South Park: The Fractured but Whole

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.

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.

The children's search uncovers a conspiracy led by a new and unknown kingpin who has united the police, multiple crime families, and the sixth graders to steal cats and use their urine to contaminate drugs and alcohol, making the townspeople act crazily and raising crime, which will be blamed on the mayor. Coon and Friends defeat the kingpin's henchman Professor Chaos. Cartman surmises that the kingpin is Mitch Conner, a crude hand puppet drawn on Cartman's left hand. The New Kid and Chaos are sent to infiltrate the Freedom Pals to gain more information, culminating in the two groups co-operating to take down the police department, who are helping Mitch become the new mayor so they can have fewer restrictions on fighting crime. Afterwards, the children join Freedom Pals after learning they have developed a franchise plan that is more inclusive than Cartman's.

The next day, Mitch kidnaps the New Kid's parents and destroys the Freedom Pals' franchise plan. The Freedom Pals capture Cartman, who insists he has no control over Mitch and reveals that the New Kid's parents are being held at Dr. Mephesto's genetic engineering lab. There, the Freedom Pals learn Mitch has been funding the creation of an army of mutated cats and sixth graders, which Mitch unleashes on the children. Battling through the mutants, the New Kid finds their parents and is forced to kill one of them to continue. At the exit, the Freedom Pals are ambushed by a mutated clone of Kyle's cousin. The New Kid uses a powerful fart to defeat the clone, which accidentally transports the Freedom Pals one week into the future, where Mitch is the mayor.

With aid from Morgan Freeman, the New Kid learns to time travel with their farts. They travel to the future where Mitch has completed his master plan to make every day Christmas Day, causing drunken anarchy throughout the town, and have to fight the Woodland Critters with the help of Santa Claus. They then travel to the past and confront Cartman before he can start the superhero game. Mitch reveals himself and punches the New Kid, causing a fart that sends them back to the New Kid's superhero origin. Cartman and the New Kid's interference prevents the New Kid's father from having sex with their mother, changing the past. The New Kid's parents reveal their secret; they have the superhuman ability to amass social media followers. The government kidnapped the parents to harness their powers, during which time they fell in love and had the New Kid. They escaped to protect their child and gave them medicine to suppress their powers, causing extreme flatulence.

Development

In March 2014, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker stated they were open to making a sequel to South Park: The Stick of Truth, depending on its reception. When Ubisoft offered to develop a new game, Parker and Stone discussed the proposed game sequel or the possibility of making a film. They wanted to ensure quality control and decided that because of commitments to the television series and their families, they could only work on one big project and chose to work on the game.

During development of the previous game by Obsidian Entertainment for publisher THQ, Ubisoft bought the rights to the game after THQ went into bankruptcy. Ubisoft chose to develop the sequel internally, replacing Obsidian Entertainment with the nearly 100-member team at Ubisoft San Francisco (USF). The team, which was responsible for the Rocksmith series of music video games, recruited experts in role-playing games and their related systems. Additional support work was done by Ubisoft Osaka, Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft Annecy, Ubisoft Reflections, Blue Byte, and Ubisoft Quebec.

Parker and Stone were involved throughout the development cycle. At the beginning of development, they met with the team at Ubisoft to determine the game's storyline and elements of The Stick of Truth they were unhappy about. Ubisoft game developers, including senior producer Jason Schroeder, visited South Park studios twice monthly for a few days or conducted teleconferencing meetings. Schroeder was responsible for declining Stone and Parker's requests when necessary. Although meetings still took place, Parker and Stone became less available to the Ubisoft team during production of South Park, which had a tight production schedule.

Ubisoft adapted Snowdrop, its proprietary game engine, to allow the importing of the Autodesk Maya art assets used in the show rather than emulating them as in The Stick of Truth. This allowed the Ubisoft team to iterate and implement changes to the game and storyline late into the development schedule, meaning it could satirize recent events that occurred only months before release and incorporate elements from South Park episodes produced during the game's development, including the character PC Principal, and the gentrification areas of the town. Of last-minute changes, Schroeder said, "If it doesn't mess with our age rating? It shouldn't be a problem". Senior animator Lucas Walker said the changes to the engine took approximately a year to implement, but they were necessary to allow more seamless collaborations with South Park Digital Studios, including the use of the original animation rigs to emulate movement.

