Each night that the new kid went to bed another adventure unfolded and the bigger schemes underpinning the plot were moved forward. The story in Stick Of Truth seemed to have a grander sweep to it. I think this shows Obsidian’s pedigree producing role-playing games. In The Stick Of Truth you journeyed into the cavernous sewers, you went to an 8-bit Canada to do a bit of Zelda-esque dungeoneering, and you spent time in an underwear drawer hunting underwear gnomes and the more controversial locations I won’t go into here. This has the effect of making the kids look like grifters on the make rather than innocent kids drawn into the bigger web of the story.Īgain, Fractured But Whole comes in a sad second with the limited range of locations making the game feel smaller and less varied. This blurring of the lines between what the adults see as real and what the kids are imagining make it hard to engage in the game as the fantastical musing of children, especially when coupled with the get rich quick scheme I mentioned earlier. Even the summoning mechanic brought over from the previous game doesn’t sit well with the idea that the kids are playing superheroes. There Lego is lava but kids can also produce actual real turrets to fight adults, who are involved a lot more in the fiction of the game. The adults seem oblivious to the kids in their interactions (except when they play their part of over the top summons) and this makes the rules and understanding clearer than the fantasy in Fractured But Whole. And the gross out effect is caused by throwing poo at your opponent. Shock damage is caused by… bare electric cables.
Butters’ magic hammer… is an actual hammer. As a result the special powers are imaginary and fantastical. In The Stick Of Truth the kids were playing a childish game, this is juxtaposed with the bigger story of the deep secret surrounding the origin of your character. It’s just not as compelling, it paints the children as mercenary and for me breaks the spell that underneath all the vulgarity and crass behaviour these are just kids. This contrasts with The Fractured But Whole’s pursuit of $100 to start up a movie franchise. Alongside this your characters’ main aim is to accrue followers so that he will hopefully achieve that all important acceptance in the cutthroat world of the 4th grade.Īs I said, it’s a strong theme and one that’s tied together by the plot and gameplay well.
Yes, crazy things happen but the kids are always just kids playing a game about control of a mystical stick, the stick itself is symbolic of the mind of a child who can imbue an ordinary stick with power because they simply want it to be so.
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