South Park: The Stick of Truth gave us the imaginary world of swords, kings and queens as a parody of films such as The Lord of The Rings, and television shows such as Game of Thrones. It's sequel The Fractured But Whole gives us a whole new parody of Marvel and Superhero films and TV shows such as the Flash, the Avengers and others. You once again play as the new kid to South Park, only this time Cartman wants to play Coon and Friends battling villains and crime. So out go the swords, spears and such for abilities, powers and skills more akin to superheroes including laser eyes like Cyclops, claw attacks alike to Wolverine, and psychic attacks that Professor X would use in battle.
Exploration once again is rewarded around the town, but now to reach certain chests and areas you must utilize the abilities of your buddies ranging from super strength removing obstacles by a kid with Diabetes who uses his condition as his source of power, to Kyle helping you leap and jump via farting to reach roofs and such. Enemies range from sixth graders who throw condoms filled with urine and spitballs at you to a drunk Randy Marsh who swears and curses in hilarious fashion to get his car keys back from you to Towelie running his own Cannabis dispensary who you must fight.
Comedy and humor abound in this sequel, for hardcore fans of the show you're getting comedy and jokes from later seasons of the television show, with references and moments. I found myself laughing my head off at most of it's jokes and comedy moments, as I had done with The Stick of Truth. Be prepared however just as with The Stick of Truth, much of South Park's humor is dark and satirical and unless you like dark comedy or are a fan of the TV show it's humor will offend.
There are tons of things to do in The Fractured But Whole with a wide range of quests and exploration, there is a lot of content here that draws you away from the main missions. Graphically the game is as beautiful as The Stick of Truth, animations are fun and reminiscent of the TV show.
The greatest departure from The Stick of Truth is TFBW's new combat system with grids, and much more in-depth mechanics which were absent from TSoT to give players an easier introduction to the game. Battles require much more thinking ahead with your moves, and abilities now and some battles and bosses require a lot of thinking to beat. But this new difficulty is made easier as the game's mechanics are explained via humor and comedy, and battles are still as enjoyable as they were in the TSoT.
The Good:
- Excellent game-play, with grid based battles and more in-depth RPG mechanics to explore and understand.
- A funny, enjoyable plot parody of Marvel films and television shows with many references that even Marvel and superhero fans will understand.
- Exploration is more in-depth now, but also more rewarding.
The Bad:
- Other than a few graphical issues that were few and far between, the game performs perfectly.
All in all again for hardcore fans The Fractured But Whole is a required game for South Park fans, for the comedy and jokes alone but also for the fun, new, engaging game-play mechanics that have been added since TSoT. In fact some of the best jokes and comedy moments have been in TFBW, greatly improving on it's predecessor. Worth buying at full-price brand new for the included digital copy download code for remastered The Stick of Truth.