South Park: The Fractured But Whole Scales Difficulty to How Black Your Character Is

South Park: The Fractured But Whole is shaping up to be another hilarious, but divisive, game from [...]

By Matthew Hayes

South Park: The Fractured But Whole is shaping up to be another hilarious, but divisive, game from Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Ubisoft. South Park as a show has pretty much built its reputation on the fact that it's not afraid to make fun of anything, and its social commentary is merciless. The same goes for The Fractured But Whole, which wastes no time in making a not-so-passive statement about racism in modernity. When this launches on October 17, players are going to get offended before they even get out of the character creator:

If you scan ahead to about the 5:50 mark in Eurogamer's video above, you'll see the glorious moment Aoife Wilson and Christ Bratt realize exactly what's going on. Eurogamer points out in an article that, during the difficult selection process Cartman points out that this "doesn't affect combat. Just every other aspect of your whole life."

If you can believe it, it actually gets worse. Bratt and Wilson asked the developers at Ubisoft about this charming little feature, and the devs confirmed that the difficulty will affect how much money you receive and the way that other characters speak to you. Oh, this is going make so many people so very uncomfortable.

But there's more, dear reader.

Gender Identity Selection

mackey

Selecting your gender in any other RPG is a pretty quick process; very binary. The Fractured But Whole makes things a little more interesting. In The Stick of Truth, you had no choice but to play as a boy. In this bolder sequel, you'll be able to choose between male, female, and 'other' while talking to South Park's school counselor Mr. Mackey ("mkay").

In the gameplay footage above, you'll see that Bratt and Wilson elected to play as a girl. Before going on, Mr. Mackey has to call your parents to affirm your decision. From the article:

"It turns out, if you pick a non-male character, Ubisoft will use the conversation with Mr Mackey as a smart retconning of The Stick of Truth. 'So the whole King and Stick of Truth thing, she was actually a girl the entire time?' Mr Mackey then asks you to clarify exactly what you mean by a girl. You're then asked to select whether you identify as cisgender or transgender.

"Aoife and Chris picked transgender, and Mr Mackey once again calls your parents. 'It still tracks with The Stick of Truth, yes it does. She was definitely a girl the whole time. Yes of course. I get it.'"

Is this hilarious, or is this offensive? No matter what you think, one thing is clear: Stone, Parker, and the devs don't care.

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