I’ve been excited about South of Midnight since I saw its reveal trailer in 2023. The art direction, music, and deeply Southern setting felt ripe for an epic story. Still, coming into my preview, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
After playing my hour-and-a-half preview of the title, I was even more surprised. The common formula to maximize player count isn’t here at all: There’s no open world or even an attempt to lure people in with an “open zone.” I didn’t see any RPG mechanics or dialogue trees to be found. Combat felt fast-paced and snappy but remained relatively simple, and there’s not much in the way of builds to worry about.
Instead, I found what felt like a very welcome gaming throwback: a gorgeous, linear action-adventure platformer in which the story and atmosphere are the clear focus at all times. Above all, South of Midnight strives to unflinchingly tell a story about the American South in all of its tragedy and beauty.
A story unafraid of its roots
Full disclosure: I’m certainly a Northerner, born and raised in western New York. But the South feels close to me. I lived in central Virginia for a decade, close to the Blue Ridge mountains. My wife’s family is from Alabama, and yes, I have heard my fair share of “yankee” comments between generous helpings of shrimp and grits. It’s with that background I saw that this game is Southern as hell.
I cannot praise this art direction enough, from the gigantic peaches sunken into swamps to the crumbling houses and billboards to every blade of grass and cattail swaying in the breeze. The game is just a visual marvel and a testament to what titles can do when they’re not focused on realism above all.
It’s against this backdrop that we meet Hazel, the game’s main character, and another vital piece of making this a Southern story, as well as a black story. Hazel spends the beginning of the game discovering how she’s a Weaver, a magic-user who wields sewing-like abilities and implements to unravel Haints, the enemies she faces in the game, and the stigmas and historical hurt she finds along the way. Her status as a Weaver also connects her to history and place. She frequently sees and takes cues from the ghost of Mahalia, another Weaver, as she learns to use her new abilities to open new paths to navigate through this world.
Hazel is looking for her mother but encounters stories of other people living (and possibly trapped) in this mythological South. The storytelling here is touching if you open yourself to it. South of Midnight approaches these plots with earnestness and humor in equal measure. Hazel will make jokes, but this is not a sarcastic, quip-machine antihero. This is a girl trying to find her mother and heal the land around her as best she can.
Without giving too much away, I loved the choice to give Hazel a unified voice and make the story a more linear one to explore. In the vein of God of War, Hazel is no more a player insert than Kratos is. This is a character and story that asks you to accept it on its own terms, take it or leave it—and the story shines because of it.
Combat and platforming are fast and fun, but can they sustain a full-length game?
While I did love my time with South of Midnight, that doesn’t mean I still don’t have questions about the game in its full length. The first and foremost piece of that equation is how well combat holds up over the whole game.
While I’ve seen several people quick to attach a “Soulslike” tag to the combat, it didn’t feel remotely similar to the genre while playing. Sure, you’re rewarded for timing dodges well, but combat is much more about stringing together your abilities to deal damage and keep yourself unraveling Haints, regenerating a bit of your health (and possibly making them explode) when you do. I got to play with a few abilities, including a charging ranged attack and some crowd control abilities that can push or pull enemies, as well as stun them for a while. It was fast-paced and could be punishing at times, and importantly, I didn’t feel like the stop-motion animation style was hampering my play while fighting (the game also comes with an option to turn that stop-motion effect off).
This was fun for my playthrough, but I quickly found myself falling back on the same combos and abilities as I got through. Will the full game’s suite of enemies force me to find new ways to navigate through combat? Successfully landing that portion of combat seems very important in making this a really engaging game, not just a story to get through.
Similarly, platforming is fun, but at times, I felt starved for content when exploring the landscapes between combat arenas, finding more story nods or Floofs, the game’s currency by which you can level up abilities. I played through Chapter Three, which seemed to serve as the end of the game’s tutorial island (or possibly its first steps). Does the game open up more at all the deeper you go, with more opportunities to creatively use the very fun movement system? I’d love to be able to dig deeper into it than Chapter Three really allowed me, even with a cool chase scene towards the end of it.
The story is firmly the focus, yes. But nailing down these elements of gameplay is what will ultimately make this an important and fun game to play.
I can’t wait for more
Despite some questions about the game, I’m eager to dive back in and see how the finished product addresses my concerns. Hazel is a fun and likable main character finding her way through a gorgeous world and an intriguing story, as funny and beautiful as it can be dark and tragic.
With Compulsion seemingly unafraid to stick to its guns and create a world all its own, I have incredibly high hopes for South of Midnight.
Read the full article here
