Canadian developer Compulsion Games is known for choosing unique settings for its game worlds.
Their first game, Contrast, was a puzzle platformer inspired by France's Époque era, and the follow-up We Happy Few, was set in an alternate history UK where the inhabitants of a rural town, Wellington Wells, are hooked on hallucinogenic drugs.
South of Midnight continues that tradition with a game that explores the rich culture of America's Deep South. Despite being an intriguing setting, the developers struggle to create a compelling game around it.
It is a delightful experience prancing around this fantastical recreation of the South, but the journey grinds to a halt because of repetitive mission design and rehashed combat scenarios.
It is like a cake that is beautifully decorated and topped with icing, then when you take a bite, it is the blandest cake you have ever had.
That is not to say it is all bad, though, and there are some bright spots such as the world building and traversal, which keep it from becoming a completely monotonous experience.
A vivid world
The artists at Compulsion are at the top of their game here as you explore some stunning environments. You wade through soggy swamps, bubbling bayous, and murky Spanish moss that entangles nearly every tree around you.
They vividly depict a part of the world that has such a distinctive feel, and the Claymation art style adds so much character to it.
The game also runs smoothly despite minor frame drops on Xbox Series X. With a 120hz TV, it can run at 4K, 120fps, but cutscenes, for some reason, are at 30fps in keeping with the stop motion style.
Seeing as the world is also part fantasy, you see such sights as gigantic statues, like the ones on highways for fast food joints, and a floating town with a cabaret at the centre of it.
Traversal is a delight as you zip right by it. From early on, you will be double jumping, wall running, gliding and grappling across it all.
Traversal is fun and fluid, as Hazel is a joy to control when she is in the air.
It is fun and fluid as Hazel is a joy to control when she is in the air. The only real problem is the platforming, where movements are not precise enough, which leads to her jumping in the completely wrong direction some times.
Now we get to where things truly fall apart, though. While combat overall is good, the gameplay loop is this game's biggest sin. The premise is not distinctive either.
Your character, Hazel, is a Weaver who can mend the broken souls of spirits and remove the corruption plaguing the land.
It is a very clichéd premise, as games like Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Okami or the Ori games have the same setup. While Kena has a good balance between combat, platforming, and cleansing areas, South of Midnight is incredibly uneven.
Déjà vu
You start by entering an area where you get an objective to clear the corruption, usually in three or four locations.
Cleansing areas means fighting enemies known as haints (an alternative spelling of haunt), unravelling their corruption and then cleansing the larger source of corruption.
You then go into the spirit world, where, as a Weaver, you can see memories that still linger. You learn about people's stories in a piecemeal fashion until you get the whole story and fill up your bottle.
This same series of events happens over and over and over again with each new area you go to. It is a tedious grind.
A chase sequence then ensues as you try to reach a tree to release the painful memories back into the Grand Tapestry (the fabric of life).
This same series of events happens over and over and over again with each new area you go to. It is a tedious grind.
There are boss fights sprinkled in that do change things up, but it got to the point where if I knew there was going to be one of a combat scenario, I dreaded it.
The enemies themselves can be challenging, and there is a plethora of haints to fight. For example, there are Ravagers that are always circling you, the stationary Slug that fires bugs and the Brute that smashes everything in sight.
Magic objects
As a Weaver, you have five magic objects that are used in combat and puzzle-solving. In combat, your hooks are your main weapons as you can trap enemies momentarily with weave, push and pull enemies towards you and possess them with your strange childhood toy, Crouton.
I mainly used the trapping and possessing abilities as they were the most effective by far. There are upgrade trees for each of these, but they seem to just increase damage output and rarely add more strings to your bow.
While the combat and mission structure hold the game back, how does the story stand up?
Combat is reminiscent of Kena: Bridge Spirits, but it lacks the same level of fluidity and never truly evolves either.
The game is linear, but there are chances to go off the beaten track where you collect notes and Floof, which you need to upgrade your skills.
These often require a bit of puzzle solving to get to, but they are never too hard to figure out. I tended to avoid them near the end because none of the upgrades seemed worth it.
So, while the combat and mission structure hold the game back, how does the story stand up? Unfortunately, it largely falls flat here as well.
Hazel is from the fictional town of Prospero, where she lives with her mother, Lacy. Her father, Trey, tragically passed away when she was just four years old.
The game begins on the night of a vicious storm, where Hazel and her mother get into an argument as they are packing up their things. She tells Hazel to check on their neighbours before they leave, but when she returns, their trailer is swept away along with her mother.
Emotional baggage
Thus begins the journey to save her mother in this strange fantasy world. As things progress, there are nonsensical story beats where someone swoops in to take her mother again, just for the sake of the story moving forward.
Hazel is a likeable character and has a great bulls**t detector when it comes to dealing with the various mythical creatures she encounters.
Mythical creatures are the real core of the game, as you learn about their stories and how they became these beasts.
It is just a pity the overall story does not give her a satisfying arc to go along with her endearing personality.
She meets a companion early on when she befriends a giant Catfish, who, along with giving her advice, adds a comedic touch to things as he transports her from place to place.
These mythical creatures are the real core of the game, as you learn about their stories and how they became these beasts. Usually, it is a story of neglect or tragedy.
While all of their stories are sad, very few pulled at the heartstrings. The story of Lacy's ex-partner, Laurent, is the most notable, as he turns into a giant bird due to the unprocessed grief from losing his parents.
This impacted his relationship with both Lacy and Hazel, as he distanced himself from them. It was interesting to see the real-world impact of his trauma and how it connected to his transformation.
So, while it deals with sensitive issues such as loss, grief and those who are ostracised by society, it never packs the emotional punch to hammer the message home.
There are countless examples where South of Midnight gets close to having some poignant moments but fails to stick the landing. One of the mythical creatures, Huggin' Molly, is believed to be responsible for kids in the area being kidnapped.
You speak to a local called Itchy, an elderly man at this stage, who was never kidnapped by her. When you learn the true story of what happened and his tragic past, Hazel returns to him.
You give him the space to open up, and while it seems like he will, eventually, he says it is not worth getting into and tells her to be on her way.
There are so many baffling moments like this where there is a chance to add some weight to the story, but they fumble it.
The same goes for the final boss and the ending itself. You don't even fight the final boss, you fight his minions to lower their health. The ending also feels incredibly anticlimactic as I was left thinking, "Is that it?" when the credits rolled.
It is just disappointing to see a game that had so much potential squander it where it matters.
South of Midnight is a game that does not know what it wants to be. As an experience, it is a fun ride, but as a game, it is underdeveloped and a slog to play.
Our score: 6/10
Reviewed on Xbox Series X
