South Of Midnight Review

To say I’ve been eagerly awaiting South Of Midnight would be an understatement. After playing Compulsion Games previous game, We Happy Few, at launch and being blown away by their creativity they shot up the top of my list of favourite studios. Unfortunately that game was plagued by bugs. With the financial backing of Microsoft would South Of Midnight take Compulsion to new heights, or would they lose their identity in the process? I was eager to find out.

First things first, I am happy to report that South Of Midnight is super polished. I didn’t experience any crashes, bugs frame rate drops or anything else that fans of We Happy Few might be concerned about. The only real technical issue I had was chapter 5 was just weirdly extremely bright. I think it was more so a design choice than a bug (it's set in a very dry area of the south) but it definitely stood out.

Secondly, Compulsion definitely hasn’t lost their creative flair after joining such a big corporation. South Of Midnight is true to them and that’s a major plus here. With those two things out of the way lets get into the actual review shall we?

A Well Woven Tale

One thing South Of Midnight has going for it is its narrative. You play as Hazel Flood, a teenager who’s fresh out of college and lives with her mom, Lacey in a little southern town called Prospero. As the game starts off there is a hurricane barrelling down toward the town and Hazel and Lacey need to evacuate. Before leaving Lacey has Hazel go check on the neighbours. Before she can return their house gets pulled away by the raging river and Hazel rushes to find her mom.

As you chase after Lacey, Hazel sees a mysterious creature off in the distance. She assumes shes seeing things in her panic, but little does she know she’s about to go on an adventure of a lifetime and find out what she saw was no illusion. She heads to her grandmothers house for help, of which she gets none. But she finds something while there that unlock something within her, and with her new found powers continues to look for Lacey.

Hazel is what is known as a Weaver. A powerful magical being who can help cure the worlds Grand Tapestry. The Grand Tapestry is what connects all things in the world. When people deal with sorrow their pain causes a stigma on the Grand Tapestry which can only be healed by Weavers who defeat creatures called the Haint.

As she learns about her powers she runs into a giant catfish. The catfish never does get a name, but he is our guide and narrator of the story. He is wise and has heard many of the stories in the world. He will help us as much as he can to find our mother and repair the world.

Southern Hospitality

At its core South Of Midnight is all about southern folklore that the catfish tells us about. Throughout the games 14 chapters that took roughly 10 hours to play we will meet and help many mythical creatures all based on real southern folklore. The creatures themselves are often scary, but when you dig a little deeper into them they are more misunderstood. Take Two-Toed Tom for example. A massive gator that you’ve seen in trailers and previews. At first blush you will assume the worst, but as the story plays out you will understand him better.

These stories within the story are all told through memories. Quite honestly it’s hard to write this review without giving away much of the story. You will just have to take my word that it’s worth the price of admission. Compulsion did a great job weaving the folklore into things while keeping the main story on track. One great thing about it is the story had enough twists that kept me on my toes. A lot of games of late I’ve kind of figured out the story as I went along, but South Of Midnight kept me guessing the whole way.

I also know many don't care about collectibles but the game has 103 of them and each one really adds more backdrop to everything and will make you appreciate it all the more. We will have guides up for all of them by the time you read this so definitely take the extra time to find them if you can.

Compulsions Trademark Creativity

Compulsion is known for their creativity, and it really shows in South Of Midnight. The game looks absolutely gorgeous with its artistic aesthetic and while many were unsure of the stop motion style they used, it didn’t bother me at all while I was playing. For those that do have an issue with it though there is the option to turn it off.

The amount of detail they put into every character and creature though is truly impressive. Every human character is oozing with flair and are super unique. The mythical creatures are a sight to behold as well. As someone who has pre-purchased the art book I can’t wait to get it and see how they came up with some of these designs.

The world itself is also well designed. Each chapter felt rather unique and kept things fresh. Having played through each chapter multiple times to find everything I never felt bored exploring every nook and cranny thanks to the design. There is one level in particular near the end of the game that almost made me feel like I was playing Split Fiction again, and that is the highest compliment I can give a game on its world building.

