The creators of the not-for-children cartoon "South Park," Matt Stone and Trey Parker don't shy away from controversial undertones. This is wildly evident in the upcoming video game in conjunction with Ubisoft, "South Park: The Fractured but Whole," where the difficulty slider will affect a player's skin color.
Much like most role-playing games (RPG), "South Park: The Fractured but Whole" will have a wide array of difficulty settings for players ranging from casuals to veteran RPG strategists. However, the video game's creators just had to put a twist on the option, which others might find a bit too racist. When players create their characters and choose a difficulty level, the skin color is affected. The higher the difficulty, the darker the skin color becomes.
In a gameplay video from Eurogamer, it can be seen in the character creation segment around the fifth minute mark. It becomes apparent that as the slider is turned towards a higher difficulty, the darker the player's character skin becomes. During the process of the entire character creation, Cartman guides players through the whole process, while intermittently annoying and judging the player in humorous "South Park" fashion.
According to PC Gamer, this is one of the bits and gimmicks that make "South Park" unique as a show. The commentary alludes to the painful, and perpetually relevant issue of racism towards people of color. It remains to be seen if there is actually some point in all of the satire and social commentary, or if it ends up being distasteful, repetitive, and utterly controversial.
The difficulty of the game will determine how much money the players will receive throughout, and how other non-playable characters (NPC) will interact with them. Not much of this was on full display, but this is a feature that Ubisoft has confirmed. During the character creation, Cartman says that "Don't worry, this doesn't affect combat. Just every other aspect of your whole life."
"South Park: The Fractured but Whole" will be released on Oct. 17, 2017 on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows.