Writing

Parker and Stone wrote the script in Movie Magic Screenwriter, complete with stage directions that were edited or translated into gameplay by narrative designer Jolie Menzel and her team. The game script is 360 pages long, which is twice the size of that of the previous game, and equivalent to four or five feature films, according to the show's executive producer Frank C. Agnone II. Between them, Stone and Parker recorded approximately 20,000 lines of dialogue. During production, Parker became ill and had to undergo emergency gallbladder surgery. Parker persuaded his doctor to allow him to temporarily leave the hospital to record dialogue. On his return to the hospital, Parker told Agnone, "I just want this game to be sweet".

Parker and Stone considered it important to prevent the superhero setting from overwhelming the main focus of the story, which is fourth-grade children playing together and dressing up as heroes to enhance that experience. Stone said it is important to retain the game's charm and remind the player the characters are children playing. Parker's and Stone's original concept for the title was The Butthole of Time, but Ubisoft told them retailers would not stock a product bearing the word "butthole". Parker said he sat at his desk for hours working out a way to sneak the word into the title. Parker said, "how do I get butthole, butthole, butt hole, butt hole, but hole, but whole!"

Design

The levels were designed to allow combat; when battles take place the player is not taken to an abstract map as in The Stick of Truth. Schroeder said, "when we have to cut away from a certain background for the fighting it kind of broke the feeling of I'm fighting where I'm exploring so we thought about what can we do to make the place I'm exploring also the combat space?" The team considered removing movement from a previously explorable area did not work, so they added movement to combat, which in turn led to the more tactical combat in The Fractured but Whole. Schroeder described the concept as a mixture of Parker's affection for board games and Stone's preference for shooter, action, and sports games. The design team retained the turn-based combat system of The Stick of Truth because it better enabled the implementation of timing for jokes. Parker invited Schroeder and lead designer Ken Strickland to play the board game Star Wars: Imperial Assault, which helped them develop a unified jargon language and a common understanding of the game's campaign. Later in development, Parker and Stone played early builds of the game, helping them visualize their planned changes. They wrote out ideas for changes and feedback on a whiteboard, which the Ubisoft team used to understand what was required of them. Parker and Stone watched Let's Play videos by PewDiePie of The Stick of Truth to observe a consumer playing it and giving feedback about the game and considering what worked and what did not work.

Schroder said the USF team had to adapt to prioritizing comedy and comedic timing over gameplay, meaning it was more important to convey humor than to improve systems. They sometimes needed to step back from the less comfortable aspects of Parker's and Stone's design, at one point contemplating an autoplay option that would complete segments for the player, such as a sequence in which the 9–10-year-old protagonists give a lap dance in a strip club in a minigame. The team decided allowing players to opt out of the interactivity removed the core of the joke, forcing the player to participate in "this ridiculous thing". Menzel said good interactive comedy was dependent on a more intimate relationship between the joke teller and receiver, and making the player participate or even be responsible for the joke; for instance giving them control over interrogating someone by farting, heightened the South Park humor by making the player responsible for the things they see in the show.

The finished game features ten classes of superhero, but early in development it featured up to twelve, including the Mystic. USF chose the Brutalist, Speedster, and Blaster as starting classes because they were simple to understand. The developers decided to separate the player's statistics from their clothing choices. Schroeder said players can create their own superhero brand by dressing the player-character as they want, citing the popularity of The Stick of Truth for online streaming. They developed the Artifact system, which could be used to enhance statistics, as an alternative A rejected option for The Stick of Truth was the choice to play as a girl, which could not be included without altering the entire narrative. They chose to include it in The Fractured but Whole; Stone said he always plays as a girl where the option exists.

Music

South Park composer Jamie Dunlap and USF lead audio designer Nicholas Bonardi were responsible for the game's sound. While The Stick of Truth largely used music and sounds pulled directly from the show, the USF team aimed to create an original sound. Early in development, Bonardi created a temporary score by piecing together music from the show for the game, but found Dunlap's experience on the rapidly-produced show meant he could deliver music quickly enough that it was sometimes easier to ask him directly for original music. Bonardi and his team also created original music for The Fractured but Whole, but Dunlap's input ensured it retained the South Park sound. The game's sound design was inspired by several superhero film scores; The Coon's and Mysterion's themes are based on Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. The score for Coon and Friends is based on that of The Avengers (2012), while that of their rivals Freedom Pals is inspired by the X-Men series of films. Other inspirations included Superman (1978) and Batman Returns (1992), and the Castlevania video game series, which inspires the Vamp Kids theme.

