South of Midnight Review
South of Midnight Review
Playing South of Midnight was like stepping into a haunting dream that was both beautiful and painful. I felt an immediate connection with its world—richly textured, modern folk-tale placed in a romanticized vision of the American Deep South that vibrated with whispers of loss and hope.
The Story
I began my journey as Hazel Flood, a vulnerable and resolute teenager fighting to survive after being ravaged by a devastating hurricane. The story grabbed me immediately—not with sensational plot revelations, but with its unshakable heart. The search to reunite Hazel with her mother is more than your average rescue operation; it’s an excavation of family heritage, communal wounds, and redemptive healing. What I found most remarkable though was the way the game wove together moments of Southern folklore. As Hazel becomes better attuned to her special gift as a “Weaver,” the game makes you fight not just the externals of the physical beasts, but untangle the threads of pain interwoven through generations
Visuals and World Design
A highlight for me was the game’s distinctive visual direction. The stop-motion-style visuals give the impression that each scene is assiduously hand-painted—it’s almost like an oil painting gradually evolving under the influence of time. Navigating through environments like dilapidated mansions, swampy mist-shrouded wetlands and the back streets of an abandoned town was almost hypnotic in nature. From the powdery peeling on an ancient structure to the foreboding thrumming of some unidentified artifact, everything felt deliberately designed to create an unsettling splendor. Visual density like this makes it hard to avoid stopping and taking one’s time to admire the landscape when the gameplay briefly dips into generic action material.
Gameplay
Being completely honest with you, part of it is great; on one hand, Hazel’s move set—double jumps, glides, dashes, and magical ‘weaving’ attacks—plays well with environmental dangers. It gave me moments of pure joy when an otherwise difficult platforming challenge or sneaky little puzzle was solved by thinking slightly outside the box. But on the down side, combat can be repetitive. The rhythm is easy to summarize: enter an arena with some Haints to whittle down, whittle them down using basic and special attacks and repeat. While these battles are well-tuned to one another, sometimes I found that I wished to see some more variety and complexity to combat. But that being said, never does the simpleness break suspension: each fight still feels linked to the story in healing up a corrupted world, although the challenge becomes more one of stamina rather than figuring out what to do.
An Immersive Audio Landscape
I also have to single out the music itself, which is not far from revolutionary. The soundtrack, drawing on the expressive sounds of the Deep South, reminded me at every turn that there was a story in every note. When I met each of the mythic beings, there was a unique musical theme that surged with passion and resonated with the unfolding story. When I had quiet moments when I strolled through a deserted ghost town, the muted strains of blues and jazz created a contemplative ambiance that balanced the ferocity of conflict with nostalgic loveliness.
Final Thoughts
The entire experience of South of Midnight is not without its flaws. Its traditional puzzle levels and combat loops may not be sufficient to satiate the hunger of those hungry for game-breaking innovations. However, if the game does not particularly excel in sophistication on that front, it makes up in abundance on atmosphere and storytelling. From Hazel’s evolving wardrobe that echoes her inner transformation to the meticulously created environments, attention and intention are applied to all aspects. Lastly, South of Midnight left me with this bittersweet feeling. It is one that pushes you to embrace communal hurt and to know that healing does not always arrive through acts of heroism but through little acts of resilience that mend the very fiber in your life. If you like solid storytelling, you can love the atmosphere, graphics and are willing to embrace imperfection and find the beauty there. This is a game well worth every minute.
**Disclaimer:** All images used in this review are the property of Compulsion Games and Xbox Game Studios.