South Park: The Fractured But Whole could be the world’s most offensive video game

A FORTHCOMING video game is so offensive, it’s very unlikely it’ll be allowed on Australian shop shelves in its current form.

THE TV series South Park is famous for not just pushing the envelope when it comes to satire and humour but launching it into low Earth orbit.

Set in South Park, Colorado, USA, the TV series and games follow the improbably strange adventures of a group of primary school children and are heavily focused on satirising current events and trends.

The latest computer game based on the franchise, South Park: The Fractured But Whole is being published by Ubisoft on October 17 and satirises the superhero movie genre.

Having had a hands-on experience with the game at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, I’m confident in saying it’s highly unlikely the game will be getting past the Australian Classification Board in unedited form — although it would be awesome if it did.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole is perhaps the most delightfully offensive and un-PC demo I’ve ever played — even the game’s name is intended to elicit Beavis & Butthead-type snickering.

The premise of the game is the town’s children are engaged in a live-action role-playing game (LARP) based around superheroes and supervillains, with the player assuming the role of “the new kid” at the town’s school who can bridge the gap between the divided “franchises” of the South Park’s superhero LARPers.

The demo level at E3 had the player and their offsider, Captain Diabetes (whose “superpowers” and attacks are all diabetes related), both of whom are primary school aged children, sneaking into a strip club to find a stripper implicated in the disappearance of someone’s cat.

Fans of the TV show already know where this scenario is likely going, but for those unfamiliar with South Park, be warned some of the situations described here may cause attacks of the vapours, so keep the smelling salts handy if you’re unused to the show’s humour.

What type of South Park game would it be without Cartman playing a leading role?

Having climbed into the gents toilets at the strip club, the player makes their way to the main floor where they ask some of the strippers (a number of whom are topless) for the whereabouts of a woman known as ‘Classi’, with a distinctive penis tattoo.

Rebuffed in their attempts, the player and Captain Diabetes make their way to the VIP room and give two extremely drunk punters a lap-dance while farting profusely on them, extracting the information they require. The lap-dance sequence is conducted in the form of a minigame, with the working of controls for moves and the emission of flatulence handled by the player.

Having acquired the information our heroes require, the punters become angered and fisticuffs ensue.

It’s here the revamped combat system really impressed me, taking the fairly standard Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG) format used in the previous title The Stick of Truth and enhancing it with movement options, cover, a better interface, and much greater tactical choice.

Having bested the two drunken punters, the player and Captain Diabetes return to the show floor, where they realise the DJ is responsible for calling out the ladies to the stage. Seeing an opportunity to summon Classi, they realise they must first remove DJ and head to the bar to make a particularly unpleasant concoction with which to put him out of commission.

After mixing gin, tonic, semen, bodily fluids and rat faeces, the player adds the metaphorical cherry on top by farting on the drink, which is provided to the DJ and sends him running for the toilets.

After taking the mic and calling out Classi, she mistakes the player for an undercover police officers and runs off through the dressing rooms.

It’s highly unlikely the game will be getting past the Australian Classification Board in unedited form.

The player and Captain Diabetes take off in hot pursuit, finding themselves accosted by numerous strippers who are determined to stop them from reaching Classi.

There is another combat sequence here that really shows off the versatility of the new system as the two characters move through and battle the inhabitants of the dressing room, with new strippers appearing to replace those which are defeated.

A particularly deadly and unstoppable boss character also makes an appearance, in the form of a multi-plus-size stripper with an insta-kill attack that involves using her not insignificant backside to crush her opponents.

After avoiding the boss stripper and defeating or passing by the other opponents, the player and Captain Diabetes catch up to Classi, who runs again and ends up heading through a doorway which is obstructed by debris.

Captain Diabetes decides the only way to move the obstruction is via a sugar hit and drinks an entire carton of juice — only to discover that not only did the juice not provide the energy required to move the debris, but he’s forgotten his insulin; he collapses into a diabetic coma and the demo ends.

The sound you’re imagining is either fans of the show laughing hysterically, or a very large number of typewriters banging out Down With This Sort Of Thing letters.

As a long-time South Park fan, I absolutely loved what I saw of the game at E3 — from the spot-on humour and satire to the uncensored language to the improved combat, it was everything I was hoping for in The Stick of Truth’s sequel.

Whether or not we get the uncensored version in Australia remains to be seen, but either way the game is going to generate some spirited discussion when it’s released on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 17.

Royce Wilson travelled to E3 as a guest of Ubisoft.