In an absolutely enthralling world.
Compulsion Games’ We Happy Few sure caught my eye back in 2015. The right mix of absurd and, well, BioShock, it apparently caught Microsoft’s gaze as well — the giant acquired the Montreal-based studio shortly afterward in 2018. Compulsion was relatively quiet from then until mid-2023, finally revealing its next title: South of Midnight. After one hour of hands-on time with it, I cannot wait to play through its full experience.
In South of Midnight you fill the shoes of Hazel, a young woman in the American Deep South. I was able to join Hazel on her journey from Chapter 3 of its story, as she makes her way through swampland on the search for her mother.
At this point in the story, Hazel was as unclear of her role as a new Weaver as I was, but Compulsion does a wonderful job of slowly feeding necessary information to you. Armed with magical tools and pushed forward by the memories of a previous Weaver, Hazel soon learns she can see — and fight — malicious spirits called Haints, entities that lurk in the shadows of our world.
As she picks up abilities like a double jump, glide, and wall run, Hazel too gains new combat abilities. Armed with knitting needles (of a sort), she can attack Haints by lashing them, pulling them close, or pushing them away. Not long after, both Hazel and the player realise that all this is secondary to a Weaver’s true calling: mending pain in people, and in the world.
I won’t get into specifics of how this realisation comes to be, but the narrative that’s woven throughout this specific chapter is incredibly compelling. I found myself pausing my playthrough to search so many things: Haints, bottle trees, boo-rags, and the Haint blue colours that were painted on porches, doors, and windowsills of long-abandoned homes in Hazel’s local of Prospero.
After said exploration down a very long rabbit hole, I returned to South of Midnight to uncover secrets in the region that had profound impact on those that live there. I’m being vague on purpose, for as to tell you of this would be to take away the power that this chapter holds.
South of Midnight excels when it comes to exploration, both in its setting and underpinning lore, but in the way its world is laid out. Platforming is a joy, and chaining jumps, glides, and the like to get to areas you thought were unreachable is a delight. There are collectibles aplenty, and finding them will buff Hazel or provide more insight into the Deep South. Both are welcome.
This is all, of course, coupled with South of Midnight‘s visual style, part-claymation and part-Spider-Verse. Things are fluid — despite the intentional adjustment to framerates — and run very well on both Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X.
On the flipside, I struggled to connect with South of Midnight‘s combat. It seems jarring and disconnected too — like its visual style, I suppose, but in a way that doesn’t mesh. I got better at combat after realising I simply needed to stop attacking and dodge whenever I saw a red indicator on-screen. That realisation cemented that combat was a necessary evil; a means to get to the next bit of exploration that I longed for.
To say that South of Midnight resonated with me would be a gross understatement. Combat aside, it’s incredibly unique and experimental in so many ways. My fear is that players will give this a miss because it isn’t just standard fare. Maybe an extended release over on PS5 would actually help in that respect, more than making the likes of Forza Horizon 5, anyway.
South of Midnight is planned for an 8 April 2025 release on Windows PC, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X. It’ll also be available through Xbox Game Pass.
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South of Midnight8 April 2025PC Xbox Series S & X
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