South of Midnight is Compulsion Games’ best game to date, though it continues their trend of releasing games with thought-provoking narrative themes, great writing, and distinctive aesthetics, built atop a foundation of competent but familiar and formulaic gameplay.

I’d describe South of Midnight as a narrative-driven, action-platformer-musical. Not in the sense you need to time your actions to a beat like Hi-Fi Rush or engage in rhythm mini-games, rather the music is such an integral part of the experience that stripping it out would reduce fantastic set-pieces to a succession of generic mechanics you’ve played through many times before. It’s a game that relies on all design elements synergising to truly shine.



Starting with the good, South of Midnight’s Southern Gothic Americana setting is an immediate draw. From an outsider’s perspective, it’s portrayed as largely rural and seemingly wild region of vast swamps and forests, with a complex multi-racial and multi-cultural history that has generated no shortage of traditional, religious, and mythical tales. Combine that with real-world history, inequality, and socioeconomic decline, and you’ve got the perfect framework for a story that delves into heavy themes through a more hopeful and fantastical lens.

Starting with the good, South of Midnight’s Southern Gothic Americana setting is an immediate draw.

South of Midnight begins with tragedy as Hazel Flood, an aspiring athlete working odd jobs before starting college, argues with her mother as they’re preparing to evacuate from an approaching hurricane. Lacey Flood, a dedicated but overworked and taciturn social worker, sends Hazel out to check on their neighbours, leaving her to watch in horror as their home is swept downriver with her mother inside. After a desperate chase sees Hazel plunge into the river and emerge miraculously unscathed on an unravelling strand, she seeks shelter and support from her deceased father’s mother, “Bunny” Flood, who’s slowly diminishing family was clearly never impressed with his mixed-race marriage.



Tired, angry, and confused, Hazel slips away the next morning only to stumble upon a pair of ancient weaving hooks that allow her to see grotesque growths engulfing her grandmother’s estate. Setting off downriver once again, her journey takes on an increasingly supernatural element. She follows the ghost of the later Weaver of Prospero; she meets a giant talking catfish with a fondness for good advice and embellished stories; she discovers her ability to literally bottle sources of lingering pain and defeat the “haints” that manifest around them; and she often delves a little too deeply into the lives of Prospero’s residents, past and present, friends and foes, to re-weave the source of their pain and grant them a chance at finding peace.

South of Midnight tackles themes of self-doubt and self-discovery, racial and class prejudice, and how empathy is needed to understand why hurt people sometimes hurt others. It does so with considerable grace thanks to a strong cast, writing, and voice work, but also by ensuring most chapters have distinctive environments and an original soundtrack. The soundtrack (composed by Olivier Derivière) features both haunting ambience and wonderful vocal tracks that reinforce narrative themes and elevate set pieces – and there’s even a musical number near the finale.



The visuals have a stylised papercraft appearance that wouldn’t look out of place in a pop-up storybook, making it a perfect fit for a linear narrative, recounted chapter by chapter. Although broken into discrete wide-linear levels, the backdrops provide an impressive sense of scale at times, with both prior locations and distant objectives visible from afar. It’s the characters that truly shine, however, with exaggerated and expressive features that reinforce their personalities, strengths, and flaws. The stop-motion style animation present in the original trailer may have been toned down for gameplay, but the effect remains in place for the many cutscenes and looks great.

South of Midnight tackles themes of self-doubt and self-discovery, racial and class prejudice, and how empathy is needed to understand why hurt people sometimes hurt others.

South of Midnight is a game in which the presentation doesn’t simply elevate the gameplay, it’s an essential component of it. Talking of gameplay, I’ve avoided up to this point not because it’s bad, but because it’s yet another modern game that’s satisfying but also so familiar that my brain would often run on autopilot as I waited for the next story beat or musical treat.



Perhaps the biggest issue is how South of Midnight’s levels are rigidly partitioned into platforming sections, combat arenas, chase sequences, and a handful of multi-phased boss fights. Many of these gameplay sequences near the culmination of each chapter, especially when backed by vocal tracks and visual spectacle, felt tense, fun, and memorable. The problem is they only account for 20% of the experience and that other 80% barely evolves across a 10-ish hour playthrough.

Aside from a few of short, story-focused chapters, South of Midnight follows a predictable rhythm of one linear chapter that introduces a new cast member, threat, or ability, followed by a semi-open chapter that has you clearing multiple patches “stigma” – think combat arenas haunted by haints – before culminating in a chase sequence, untangling a literal knot of pain, and some variation of boss encounter.



As you move between combat arena roadblocks, any deviation from the critical path is just a short excursion to collect “floofs” (an upgrade currency for Hazel’s combat powers), rare magical filaments that extend her health pool, or lore documents that elicit some commentary from Hazel.

Perhaps the biggest issue is how South of Midnight’s levels are rigidly partitioned into platforming sections, combat arenas, chase sequences, and a handful of multi-phased boss fights.

Traversal is the usual assortment of colour-coded ledges, double-jumps, wall-runs, air dashes, and grapple points. Movement can feel a little stiff at times, but it’s rarely detrimental to your survival and it takes a half-dozen chapters before more environmental hazards or more involved boss fights make platforming feel vaguely tense and exciting. In theory, Hazel has access to a diverse range of Weaver powers that let you manifest past “echoes”, push or pull objects, and even summon a magical companion to navigate small spaces and activate devices.

Combat in South of Midnight is also fun but familiar fair, functioning as a nimble brawler with the focus on prioritising targets to defeat mobs in claustrophobic arenas, through a combination of melee combos, charged attacks, timed dodges, and Weaver abilities. There are only a half dozen haint variants – melee rushers, projectile spewers, and lumbering tanks – and you need to avoid attacks while whittling down their health bar and “unravelling” them.



In every encounter you defeat several waves before unravelling the stigma node to dispel corrupted barriers blocking your path and receive a glimpse of painful memories. Hazel’s Weaver abilities allow her to weaken enemies, push or pull them to disrupt attacks, and her summonable companion can even control a haint briefly. The “floofs” you collect are spent to improve her abilities along a limited and linear skill-tree, which makes fights more efficient.

The problem is battles play out much the same way regardless, from the very first encounter to dealing with mobs during the finale battle. You’ll see every significant traversal or combat mechanic within the first third of the game, leaving a handful of creative set pieces and boss battles to carry the other two-thirds.



It's worth noting that South of Midnight has highly customisable difficulty settings, but on the default setting, combat was tense but always manageable. The one exception were the boss fights that require a mix of quick reflexes and careful timing to target weak points on fast or giant creatures, often as the arena shifts around you and the soundtrack ramps up.

With area-of-effect attacks and limited space to manoeuvre, they seemed tough at first but, once you’ve identified the pattern, it’s possible to clear them taking no damage – even on the highest difficulty. There’s not that many of them, but boss encounters were always a highlight and featured some of the best music tracks.

Despite the increasingly formulaic structure, I enjoyed my time with South of Midnight. The memorable cast, intriguing story, and the prospect of another boss fight or set-piece backed by a musical number kept me hooked. It feels like a 7/10 game wrapped in a 9/10 production values.



To Compulsion Games’ credit, South of Midnight also doesn’t run on longer than it should nor ever feel as bloated as so many recent “AAA” games (with a “AA” price point that feels more than fair). If you’re in the mood for a brisk action-adventure to serve as a stylish refresher between time-consuming big-budget releases, South of Midnight is easy to recommend.

*Xbox Review code provided by Microsoft