South Park: The Fractured But Whole - PlayStation 4

South Park: The Fractured Buy Whole and it’s included prequel, The Stick Of Truth are both fantastic RPGs. The games have the same no-holds-barred sense of humor that we’ve come to expect from the TV show, with little jokes throughout the game that will please any die-hard South Park fan. It is worth noting, however, that since this is a video game and not being aired on public television, it gets away with a lot more. Both games include countless examples of nudity, and it seems like every other sentence contains profanity. Now, this is South Park, and that is only to be expected, but this game definitely earned its M rating. Combat has changed a lot since The Stick of Truth. While in SoT, combat was turn-based and dealt with choosing abilities for a character a la Final Fantasy, The Fractured But Whole adds a grid-based movement system to the mix. The combat never feels overwhelming or too difficult, but it is always fun. The story of FBW parodizes today’s superhero movies. The main conflict of the story involves the silent protagonist choosing a superhero class, each of which gives the player unique abilities, and joining the main gang in the superhero franchise Coon and Friends. They end up battling rivaling franchise Freedom Pals for superhero supremacy, but end up uncovering an evil scheme to make every day Christmas Day. Lots of characters, both big and small, make appearances in this game. Of course, series mainstays Kyle, Stan, Kenny, and Cartman play a big role, but minor characters such as Classi the stripper, the PC Principal, Big Gay Al are also featured. The game even includes a surprisingly large cameo from Morgan Freeman (albeit voiced by Trey Parker).

Being 56 and just starting my gaming "career" a few years ago, this is my first turn-based game. At first I was clueless as to how combat worked. But, Cartman, Kenny, and Butters, have helped me to get through my first few hours of play. Hilariously, at that. The names and moves for weapons, "strap-ons", and power moves are chuckle inducing from the start. I was "warned" by other reviewers that this was not a game for kids. I found out about 10 minutes in that it definitely was NOT. FOR. YOUNGSTERS! I hide my disc from the grandkids because if their mother found out they heard even 5 minutes of Cartman's potty mouth, I'd be in the doghouse. All that being said, I'm loving the game, South Park's crude humor, and I'm really enjoying my first attempt at this turn-based combat. Even when I get my butt kicked. Only con is the lack of a manual with my purchased copy. That's the reason for 4 instead of 5 stars. But, hey, the internets are always there to help. I'd definitely recommend!

Pros: Insane - I am not one to startle easily but there are some insane moments in this game. I am only 10 hours in and I am sure there are many more to come. Not safe for kids. Crafting - There is a crafting system for consumable items, hero clothes, and artifacts that can be slotted on your character. Leveling - I don't remember Stick having much of a leveling system and that is definitely different here. Character's can have multiple classes and you can customize the 4 different powers for your player at any time. There is also a system to add artifacts to slots to bump your character and party's stats. Combat - The grid based combat allows for a bit more of creativity on the battlefield compared to Stick of Truth (SoT), which got repetitive very fast. You can move around and use the environment to your advantage. Cons: Setting - I preferred the fantasy story in SoT. Combat - There are still QTEs in combat which I am not a huge fan of but I guess it forces you to pay attention. Ally Powers - Allies have powers that can affect the world so you can get to items and such. It is kind of annoying in how they implemented this system.

I'm having a lot of fun with this game. I loved Stick of Truth and was hoping and got a similar quality game. For the most part they've delivered here, but things get pretty repetitive later on through the story. The game is really funny, especially if you are a South Park fan. The game builds on the story from the TV series. If you are willing to explore, things get funnier as you find hidden secrets throughout the game. Combat is pretty good. There are a few things you can do strategically to shake up the battles, but for the most part, this is a war of who has the most HP and the best luck. There are a couple of battles here that are annoyingly difficult until you figure out the "trick" that makes things easier. I'm almost finished and while I found it fun, there is a good amount of fluff to keep the story length high. Fetch quests, suddenly cheap hits that kill you. Nothing more than a lot of RPGs, but it's still annoying. I think Stick of Truth was the better game, but this is still a very good game.

South Park The Fractured But Whole is a title that clearly a lot of love was put into. The story, writing, acting, and gags are all on point. It definitely captures the spirit and feel of the show, and really makes the player feel like they are part of this world. The game boasts the same humor you'd expect from the show, as well as a lot of 4th wall breaking. It's very well done, and has a surprisingly deep RPG system. The combat system tries to be more involved than stick of truth and improve upon it, but it's here where it falls flat compared. While it is more complex, it's also a lot easier. Players are offered far more tactical ability being able to move characters around, and each of their moves having a specific damage arc. However not much strategy is actually needed as I have yet to lose a battle just winging it. A great experience either way,especially if you grab a pre-order edition that comes with the Stick of Truth.

The South Park franchise has always had a home close to my heart. It was the first PG-13 TV Show I found my self watching prior to turning 13 years old. The humor is to the extreme on crude, but it’s hillarious being an adult now. You get the free full version of the hit South Park: The Stick of Truth that came out on PS3/Xbox 360 last generation so its 2 incredible games for the price of one. You cannot best that. The work put in by the developers truly shows - positive and negatively. Bugs/control issues become commonplace in both games. There was weird times when loading transitions would freeze up, but would eventually load to the next “block” of the town (map). The vertical controls were not immediately caught onto, which may confuse novice gamers. However, you can tell the devs put a lot of work into capturing the feel and look of the South Park universe, and mashing that with RPG gameplay was a match made in heaven.

I'm a huge South Park fan, I watch the show religiously, loved the movie and The Stick of Truth, but there is barely anything funny in this game. In making this game longer than SoT, they stretched it out with jokes that fall flat and scenarios that just aren't very interesting, especially compared to its predecessor. Fights also suffer--battles were perhaps too quick and easy in SoT, but now they're too long and easy, which is much worse in my opinion. The increased strategy does make them slightly more interesting, though reducing button prompts to the same combinations for everything makes them feel mundane. Either give us a variety of combinations or just get rid of them. Overall I still enjoyed it and don't regret my purchase, but this was a significant jump down in quality and I hope that if Matt & Trey make another game they will deliver something much better.

I have dabbled in RPG, turn based games before and this one is fun. The game and story line I thought was great! It feels like you are playing the show. It's crude, hilarious, funny and smart! I think including Stick of Truth was nice because it relates to my one complaint. I'm by no means a hardcore gamer, I pick about 4-5 games per year to play, maybe play an hour or two a night. The games seemed short. Now I don't play to get every trophy, but I finished all the quest for each game, main and side and the experience of both games lasted me 2-2.5 weeks. Now with the Black Friday Deal and Best Buy points I paid $15 for the games, so $15 for 2 weeks of entertainment, AWESOME! Paying $60 for the game? If you're a fan, you already got it anyways, but if your on the fence I would wait for a price drop. Other than hours to be played, I loved the game.