South Park: The Fractured But Whole features a difficulty slider that changes the color of your skin, with the game actively becoming more difficult if you aren’t white.
The feature, outlined in a preview of the upcoming RPG from Eurogamer, sees the player choosing the color of their customizable character’s skin. As your skin gets darker, the difficulty level goes higher, with it actually affecting how you’ll be treated in-game.
The segment of the preview discussing the difficulty slider reads:
“They were told the difficulty of the game affects the amount of money you receive and the way other characters speak to you throughout the course of the game. It is, quite clearly, a social commentary on racism in modern society, and as far as video games go, a pretty effective one.”
South Park: The Fractured But Whole looks to mimic the satirical tone of the show, with GameRevolution’s Michael Leri calling it a “worthy, dirty follow-up” in his preview. “There were multiple times while playing South Park: The Fractured But Whole where my eyes widened and I thought, ‘I can’t believe they went there,” he wrote.
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While South Park: The Stick of Truth also featured the same brand of humor as the TV series, it mostly relied on fan service to deliver its laughs. Judging from early previews of the game, it seems that this time around The Fractured But Whole is very much looking to provide commentary on the social and political climate it will release in, more in line with the show’s current sensibilities.