The Ubisoft team had access to cheap sound effects albums used for foley sounds on South Park, but needed to make additional sounds for the game. USF had an area set aside for making fart sounds, stocked with plungers, a vuvuzela, and noise putty. Bonardi estimated they created more than 100 unique fart sounds for the game to reduce the repetitiveness of the sounds, which are used frequently in the game. They also mixed in other sounds, for instance the farts heard when the player and Kyle work together is mixed with the sound of a jet engine.

Release

The Fractured but Whole was released worldwide on October 17, 2017, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. In contrast to the previous game, The Fractured but Whole was released worldwide without having to censor any content. In a September 2017 interview, USF associate producer Kimberly Weigend said the game's content was not tamer than that of The Stick of Truth, and the uncensored release was possibly a sign of censors becoming more open to ideas and that interactive media was a relatively new medium and the ratings system was evolving alongside it. Design director Paul Cross said to prevent the difficulties The Stick of Truth experienced, USF tried to avoid content they knew would be censored, but that Parker and Stone would tell the story they wanted regardless of censorship concerns.

In addition to the standard game, special versions were released at launch. The Gold Edition included a set of in-game costumes, a bonus perk, and a Season Pass granting access to post-launch downloadable content (DLC). The Steelbook Gold Edition, which was presented in a metallic case, featured the standard game, all of the Gold Edition content, and a series of lithographic prints displaying art by South Park Studios. The Collector's Standard Edition contained the game, the lithographic prints, and a 6-inch model of Cartman as "The Coon" by UbiCollectibles and ArtToyz. The Collector's Gold Edition contained all of the extra items. People who pre-ordered the game received a downloadable version of The Stick of Truth and the character Towelie as an in-game assistant. The PlayStation Store offered exclusive avatars of Kenny, Butters, Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Coon and Friends; and Amazon released an exclusive bundle of the game that came with the Steelbook case and a remote-controlled model of Coon on a tricycle. The voiced figure can be controlled by an App available for Android and iOS users.

As a promotional item, the team designed and created the Nosulus Rift, a parody of the Oculus Rift, which appeared at the PAX West event in September 2016. Developed internally at Ubisoft as a joke about a fake prop the team would promote as real, the team decided to develop the item. Nosulus Rift, which was not released for sale publicly, would release a fart smell to create an olfactory-immersive experience. Ubisoft ran the worldwide "I am the fart" competition in October 2017; the jury, which included British flatulist Mr. Methane, judged videos of entrants farting and selected an overall winner, who would be flown to Ubisoft San Francisco to record their fart sound for inclusion into The Fractured but Whole. A twelve-character series of collectible figures based on The Fractured but Whole's cast was also released. A Nintendo Switch version, adapted by Ubisoft Pune, was released on April 24, 2018.

Downloadable content

Several downloadable content (DLC) items were released alongside the game. These items were provided for a fee and include the "Relics of Zaron" pack that contains various costume items and perks, and "Towelie: Your Gaming Bud", which causes the character Towelie to appear and give comical advice to the player during the game. The first post-release DLC, "Danger Deck", was released on December 19, 2017. It involves a combat challenge in Doctor Timothy's Danger Deck, the Freedom Pals' iPad-walled training room, where the player can engage in increasingly-difficult virtual combat scenarios in new locations. Success is rewarded with items and costumes usable in the main game.

Two story-based DLC packs were developed for The Fractured but Whole. The first, "From Dusk till Casa Bonita", was released on March 20, 2018. It requires the player to team up with the Coon and Mysterion to rescue Mysterion's sister, Karen, from the Vamp Kids, who are celebrating Mike Makowski's birthday, at the Casa Bonita restaurant. The DLC introduces the Netherborn class with four new abilities, and the goth Henrietta, as a witch ally. The second DLC, "Bring the Crunch", was released on July 31, 2018. In it, the player teams up with Mint-Berry Crunch, an alien wielding the tremendous power of mint and berries, to uncover the mysterious disappearances of camp counsellors at Lake Tardicaca. The DLC introduces the Final Girl class, which features new combat tactics and traps. All of the downloadable content was made available with the optional "Season Pass". Although Parker and Stone were opposed to DLC in The Stick of Truth, believing it would consist of content that had been cut from the main game for lack of quality, during development of The Fractured but Whole they had ideas for side stories they deemed too distant from the main story but they wanted to expand on this material as DLC.

