects the town and creates mutant Nazi zombie everything (including cats). I LOVE (I'm going to use that word a lot, geeking out here) that the Nazi Zombie voices are Hitler dubbed from historical videos. Just perf. Mwha.
So you continue to travel the lands and save the people, recruit the Emo Kids, The Federation and god forbid... The Girls.... *shudders* All to stop the forces of darkness from putting a snook in a woman to nuke all of South Park. So of course you have to journey to the local abortion clinic, the spec ops team have entered to neutralise the snook but have been picked up by something sinister.... of course it's Nazi aborted fetuses and you have to fight them.... wow. The Big Bad Government Guy shows up to tell everyone you're the child of prophecy, Dovahikn, Dragonborn, before you were even 5 you had 3.2 billion followers - unlimited power in today's world. Well, he's meant to abduct you with the swat team but he steals the Stick of Truth and goes crazy with powerm stripping down completely naked. Kenny betrays you, takes a vial and becomes Nazi Kenny and to stop him you must do what you were told by everyone including your Fart Sensei (Randy) to never do. Fart on Nazi Kenny's balls. This purifies everyone of their Nazi Zombiesm. Congratulations, you just saved South park.
In comparison my overall enthusiasm for Fractured But Whole is much less. The fact that this is started as a DLC feels evident in it's lack of synergy. Part of me has wondered if I only feel this way because The Stick of Truth landed first or perhaps super heroes have become a more tired idea. But ultimately I think no, The Lord of the Rings and DnD just makes for a more epic set piece across South Park - and the first game just had you acting out more depraved humour that South Park is known for. But the alter ego of each character are mostly on point, Catman, Twitch goes fast, Timmy is Xavier, etc. Fight strippers, collect Yaoi, fight Santa Claus and the evil Woodland Critters, Morgan Freeman, Kyle's Mom, defend Mongolian Beef against the Mongols, fight angry high Towely, red necks (in multiple drive-bys) in Medicinal Fried Chicken and drunk Randy - who as usual is absolutely hilarious and keeps keying his own car every night as you walk past.
The gameplay has had huge improvements. And oh wow off the bat... the difficulty slider is based on the colour of your skin (darker the harder). The grid based combat was a welcome edition, giving another dimension to power and making the combat more fun then Stick of Truth. In addition to this unlike Stick of Truth your initial class isn't permanent, and you can switch up abilities and make your own hero as you progress through the game. I did a lot of experimenting. But still, expect more laughs then depth when it comes to combat. You will do a lot of puzzles with your super powers (these are cool) and collect every single item imaginable - though tedious at times, both have their own injection of South Park humour. I mean that probably sums it up as a South Park game. Fart jokes (albeit creative fart jokes) and poking the more sensitive areas of society. Your super hero origin story... well... as a child you saw your Dad fuck your Mom. dun dun dun. Pretty hilarious on the offset but they already did this better in Stick of Truth. If I recall the gnomes shrunk you and took you through your parents room as they were literally doing it in the background. Instead you get a glimpse of a flashback. I think this encapsulates why the sequel doesn't quite hold up to its predecessor. It feels like they're pulling their punches. It didn't have those absolutely obscene moments like the abortion clinic, traveling through Mr. Slave or visiting 8-Bit Canda with was a Mario style overworld and medieval like fantasy world. The less said about the ending the better. As a friend of mine aptly put it - if Stick of Truth was a staple episode of a South Park season (like Make Love not Warcraft) this was less memorable, but overall solid episode with plenty of chuckles.
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| Of course the racist cops have been sacrificing the black residents to Shub-Niggurath... |
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| Other standout moments include, diabetes sugar rages, defeating priests (as a child), Mr. Mackey's Gender Questionnaire and well Jared... |
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