I also can’t talk about South Of Midnight without discussing the original soundtrack. They did an outstanding job with each song that goes with the creatures as well as the music during certain scenes. I often found myself taking my time to ensure I heard the entire song just incase I was too quick and finished the sequence before the song ended. It’s not often I care that much about music in a game, it’s nice but I’m not sticking around for it. South Of Midnight is a great exception.

Running Through The South

In terms of gameplay South of Midnight is comprised of two main components, exploring the world and combat. Hazel spends the majority of her time running through the gorgeous levels with a mix of platforming. It’s your typical standard affair of running, jumping, gliding and wall running across areas to progress, and it's done well.

While the game is fairly linear there are many branching off paths that you can take. Often times those paths lead to floofs, the in-game currency that helps you upgrade Hazel, or health filaments that upgrade her health. They also lead to many moments of more backstory via the lore readables or just random things in the world that Hazel can interact with.

Speaking of the upgrades, if you want to get most, if not all of them, you will need to go off the beaten path a lot. We were told going in that you didn’t need to collect all the floofs so I wasn’t focusing on them as much as the collectibles, until the end of the game when I had 90% of the floofs and was still a little short for the last upgrade. Thankfully there is a simple chapter select and everything carries with you so I just had to replay 1 and find a few more. Once you find something you also have it for good and the world will reflect that you’ve been there before.

There's also the chase sequences that happen throughout the game that test your platforming skills. Once you've completed a creatures memories a dark cloud will come chasing after Hazel. Each time you will have to use a variety of your skills to make it through quickly. At first they are easy enough, but as you progress in the game they get progressively more difficult. They are some of the most enjoyable pieces of the gameplay in my opinion.

The one slight negative about the exploration are the semi open world parts. There were a couple times where I was going off the correct path the game wants you to take and would end up doing the memories of a particular creature out of order.

In one instance I went so out of order that I learned the creatures’ fate before I saw the first scene to understand what was going on. I’d say they should have coded it so that whichever spot you interact with first you saw the first scene, but each spot was tied to a specific scene so I understand why they did it the way they did. It just wasn’t great for how I experienced it. Chalk it up to me trying to look for everything and being afraid I’d miss something and force the story forward too much I suppose.

Rinse & Repeat

This brings us to the combat. The combat itself is quite simple, Hazel has a basic attack, a heavy attack and then her different spells. Each spell has a cooldown so you can’t simply spam them, so most of your time will be spent using Hazel’s melee, with her spells used to crowd control.

You can send Crouton, Hazel’s little sidekick out to temporarily control an enemy while freezing another and using her push or pull spells to effectively thin the herds. Once an enemy is downed you can unravel them to gain some health and speed up your spells cooldown.

Each encounter takes place in an arena with a simple premise. Defeat all the enemies, known as Haint, in the arena and unravel the stigma to fix the world and help you continue. The Haint themselves have a few different enemy types with different attacks and movements. Overall the combat itself is good and truthfully is a smaller part of the game. I’d say each level you spend 70-80% of your time running through the chapter and 20-30% in combat.

The one major problem when it comes to the combat however is how rinse and repeat it truly is. Every battle is the same thing. Kill about 10 Haint, unravel the stigma and move on. With a limited variety of Haint in the game by the time I got halfway through the game I was kind of over the combat. Like I said the actual combat itself is fairly well done, but with no variety it just started to feel like a chore to break up the rest of the game rather than something I wanted to do.

The one thing that does spice up the combat however, as it should, is the boss fights. Fighting each mythical creature did feel unique and fresh and quite frankly they were really well done, although they fell into a bit of a pattern as well. Avoid their attacks for a moment then do something, usually throwing an object at them, to stun them and attack. Then rinse and repeat until they are defeated. At least they were each quite different to make it not feel as much of a drag as the regular combat.

Conclusion

As a whole it's hard not to come away from South Of Midnight glowing. Its vibrant world, charismatic characters, incredible soundtrack and mythical creatures are true works of art. Going through that world as Hazel was a joy to do despite the repetitive combat. With a bit more variety in enemies and switching up the formula just a touch here and there, South Of Midnight could have been truly special.

As it is South Of Midnight is a fantastic narrative driven game that I will remember for quite some time. It might be just a hair below the Game Of The Year tier, but it is highly worth a playthrough to experience Compulsions gorgeous version of the south.