Run, jump, glide, and fight your way through the deep south in the delightful action-adventure game South of Midnight.
What Is It? Hazel is a teenager who is mad at her mom for anything whatsoever. She finds herself alone at their home in a fictional deep south town packing her most important possessions to evacuate for an incoming hurricane. Hurricane-y things happen, mom is lost, and Hazel sets off on an adventure that will take her places she thought were only fairy tales.
South of Midnight is a third person story-driven platforming game with a side of combat and a small touch of light puzzle solving. The game is set in the deep south, somewhere probably referred to as the bayou. Water, river houses, old tobacco sheds, trees, and the like dominate the landscapes you will explore. The game has a wonderful art style throughout, shown off both in the normal gameplay engine as well as the storybook spots between chapters.
The linear game will have you gliding effortlessly through these locales using some classic platforming moves; double jumps, gliding, wind-surfing, climbing, wall-running, and a hook/swing ability to latch onto specific objects to pull yourself across gaps. The movement is always fluid and breezy, it feels really great to control throughout. Even before you’ve unlocked all of your abilities you can enjoy the brisk pace at which Hazel moves through the levels.
As you move, you are encouraged to explore for alleyways off of the main path. These almost always hold ability points which can be spent to unlock upgrades or new skills. There are a few rare totems to find as well, three of these will increase your overall health. Aside from controlling Hazel, you will eventually unlock a childhood friend who is small enough to reach places Hazel cannot. These sections aren’t the strongest of the game, but are quite short and don’t distract from the game at all.
Combat is a secondary concern in South of Midnight but that doesn’t mean it isn’t any good. It is a dodge-based system with a few different enemy types to encounter. Fights only occur in specific locations and each will consist of a handful of enemies showing up sequentially. Each one will also provide you with a healing spot which can be used once during a fight to recover some of your health. You will leverage a few basic moves to conquer foes; push, pull, and AOE spin-attacks among others. Fights can be tough until you understand the patterns of the limited enemy types enough to regularly avoid their attacks. I died a lot early on but infrequently later, thankfully any combat death will allow you to restart at the beginning of the battle.
The game breaks up the platforming, combat, platforming loop a bit with a lot of narration, boss fights, and a recurring chase sequence which is a great showcase for the strong platforming the game allows.
The mechanics are good, but the storytelling takes center stage in South of Midnight. The overarching story of trying to find Hazel’s mother runs throughout, but it is broken up by a handful of smaller, tragic stories of characters you meet along the way. These are well told through short flashback sequences which do the job without overstaying their welcome and all feed into Hazel learning lessons to relate back to her relationship with her mother. You will meet other characters along the way, each bursting with personality. The original songs that pop up throughout play into the storytelling and add a lot to the experience.
The game can be finished in a bit under ten hours, which feels like the perfect length for what is offered.
The Best Part: The setting. You really don’t see too many games taking place in the deep south, let alone games which provide a narrative tied into the nasty history of the area. The small details are around every corner, from trailers and plantation-like estates to tobacco sheds with leaves hanging to dry. It’s great to see the area used to tell a compelling, often ugly, story rather than used as a gag.
The Worst Part: The combat is repetitive. When I first started I did not enjoy the combat much at all, but once I learned the abilities and, most importantly, remembered there was a powerful dodge button, I found the combat to be a lot of fun. It is far from revolutionary, but it is a good time in the short bursts it shows up for throughout the game. My complaint is that there are only six different enemy types and no matter how much they mix-and-match them, the fights do not change much from start to finish. This weakness is highlighted by strong boss fights which show where the combat could go with a bit of evolution.
The Verdict: South of Midnight is a wonderful AA game. Yes, the studio is under the Microsoft umbrella, so I don’t actually know if it should be considered AA, but everything about it has that feel: it is short, is notably lacking polish in spots, has a very narrow focus, and is so far from the pixel-perfection most AAA releases strive for these days that I consider it to be AA, regardless of the companies listed in the credits. The gaming world needs more games like this. Something fun to get lost in for a weekend or an hour a night for a couple of weeks. It is far from perfect, but it provides a great mix of platforming, story, music, and combat. The breezy way Hazel, often literally, floats through the great looking terrain gives this game a sense of momentum that makes it hard to put down. Add in some really great visuals and South of Midnight is one of the best Xbox Studios games I’ve played in a long time, and gets a high recommendation from me to all GamePass subscribers.
How to Play: Xbox Series X*/S, PlayStation 5, PC
*console played on for this review
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