South of Midnight is the kind of game Microsoft would have had to consistently publish to make its Xbox Game Pass subscription truly succeed.
This is a relatively straightforward 12-hour adventure with little in the way of gameplay innovation, yet it ships with such stunning presentation and design that you feel compelled to play it anyway. South of Midnight is good, and that’s nearly all down to its visual and audio design. It’s so striking and impressive that it makes the experience worthwhile.
From the We Happy Few developer Compulsion Games, this PS5 port arrives in the same shape as its Xbox Series X|S and PC counterparts. There’s no additional content, expansions, or modes to supplement the release — it’s an identical version that anyone who’s played it before can safely skip.
Newcomers, on the other hand, will find a story fuelled by the myths and folklore of the USA’s Deep South, with tales of Two-Toed Tom and Huggin’ Molly. You play as Hazel, whose home and mother are swept away in a hurricane. To get them back, she must venture into a world where those Gothic mysteries are a reality.
A linear structure guides you through the title’s chapters, with a blend of combat, platforming, and extremely light exploration helping to tell the story. It’s an enjoyable journey, but the gameplay shows its hand very early on and fails to develop through new ideas.
This is the crux behind South of Midnight: you’ll likely numb to its gameplay after a few hours, so it’s the narrative and graphics that carry you to the end.
Having been transported into the new world, Hazel becomes a Weaver, a form that grants her powers like a force push, force pull, and telekinesis. These complement a melee-focused combat system that never feels satisfying.
You have a simple string of melee attacks, which can be combined with the Weaver abilities, all operating on cooldowns. These moves are disjointed and don’t let any sort of flow state naturally build. You can’t really combo from one attack into the next as the animations are quite stiff, making the combat system feel rigid overall.
In fact, there’s very little flexibility to the entire game.
South of Midnight signposts its battles through large bubbles in the environment, and in between the fights, you explore the universe along a strict path. It feels like a throwback title to the PS3 days, ala Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.
You follow a set route through each level, occasionally handed an optional trail with a collectible or upgrade currency at the end. It’s always a dead end, though, so you turn around and return to the chapter’s main trail.
While there are some wider environments, they’re infrequent and remain a vehicle to get you to the next objective. Some traversal powers, like a double jump, glide, and wall run, give the platforming sequences a touch of class, but they too are rudimentary enough that the act of playing South of Midnight isn’t all that exciting. It’s serviceable gameplay and nothing more.
The fact we still recommend you play it, then, is a testament to the overall presentation, style, and look of the game.
What developer Compulsion Games has achieved in its third project together is commendable. With stop-motion and claymation techniques, the team creates a unique look where the characters don’t animate in accordance with the world around them.
They instead contrast with the environment, making them stand out more. Surrounding them is a universe that leans into the typical backdrops of the Deep South, like swamplands and antebellum houses. Together, the two stylistic and visual directions work impressively well, fashioning an experience dripping in graphical splendour.
Frequent texture pop-in can hurt the effect somewhat, as objects suddenly appear in front of you to support the scene. This wouldn’t be as big a deal in most other titles, but for one that leans so heavily into its visual achievements, it is a noticeable blemish on the overall look.
You won’t have any issues with the soundtrack, however, which leans into the game’s deep southern vibes to create tracks worth singing along to. Especially during boss fights, South of Midnight fits its soundtrack to the situation, with songs about the enemy you’re facing. Outside of those encounters, it still suits the tone and vibe of the setting to completely embody its influences.
This is where South of Midnight truly shines: its study of the Deep South clearly comes from a place of passion and love. It honours the folklore of the region by bringing to life its characters, then provides a lovable protagonist to root for. Even though the plot isn’t all that impressive, it works well enough and is elevated by its cast.
As a PS5 port, it’s as barebones as you can get. There are no graphical modes to choose from; the game runs at a stable 60 frames-per-second on PS5 Pro, and that’s your only option. There’s then minimal use of the PS5 DualSense pad’s extra features, with nothing resembling haptic feedback beyond the standard rumbles of a controller.
Conclusion
Few games this generation will ship with better presentation than South of Midnight in motion, with outstanding visuals, audio, and all the vibes of a Deep South setting. The game itself quickly runs out of ideas, making the act of actually playing it less exciting than you’d like. However, those stunning graphics, soundtrack, and inspirations still manage to carry the title to a mostly satisfying finish line.