Reception

Critical response

South Park: The Fractured but Whole received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Metacritic provides the consensus "generally favorable reviews" for the PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One versions.

Like its predecessor, the game was considered a successful adaptation, with GamesRadar+ calling it "the truest, best adaptation" of South Park ever made, with well balanced comedy and humor, and IGN saying it looks and sounds like an episode of the show. Giant Bomb, GamesRadar+, and Shacknews said it was an improvement in nearly every way over The Stick of Truth, being deeper and more polished than its predecessor. GamesRadar+ added that after twenty years, a South Park game that is as "fun to play as it is to laugh along with" has been created. PC Gamer called it "streamlined, imaginative, and enormously entertaining"; and Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) said it would be difficult to find a more complete South Park experience that is as funny. Game Informer called it a welcome sequel, featuring both "smart and immature jokes", and moments of sincerity that recall the "charm of childhood". Slant Magazine said mechanically, it was "one of the best, most accessible RPGs" in a long time.

Reviewers alternately said that the humor was more original and less reliant on callbacks, and sometimes too reliant on references to the TV series. Several reviewers criticized some of the humor, which they saw as deliberately edgy, banal, or over-focused on fart and poop jokes. Slant Magazine singled out the strip club battles as "appallingly sexist and racist". Others said that it is consistently amusing and provocative throughout, but without the series' typical edge, and containing nothing as shocking as The Stick of Truth's Nazi Zombie Fetuses. It was noted that the game still delivered shocking moments such as corrupt police, self-flaggelating priests, and the children in the strip club.

Critics were consistent in their praise of the combat and its improvements over the system featured in The Stick of Truth. PC Gamer's Andy Kelly described it as one of the "most enjoyable" RPG combat systems he had experienced. Reviewers said that it offered a positive change from its predecessor, prioritizing strategic thinking over reflexes, and a variety of teams possible from the wide cast of available characters. PC Gamer said combat was "deeper, richer, and more strategic", and among others, called it fun. Game Informer and GamesRadar+ appreciated that the ability to move about the battle grid allowed for greater agency and thoughtfulness.

Sales

In October 2017 in North America, South Park: The Fractured but Whole was the fourth-best-selling game across all available platforms, the third-best-selling game on PlayStation 4, and the fourth-best-selling game on Xbox One. The Fractured but Whole's global digital sales made it the eighth-best-selling game for consoles in October 2017. Alongside other single-player games, Assassin's Creed Origins and Middle-earth: Shadow of War, South Park: The Fractured but Whole contributed over $160 million in digital sales for the month. Intelligence firm SuperData said single-player games would not stay high in the charts for long as they were not as easy to monetize through microtransactions as multiplayer video games. It was also among the top 100 highest-grossing games of 2017 on the Steam digital distribution platform.

During the first week of sales in the United Kingdom, The Fractured but Whole became the third-best-selling game on all available formats in terms of boxed sales, behind FIFA 18 at number two and the debuting Gran Turismo Sport at number one, and ahead of the debuting WWE 2K18. The game's first-week sales were 7% below those of The Stick of Truth. Its sales were considered strong, based on the competing titles released at the time. It was the overall sixth-best-selling game of October 2017 in the UK. By its second week it had fallen to eighth place overall, and by its third week it had left the top ten games overall, listing at twelfth place on that chart.

Accolades

In 2016, MCV and IGN named South Park: The Fractured but Whole the best role-playing game of that year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. The game was nominated for "Best RPG" at the Gamescom 2017 Awards, and for Best Role Playing Game at the 2017 The Game Awards, losing to Persona 5. It was also nominated for "Best Narrative Design", "Best Adventure/Role-Playing Game", and "Best Interpretation" at the Titanium Awards, losing two of them to Horizon Zero Dawn and one to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; and in IGN's staff-nominated, user-voted "Best of 2017" series, for Best Xbox One Game, and Best RPG. The game won the "Best Collectibles" award in Game Informer's 2017 RPG of the Year Awards; in their Reader's Choice Best of 2017 Awards, it came in second place for "Best Role-Playing Game". EGM ranked the game 12th on their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017. It was nominated for "Excellence in Convergence" at the 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards.