You may have seen reports that last night’s episode of South Park was actually a prequel for the coming South Park: The Fractured But Whole game. If you’re like me and don’t have cable, satellite, or any fancy TV services–or maybe you just missed the episode–you’ll be happy to hear that Comedy Central has a really quick turnaround on getting the episodes onto their site. The episode, titled “Franchise Prequel,” is now available to stream for free without any kind of subscription. You just have to suffer through a few ad breaks.
It’s a pretty funny episode that sets up the big showdown between the Coon and Friends superhero team and their rivals, the Freedom Pals. The concluding scene of the episode is more or less the same as the trailer released at E3 in 2016, with a few minor differences. It’s pretty great to see that Matt Stone and Trey Parker are confident enough in the game to tie the show directly into it.
Need to know even more about The Fractured But Whole? Our E3 preview will help:
South Park: The Fractured But Whole may be the highly anticipated follow-up to 2014’s The Stick of Truth, but it’s also a game with an uncertain cloud over its head. Unlike its predecessor, which was developed by Obsidian, development on the sequel has been handled by Ubisoft internally. This has led to some setbacks, as the tactical role-playing game has been delayed several times.
There’s no reason for fans to be worried, though, as the extra development time has allowed The Fractured But Whole to become a highly polished experience. This came across immediately when I got my hands on the title, as the first thing I noticed was how improved the user interface was. There’s never any confusion as to what the player is doing, as objectives and progress are cleanly communicated through notification-style pop-ups.
Beyond this new layer of polish, the gameplay is still split between adventuring through areas seen in the television show in order to progress the story, and getting into battles. Retaining this core gameplay loop is a good thing, as it worked phenomenally well in the original, and it allows for Ubisoft San Francisco to build upon it.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole will release October 17 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
