In a world full of huge sprawling open-world games and multiple cynical live service projects, far have we strayed from some of the more streamlined and focused experiences. I mentioned in my Assassin’s Creed Shadows review how those games in particular have taken this approach in their own series. They went from smaller and more focused experiences to going completely off the rails and chasing that open-world hype. Them games are a solid case study as to the problems with the industry today as many games, though definitely not all, are made to be this huge behemoth that begs for players and their constant time. This is why South of Midnight, an Xbox Game Studios published action/adventure developed by Compulsion Games, feels like a window to the past in all the right ways. It is a smaller, more intimate affair that really harkens back to those great action/adventures earlier this century and it is worth your time.

South of Midnight is set in the American Deep South where you follow Hazel, a young girl living with her mother in the small town of Prospero. She is about to go off to college for a fresh start and leave a town that she does not feel particularly enlightened by. However, a hurricane tears through the town, decimates her home and leaves her mother, and what remains of her home, being washed downriver. After attempting to pursue her, Hazel is dragged into a mystical, gothic reality that lives under the surface of her seemingly uneventful town. It is infected by a dark presence called the Haint but she quickly finds out she is the perfect remedy for it. She is a Weaver, a title tasked with pushing back the Haint and other dark forces in the land. Hazel must use her newfound powers to find her mother and stop any other evil affecting the world around her from under the veil.

Hazel and her story are one of the true strong points of South of Midnight. A girl that does not quite know her purpose must quickly find find it in a dangerous quest to save her mother. We slowly see revelations about Hazel’s family unfold but also about Prospero and the world surrounding it. On her quest Hazel meets many people, connected to her and not, that have stories that impact her and the way she sees where she grew up. She holds family very dear and that is the only way she has felt connected even remotely to Prospero. But by seeing the dark around it and being forced to defend it and its people, she starts to forge a connection with her homeland she has not felt before. This is the crux of the story: to embrace your background and not be ashamed of it, to then go on further to celebrate it. When seeing Hazel at the start of the game and towards the end, she is changed for the better through all the things she has seen and done. She is proud to be from her little town.

The setting of the Deep South is another big focus through this whole game. Many of the creatures that Hazel encounters are pulled straight from the Deep South’s own folklore and mythology. Each few chapters or so generally centres around a different creature but the game does a good job of building each of these creatures and their background up progressively. There is thorough work done to make sure you know exactly what you’re about to fight and in some cases, it might make you feel more sorry for a misunderstood creature. Elements not necessarily at the forefront are deeply rooted in the Deep South heritage too. The music is a good example because at certain crucial moments, these electrifying musical pieces ingrained with Deep South culture blare out. It really elevates these moments and it does manipulate some more mundane gameplay segments into something much more intense.

As mentioned, the gameplay is one of the less enthralling aspects of South of Midnight. All of it generally surrounds different parts of Hazel’s weave abilities. The traversal is simple but still quite fun. You have all the typical abilities you would find in this type of game (double jump, wall run, grapple etc.) but they are all quite flashy and satisfying to pull off. It can be quite easy though and it would have been nice to see some segments where the traversal really keeps you on your toes. The weave ability, for example, which lets you temporarily create platforms, could have been used much more and in more intense situations rather than in the more pedestrian exploration segments. There are a number of points where you are being chased so this ability could have been used much more in these segments to make the player think on their feet. The combat is quite easy and simple too but the difference here is that it doesn’t feel as satisfying. It is standard hack-and-slash abilities but nothing massively inventive to go with it. The enemies are all quite similar too and only perhaps the one that shields other enemies forces the player to think rather than mindlessly slash or cast abilities. The bosses are a different story and are all quite different to each other. Their designs are all fabulous, apart from the final boss which was incredibly disappointing. It is just a glorified enemy encounter and it feels like they ran out of ideas.

Visually, South of Midnight is an absolute heavyweight. Environments look so beautiful and it makes all of the gameplay have a sweet sugarcoat to it. The feeling of seeing the sunlight rip through the greenery after cleansing a Haint nest feels wonderful every single time even if the action of doing it does not. The animation is also very unique because it has a stop-motion emulation on it. As a result, the art style is immense and you can still the stop motion jitters during gameplay at points. When other elements may not be, this aspect of the game is very unique and makes the experience even more worthwhile because it is just fantastic to look at.

On the whole, South of Midnight is a visual feast with good, meaningful writing, excellent use of setting and servicable gameplay. While the gameplay is not as strong as its other elements, it is by no means bad. It is perfectly functional and at points fun enough to keep you engaged enough until the next interesting story segment. This feels very much like a game that is more focused on telling a deep story and is using gameplay as a vessel to guide the player into it. If the narrative is of high enough calibre like it is here, sometimes that is perfectly fine and it does not give me any reservations in recommending it.