I’ll Fight Through The Motion Sickness To Play South Of Midnight, Damn It

by

Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight appears to live up to my anticipations, offering an action-adventure game with platforming and combat styles reminiscent of games during the PlayStation 2 era. After playing for approximately 90 minutes, I must admit that the gameplay doesn’t leave me particularly impressed. However, South of Midnight doesn’t strive to provide a groundbreaking gameplay experience; instead, it seems dedicated to honoring the myths, music, culture, and dialect of the American South. In this regard, South of Midnight promises to surpass my expectations.

In the game South of Midnight, you take on the role of Hazel, who is frantically searching for her mother after their home was destroyed in a hurricane. At the start of her quest, Hazel discovers she has the unique ability to act as a weaver – someone capable of untangling the malevolent forces affecting a community and creating structures to traverse treacherous swamplands by leaping or gliding. Throughout her journey, Hazel’s weaving skills grow and evolve, enabling her to encounter various legendary monsters that were once ordinary people or creatures, now transformed into colossal, fantastical beings due to the hardships and heartbreak they experienced in their past lives. As a weaver, it falls upon Hazel to lay these legends to rest.

In my playthrough, I joined the game at an early stage, right before the level and boss fight I experienced during my visit to Compulsion Games last year. The story begins as Hazel, a new weaver, meets Catfish and learns he can help her find her mother if she first rescues him from a massive tree that appears as a fearful, sorrowful man. This level sets the pattern for gameplay throughout South of Midnight: Hazel jumps through mostly linear stages, confronting enemy groups who guard the tales that uncover the truth about a local folklore.

I wasn’t convinced by South of Midnight’s gameplay, particularly the platforming and combat. To be honest, the demo made me quite dizzy (I suspect it was due to the stop-motion-like animation style, even though this usually doesn’t affect me). By the end, I was a bit irritable. However, South of Midnight isn’t a game that offers a very engaging play experience. You can stumble in the platforming and miss a jump, but the platforms are so close together and Hazel is quite agile, so I never actually missed a jump, except for one instance early on when I intentionally jumped into the water to see if Hazel could swim. As it turns out, she cannot. This mistake took a bit of her health, but since there aren’t any enemies during the platforming sections, this mistake didn’t create any tension like in other platformers where such mistakes might occur.

It’s worth mentioning that the chapter I experienced seemed quite introductory in nature, almost like a learning phase for Hazel’s adventure. This suggests that the platforming will become more complex and rewarding to navigate later on. However, at this point, Hazel’s abilities such as double-jumping, gliding, and wall-running through the swamp don’t seem to add much excitement when moving from one place to another. The most disheartening aspect of the demo was a chase sequence towards the end, where all Hazel had to do was jump back and forth between walls she was running along. There were no floors present, and the music swelled in a way that created an atmosphere of tension and anticipation. However, when I found myself merely jumping back and forth between walls to avoid obvious gaps, it made what should have been a thrilling chase for Hazel’s life feel trivial instead.

In the storyline, the fights with Hazel seem somewhat ordinary compared to the plot development. As a craftsperson, I imagined that Hazel would have skills and maneuvers reminiscent of sewing, such as stitching, knitting, or ripping, given her tools – a spindle and weaving hooks in battle. However, instead, Hazel uses her equipment more like twin daggers, needing to evade enemy attacks and slash them repeatedly until a message appears for her to unweave them, which she does dramatically. She also has some abilities to enhance her tools, such as a stun and telekinetic shove, that have cooldown periods to prevent overuse, and a skill tree allows you to unlock additional moves for Hazel, like a ground-pound.

In summary, while South of Midnight doesn’t quite match the agility-demanding combat of games like Sunset Overdrive, it offers a straightforward gameplay experience where you dodge enemy attacks, attack with melee and abilities, and repeat. Since Hazel isn’t overly nimble in combat, her enemies don’t move too quickly, and since there are no block or counter mechanics, their attack patterns remain simple. This means that you mainly have to keep track of multiple enemy positions during combat, but none have specific weaknesses or counters to your moves, so a wild slashing strategy works against all of them. Once you’ve thinned out the group by killing a few enemies, the remaining ones become less challenging.

It seems like battles aren’t intended to be particularly challenging or an obstacle for the player. Every enemy encounter I came across had a healing item within the battlefield that I could access and interact with, which made each fight easier since it kept Hazel’s health consistently high, almost eliminating the possibility of getting close to defeat.

One notable exception I noticed is the boss fights. When character Hazel confronts these local legends, the outcomes can vary. During my visit to Compulsion Games’ studio, I witnessed a chapter that followed the demo, culminating in Hazel battling the gigantic Two-Toed Tom. It looked impressive with multiple stages of escalating challenge, but I didn’t get a hands-on experience. The fight I participated in for this demo was simply climbing a tree along a designated route. Despite its cinematic quality and the dramatic build-up of music, it fell short compared to the epic feel of the Two-Toed Tom boss battle I’ve seen, as well as a sneak peek at Huggin’ Molly’s boss fight shown in the South of Midnight trailer during 2025’s Xbox Developer Direct. The boss fights might be where the combat mechanics coalesce into a more satisfying experience.

In summary: Although I have reservations about other aspects of the game, South of Midnight’s art direction, music, character design, voice acting, and narrative are all impressive, which makes me eager to explore the complete story and immerse myself further in its world. Much like games such as Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Tales of Kenzera: Zua, or Assassin’s Creed: Origins, South of Midnight appears to offer a unique experience that will be memorable for its captivating setting – the true highlight. It’s evident that much thought and care has been put into accurately portraying and celebrating the sights, sounds, culture, and stories native to the American South.

In the creation of South of Midnight, special attention has been given not only to the main storyline but also to incorporating extra fantastical elements, with playful references to common phrases related to Hazel’s powers. For instance, she gathers emotions in a container, symbolizing the idea of “keeping feelings bottled up.” What truly captivates me, though, is that South of Midnight doesn’t overwhelm you with an abundance of documents to discover, hidden audio recordings, or non-player characters (NPCs) who explain every intricate detail about the magical setting. Instead, the game invites you to immerse yourself in its fantasy, stumbling through answers together with Hazel, preserving the overall enigma and allure of the place and the legends surrounding its inhabitants.

The narrative imparts a somewhat eerie atmosphere to the journey, painting Hazel as a young protagonist who’s found herself in an otherworldly realm that remains enigmatic and beyond comprehension. While the current content hasn’t fully transitioned into gothic fantasy, I hope it will eventually do so. Despite this, the storytelling and world creation are top-notch, and the voice acting – particularly Adriyan Rae who voices Hazel – is outstanding, further enriching already captivating character portrayals.

I’m hopeful that the affection and attention put into the gameplay and fights in South of Midnight carries over to other aspects, but if it doesn’t, I believe the game will still stand out as a compelling narrative set in a part of the world seldom explored by major video games.

South of Midnight is set to launch for Xbox Series X|S, Game Pass, and PC on April 8.

Read More

2025-02-11 19:09