South of Midnight

Whenever a development team or studio spends years struggling to find their footing I can’t help but feel a bit bad for them. There’s an argument to be made on how people shouldn’t be allowed to make, or to give up if the first two attempts don’t work. I find this argument discouraging as it leads to devs giving up on their dream projects rather than making them a reality. There are a lot of bad games in this world, but among these bad games are a select few with a vision. A group of artists trying to get a message across even if they can’t design or make a game all that well. The current gaming market sees studios being shut down if they’re not financially profitable enough, and it’s a shame as sometimes a studio with a struggling record of games breaks through. Such as IO Interactive who made the Hitman series. The first few titles weren’t good back then and even now. Then they started figuring things out around Blood Money and eventually we got the World of Assassination trilogy. Three of the best stealth sandbox games ever made with high replay value.

The developers I’ve felt the most bad for over the years have got to be Compulsion Games. Never discussed them in the past, but I’ve always kept an eye on their works. Their first game was a puzzle platformer named Contrast, and it failed to meet reasonable sales numbers alongside having highly mixed ratings. Then came along their most popular game to date, We Happy Few. A game I remembered being quite excited for upon seeing one of its older trailers. Dystopian settings have always interested me as they tell of how societies can devolve or head down the wrong path. We Happy Few took on a peculiar dystopian future essentially being 1984 by George Orwell combined with BioShock and drugs. My impression of games at a younger age was formed based on clips seen online as I had mainly grown up on Nintendo consoles. Later in 2018 my family bought me a PlayStation 4 and it’s when my gaming horizon grew. I began listening to reviewers, and hearing what they had to say about We Happy Few made me glad I didn’t pick up the game. As it was a survival game that spent two years in the work, came out for sixty dollars, and was still riddled with glitches & bugs. I'm surprised no one on the crew knew how to fix 'em.

It’s a shame We Happy Few ended up being terrible, because from what I could tell the story and themes it attempts to address are actually quite good. Enjoyable enough for the game to build up a decent enough cult following since its full release. So in the end the game failed, but at least it made enough money for Compulsion Games to keep going. In 2023, they announced South of Midnight during the yearly Xbox showcase and it got me riled up. The music, setting, and visual style stuck out to me more than other games shown off. Becoming my most anticipated Xbox title for the foreseeable future. Oddly enough it reminded me of Psychonauts. How every character looks like they were made of clay, or had their details painted on. With a world that feels understandable and uncanny at the same time. I wrote South of Midnight down as a game I most wanted to play, but soon I’d learn it was being made by Compulsion Games. Creating a small sense of skepticism of whether or not they’d learn from their past struggles. The game eventually releases in 2025, and becomes their highest rated game to date. Well to a degree I’d say. The game was positively received, but not amazingly well. Most people considered South of Midnight decent at best and quickly moved on as 2025 was a busy year for gaming. Another shame, but I kept my hopes up and waited a year for the game to hit PS5.

Having finally played South of Midnight, what I can safely say is this humble statement. I liked this game. I really liked this game. This might be one of few times my opinion doesn’t match the majority consensus. Now what I’m not saying is South of Midnight is flawless or immune to any criticism. There are crippling flaws that make it easy to understand why the game didn’t receive high praise. South of Midnight is the most confidently, focused, and expertly designed game that Compulsion has made to date. Being inline with popular action adventure titles like the recent God of War games, Uncharted, Shinobi, Evil West, and more. Delivering a heartwarming story about trauma, hurt, and people growing up with weight on their shoulders. Moments and real world occurrences explained beautifully despite the game going for a fantastical setting. The gameplay is not the main focus here though. It’s the weakest aspect of this game, but I still had my fair share of fun even though dozens of other games have done something this game has done better. South of Midnight is majestic and today we’ll explain why it deserves your attention.

Story

The world is full of mysteries. Ones that cannot be seen by regular eyes. Monsters and myths all scurrying around like cats being scared away from a nighttime meal. Blink and you’ll miss it, but stare long enough and you might be driven mad from what you discover. If not then you must be intent with the weirdness. The strange occurrences those regular folks would rather burn and try to bury into the ground to slowly be forgotten. It's a weird world to some, but long as you strive away from the dangers you should be fine. Unfortunately some are forced into it, and that’s what happens with small city girl Hazel Flood. An old enough high schooler who is happy to live in a cozy home on the outskirts of town. Losing her father at a young age, Hazel tries to appreciate all the time she has with her mother. Said time being quite short as Hazel’s mom works long hours as a child social worker. This forced Hazel to grow up quickly as she often found herself alone at home, and if not that then having difficulty communicating with her mother. The city gets several reports of a hurricane hitting the area later. One strong enough to tear apart homes or tear a man in half. (That doesn’t happen, but you get the idea.) Citizens are directed to seek shelter from the storm, and pack what they value most. Hazel packs her belongings, but her mother comes home late due to working a late shift. Leading to a family argument.

