South of Midnight Review
The Town of Prospero
South of Midnight is a gothic folk-tale set in the current or recent past, American South. I got heavy Louisiana vibes in this Compulsion Games production. You take on the role of Hazel Flood. She runs track, lives with her mother in a house on a riverbank, and lost her father when she was young. The Flood family is the rich local land barons. Bunny Flood, Hazel’s absentee Grandma, never got along with Hazel’s ma, Lacey.
As the game begins, a hurricane is bearing down on the town of Prospero. As Hazel and Lacey prepare to evacuate to the local church, they’re separated. Lacey, still inside their home, is dragged away as the foundations break and the structure is swept down a river. Desperately giving chase, Hazel slips and falls into the river, only to find herself brought back ashore by magic.
From that point on, her awakening as a Weaver is the game’s driving force. Weavers are chosen, and they use their powers to help heal the people and the land. Over fourteen chapters, Hazel will learn the past of the last weaver, Mahalia, and her own family’s history. It’s a touching narrative that never shies away from America’s past.
Slavery, class warfare, and more aren’t used as props. They’re handled with care and dignity as events that simply exist. They cannot be ignored, and the writing deftly intermixes past and modern conflicts with a steady approach. There’s no pandering, nor scolding to make a show. Empathy is everything. To know and properly understand why something happened and how to help is key to Hazel’s experiences. Neither she nor anyone in the story is perfect, though some are truly damned evil.
South of Midnight Review
Spindles and Needles
South of Midnight is a story game that intermixes platforming, light puzzle-work, and basic combat to mix things up. The combat sees you fighting Haints, angry blights on the land fueled by the anger, sadness, and despair of its residents. Haint fights in general are centered around memories. Beat up the haints surrounding it, using X to attack and Y to unravel, and at the end, you’ll unravel the main clump of negative energy before getting more backstory.
South of Midnight Review
It’s a video game assed video game setup. The rule of 3 is king on boss fights, and you’ll know exactly what you’re getting after a few hours. My total playtime for a “saw most but not all” run was around 8 hours. I’m terrible at exploring but great at fighting, not dying once on basic difficulty, so your time may vary.
South of Midnight Review
As Hazel progresses through the story, she’ll unlock multiple abilities tied to the bumpers, triggers, and Y button. You’ll have weave, which binds enemies in place and eventually can gain various other benefits. A blast on the right trigger that pushes foes back, and a pull on the left trigger that pulls small enemies to you or flies yourself towards the bigger bastards.
South of Midnight Review
The right bumper is reserved for Crouton, your small, hideously cute teddy bear that comes to life thanks to your magic. Crouton can take over enemies in combat, turning them from red to blue and having them be an ally for a short while. Finally, you’ll unlock a blast with the Y button that causes large damage to all around you.
South of Midnight Review
These abilities all work on a cooldown setup. The cooldowns are fairly long but can be sped up whenever you use Y to ‘unravel’ an enemy during combat. Unraveling can occur when an enemy’s health bars are fully drained. It will drop a small amount of health for the player and lower any active cooldowns by a small amount. There are floating health pools in each combat area, and the fighting is tight, competent, and a bit too easy on normal.
Track Star
Track and Field is a major part of Hazel’s life. It comes in useful as South of Midnight features a lot of running and platforming. To start with, you can run, jump, and climb. The first few chapters are focused on story setup, with chapter three being when most of your movement abilities unlock.
First is the double jump, which instantly makes any game better. While B is a dodge on the ground it becomes a glide in the air. A magical net made of butterflies will help Hazel get a quick burst of speed in the air before slowly descending. Eventually, near the end, you’ll get the flying through a wind tunnel effect we saw in the trailer last June.
Certain spots in the map let you use a grappling weave to fly towards them, which in conjunction with the double jump, floating, and wall-running (oh yeah, you can wall run too!), combine to create a serviceable experience.
The platforming and camera controls never felt great for me on a controller. Sometimes you slip off areas you know you’re standing on, and the camera has an odd amount of delay before it engages. Once it does it then accelerates too quickly. It’s not impossible to overcome, it’s just annoying that I can’t change the deadzone settings.
Most platforming will revolve around finding Floofs. They’re glowing bits of magic that Hazel will use to upgrade herself and her abilities. Clicking in the right stick gives you a thread on which way to go. Floofs are generally on the path that the thread doesn’t follow. Outside of those are lore items and the rare but powerful health-increasing green threads to find. Every third one found gives Hazel more HP.
Boss fights focus heavily on mixing more platforming into them. As you progress, you’ll fill a magic bottle with people’s (or animals’) pain. After the fourth fill, you’ll be in a chase sequence, running from an unknown energy cloud full of growling malice. These, like the combat and platforming, are serviceable enough. I never failed one on normal difficulty, which made them a bit too routine by the end.
South of Midnight Review
Unreal Looks
If this review has seemed a little down, this is where it picks up, a lot. The gameplay is very good but not great. What is outstanding are the graphics and sound. Running on Unreal Engine 4 South of Midnight is a stunning-looking title. Highly improved over the preview build, it ran great on my Xbox Series X and was a locked 120fps on PC. The game uses a stop motion filter during gameplay and cutscenes. You can turn it off during gameplay, and I ended up doing that.
South of Midnight Review
I didn’t find it distracting during gameplay like one of my co-workers did. It didn’t add much to the gameplay experience. With a smooth camera at my control, it occasionally felt like the game was stuttering when I knew it wasn’t doing so. In the cutscenes, things felt right as there were fewer camera movements. Leading to that claymation project feeling as they intended.
The art style is so damned pretty, with a surprising amount of variety for a game taking place in one small region. The fantastical elements feel pulled straight out of the local folklore despite being made for this game. Catfish, a constant companion and ride with his strange eyes that could have come out of a sewer’s kit. Later enemies and friends are both massive and terrifying. Tight animation work helps blend it all in a stellar-looking package that far exceeds what Compulsion has done before.
Stellar Sounds
Finally, the music and voice work for the game are as good, if not better, than the graphics and story. The soundtrack by Olivier Deriviere is stellar and should be up for every award possible. The jams and the original tunes make each moment a delight. Every major boss is accompanied by a fully voiced song that dynamically follows your actions. It’s a surreal experience with one catchy tune after the other breaking down some horrific backstories.
The song we heard in the preview build about a giant tree-man named Benjy will boil your blood as its smooth sounds make your feet tap. The instrumental jams are just as catchy, helping convey the mood during more somber moments and blasting off during the action to make everything feel that much grander.
The voice acting is excellent, with Hazel’s VO doing a solid job with the staggering amount of lines she had to record. At times, it can be a little much with explaining what just happened or what needs to be done to progress. Thankfully, it’s never the “go here, do this now” style that has invaded gaming. There is white paint and glowy magic to show you the way if you’re stuck, and it works well.
One of the few bugs I encountered was the audio cutting out during one conversation. It may be more of an Xbox UI issue, though, as I’ve had it across a few games recently. Outside of that, this Xbox Play Anywhere title worked perfectly across my Xbox Series X and PC. My only issue left is that most of the plot threads Hazel helps with never got a follow-up. You never go back to the people or creatures you’ve helped afterwards, they’re just dropped from this tale.
South of Midnight Review
Wrapping Things Up
South of Midnight is a stunningly beautiful and moving experience. While the gameplay doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, it combines excellent writing and music to move your soul in ways only the best games can. This title is an enormous step-up for Compulsion Games, and I hope this isn’t the last we see from Hazel Flood.
South of Midnight is a Day One Xbox Game Pass Release, and review code was provided by Xbox
