South of Midnight Review — No Loose Threads

South of Midnight puts a spotlight on trauma in a way I’ve never seen in a video game before. Trauma is an emotional response to a distressing or significant event in one’s life that often changes people and topples their equilibrium, which can lead to judgement or being misunderstood by outside eyes. South of Midnight explores this exceptionally well, with a prominent feature of mythical creatures dealing with heavy trauma, effortlessly evoking an emotional response from me, the player.

Compulsion Games as a studio has tarnished its reputation to some after its last title, We Happy Few, failed to gain critical or commercial success. But that is all in the past, and Compulsion has flipped the script and meticulously crafted a vibrant and emotional story that deals heavily with the theme of trauma while maintaining highly enjoyable gameplay and combat.

Set in the US Deep South, the story follows Hazel Flood after a hurricane rips through her hometown, Prospero, pulling her into a world that interweaves reality and fantasy. Separated from her mother, she must navigate this strange yet familiar world filled with mythical creatures suffering trauma and an ancient magic called Weaving. Hazel quickly learns that the land has chosen her to become a Weaver – a person who has the ability to utilise magic objects and wield Strands to manipulate the world around them, often for good.

Throughout the 10-12 hour adventure, you are transported to many different biomes found within the town of Prospero and its outskirts, and boy, is this game a piece of art. Compulsion Games have crafted some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen in a video game. Despite the setting of the US Deep South, Prospero is a fantastic backdrop featuring breathtaking scenery, even in the darkest and most gloomy set pieces. I’m in awe of how much a feast for the eyes this game is. Paired with the stop-motion art style and stunning lighting effects, this may be one of the best-looking video games of this generation.

To navigate this stunning world, Hazel can double jump, glide, grapple hook, and wall run across Prospero, and this often feels seamless. Compulsion manages to achieve an art direction that allows the stop-motion effect to feel true to its style but feels so fluid and performative at the same time. The juxtaposition of these two stylistic choices should not work, but it does.

South of Midnight offers a linear recipe of events for each area you visit, each homing one or multiple mythical creatures dealing with trauma, and while I won’t spoil any of these stories, they often deliver emotional story beats in spades. To assist in healing this trauma, Hazel must navigate the areas, searching for areas affected by stigma, which is where the combat comes into play.

Hazel’s combat skillset sees her utilising both melee attacks and special abilities, with the latter having cooldowns. Two of these abilities allow Hazel to push and pull her enemies, allowing for crowd control and other tactics to ensure survival. The third ability tangles an enemy for a short period of time, allowing players to get in extra hits or regain their composure in what can often be tense encounters. 

Enemy encounters are at the core of South of Midnight’s gameplay and storytelling. Successfully beating a nest of Haints allows Hazel to untangle a knot, experience a traumatic memory held by a mythical creature and relieve the world of the Stigma that plagues Prospero.

As the story progresses, Hazel encounters new types of Haint, and while you can tell Haints are all from the same family tree, the skillset of the newly introduced enemies becomes increasingly aggressive and more challenging. Encounters occur in closed-off areas affected by stigma and offer waves of enemies, which are well-varied. You may have an encounter comprising of a dozen weaker enemies or a lesser amount but with more tanky and confrontational enemies. Encounters don’t overstay their welcome once you grasp the abilities and combos Hazel has in her wheelhouse, but I can see some players thinking the combat might be too repetitive or feeling like a chore.

There is a humble-sized skill tree, where combat moves and combos can be learned by using a collectible called Floofs, which are found hidden in obvious and not-so-obvious places around Prospero and are also earned after combat encounters. While the skill tree is uncomplex, each skill really does make a difference in battle. 

Most of the boss battles are the mythical creatures you meet along the way and are your standard three-phase fights, but are presented alongside some kick-ass songs with full folklore choir-like vocals and really do capture the essence of each creature and their story. These deploy a tremendous degree of ambience and truly create an engaging lead-up to and during the boss battles of each area. Outside of these musical numbers is a pretty memorable soundtrack overall.

I came out of South of Midnight astonished by how polished the game was. There was a clear direction Compulsion wanted to take with this game, and it was achieved in a succinct narrative that rarely missed a beat and provided an experience that I would recommend to anyone. South of Midnight is one of the best games on Xbox today.