Hazel chooses to leave her tiny home and check on her local neighbors, but during this time one huge tragedy strikes. The wooden beams which hold Hazel’s house up collapses and drags both it and her mother down the ferocious river. Yes, their house was conveniently placed beside a vast river. Longest one in the county, and this one’s faster than usual due to the storm. Hazel chases after her mother in hope of saving her and along the way she sees glimpses of a magical string she refers to as Strands. These strands guide the young Hazel and pull her back when falling into the raging waters below. Sadly, Hazel is unable to catch up and her mother is swept away. With no other choices left, Hazel asks her estranged grandmother Bunny for help. She’s the wealthiest person in the area, but both her mother and father, who is the son of Bunny, never had a good relationship with her. Hazel somewhat did, but upon explaining and asking for help Bunny states Hazel has lost her mind and needs to rest up. Hazel, not wanting to sit around, decides to further take matters into her own hands. Sneaking out of the manor, and snagging tools her grandmother left in the attic. These tools are quite peculiar though. Manipulating the strands Hazel can see and cutting down monsters she encounters shortly afterward. Then Hazel meets a giant talking catfish while journeying along the river path. The catfish telling her the path she travels along is full of spirits who aren’t able to rest or move on from their past. Hazel must calm them if she wants to safely locate her mother and bring her home.

Gameplay

The game is divided into chapters, and each one sees you venturing down a linear path jumping around environmental hazards, obstacles, and fighting enemies. Combat itself is quite simple. It’s all about dodging attacks at the right time, striking when the enemy is vulnerable, and utilizing your different skills to get the edge. Hazel is a weaver, a magic user who can control strands and have them work against her enemies. She can stun enemies in place, pull them towards her, force them away, and later your childhood doll comes to life and can possess enemies to assist you for a brief period of time. There are some unique mechanics to combat such as the enemy health bar going from red to yellow. This means you can’t hurt the enemy and they’re getting ready to dish out a dangerous attack, but just like any attack you dodge and follow up. Dodging is important as once in a while if you dodge correctly you perform what’s essentially a counter. Allowing you to follow up with attacks more easily. Enemies hit like trucks and there’s only one healing spot in each arena. However, everytime an enemy is defeated they reveal a core you can weave. Letting you get back some of the health you lost so there’s a nice incentive on killing enemies quickly so you can gather the resources needed to keep going during a long encounter. 

While the game is quite linear by design you can often stray off the beaten path to find secrets & valuables. Such as health fragments that when three are found permanently upgrade your health, or Floofs. This is your main currency and can be spent to purchase character upgrades for Hazel. Improvements to her current set of abilities as well as a few new ones like a charge attack that can hit multiple enemies around her. It’s important you explore to find stuff, because challenge increases with time and you want to stand a chance against bosses guarding each domain. Do be wary that Floofs and even the main path have platforming challenges blocking you from easily getting from Point A to Point B. Forcing you to utilize Hazel’s set of movement options and you got quite a few choices. You can double jump, zip around using grapple points, air dash, run on walls, climb ledges, glide, and use said glider to ride wind currents. The platforming allows for some decent enough variation between the action packed fights the game enjoys having a bit of. Sometimes you have to collect the painful memories of a person living in the area, and most of the time you get a choice of what order to tackle the four memories. An open approach I enjoy, but we’ll address more of it later. Do all this, face the bosses, and move on. Simple as that, as I said the gameplay is not the game’s greatest strength. It’s everything else that surrounds it. Let’s just hope you can reach the end of these swirling roads.

Thoughts

My time with South of Midnight was well spent and my opinions on it overall are very positive. I do understand why the game got the reception it did though. Despite being well made it doesn’t do anything interesting or innovative by action adventure standards. Dozens of action titles have been released in recent memory and they stand out in their own ways. Feedback, mechanics, the flexibility and room for expression, or just how appealing it feels to play. The combat of South of Midnight is fun enough, and that’s the best I can say about it. Good but not great, which is not what you want to say when there are so many excellent action games out there. Your hits don’t have weight, your character feels loose to control if you understand what that means, and I’m sure there’s enough variation between each combat encounter. The game runs out of enemy variety around the seventy percent mark and just keeps on going. A shame the combat isn’t great by today’s conventional standards, because there are a good handful of combat encounters here.

Combat is the game’s biggest weakness, but I personally enjoyed it for what it was. Weird thing for me to say, but South of Midnight to me feels like a game that would've been released during the PS2 or PS3 era. Combat isn’t refined enough, but again while not great it is good enough. Hades 2 is one of few games that understand what it feels like to play as a witch, and South of Midnight is second place to me. While your spell arsenal isn’t large they are easy to use and you are encouraged to use them To send enemy projectiles flying back. Have the doll possess a foe and turn the tides of a fight. Kill an enemy, harvest some health, and keep doing so. I like this design choice as it keeps combat interesting. Choose whether to target the weaker enemies or go for the big guys. Weaker because you can refill your health more quickly, or big because you don’t want tubby harassing you. Downside is that every enemy gives back the same amount of health no matter the size or strength, but that’s probably to keep things fair. The game screams PS2 era to me on how it revels against so many of the combat standards so many games go for today. Instead of having an over the shoulder the game is drawn back. It prioritizes the craziness of combat rather than the feedback. It’s simple, but doing this lets South of Midnight feel a bit old school.

Combat might not be great, but the boss fights stand out to me the most. As you collect the four painful memories in an area and learn about a person’s life you also hear the music build up. As more instruments come into play and singers chime in. To sing about the person’s life and how they came to be. All the songs are done in southern hymns and then the boss fights. Some being the folks you’re trying to calm down. The chorus rises, the music gets snappier, and you cannot help but swing to the rhythm as you fight these cinematic treats. All for the hymns to conclude and see the player move onto their next goal. This is why South of Midnight is fun to play despite not having the best gameplay. It’s not the game itself, but rather how it tries to present itself. Yes, you are venturing through some dark territory full of monsters but there’s a certain whimsy to it. Encountering sites that feel normal and uncanny. Folklore creatures that are actual real life folklore people in the south tell each other over. Earlier I stated South of Midnight reminded me a bit of Psychonauts, and that’s partially because of the art direction. How stylized, colorful the characters and environments are. As if they're molded with clay, and every detail was painted on. There’s one area later on I won’t spoil, but it’s crazily impressive.

The platforming unlike the gameplay is pretty good and I wish there was more of it. As the game rolls out new level mechanics well and combines together during chase sequences. Chases being set up so you can instantly tell how to react once you start approaching a hazard. Unlike a lot of other games where it’s trial and error, which then leads to frustration. That wraps up my thoughts on the gameplay, but the focus for me was the story. Another reason South of Midnight reminds me of Psychonauts is how it’s unafraid to be weird but also explore some pretty mature themes. It’s a game that looks whimsical and aimed toward younger audiences, but then you listen to all it has to say. Stories about hurt, trauma, people growing up the hard way, and wishing there was at least one person they could vent to. A call for help from the sad miserable lives they’re forced to endure. Parents who abuse, neglect, or just aren’t simply there to provide children with happy sustainable lives. At one point South of Midnight dives into parental abuse and foster care. How at times even the foster care system fails children who had to endure pain. By sending them to even worse households, or not caring at all. It’s kinda sad a lot of games haven’t discussed topics like this. Real world issues and problems occurring right now, because even though you don’t encounter it on a daily basis it is happening somewhere. Someone needs help, but the world refuses to listen. I remember this discussion back in high school.

I had a 20th century conflicts class (that’s what it’s called) and one day a classmate of mine did a slideshow on foster care. It’s how I learned about the foster care system failing  at times. The guy we had as our teacher was probably in his mid thirties or forties. Having raised two girls which he adopted. I remember him breaking down during class, because of how happy he was to have raised his two little girls. Grateful they didn’t get sent to an abusive household and how they got to grow up well. I looked at my classmates and how not all of them are fortunate enough to have sustainable parental figures. It made me grateful for my own parents. How hard they work so that I and my sibling may be able to afford and do the things we love. To have a house to come home to and food to eat. Occasionally there’s the thought that my parents will pass away someday, and even though I have no interest in dating there might be a day when I have kids. I need to provide for them so they too can grow up well. I think about this in the same way South of Midnight has a protagonist who despite not being able to see their mother much is grateful to have someone be there. A parent who can care for them, and the exact same parent attempts to help children who are stuck in those unfortunate circumstances I described. It made me happy and sad in a way I didn't know how to describe until now. That’s my weekly ramble.

Anyways, South of Midnight is a game I recommend. It may not be the greatest game in the world, but it’s fun enough to play and even if you don’t love the gameplay you have the plot which is one magical, chaotic, and bombastic roller coaster. With tons of memorable moments, set pieces, and conversations you’ll think of for hours after rolling credits. The game is usually sold for forty dollars and that’s a pretty good price tag for what you get. It’s also nice seeing a Triple A game not be sold for sixty or above. Go against the usual means and show how smaller scale games with lower budgets is more appealing than whatever the hell Mario Kart World was trying to do. I give South of Midnight a 9/10 for excellence.

9/10, Excellence