South of Midnight Review: One to experience

So make sure you do!

South of Midnight has been on my radar since it was first announced back in 2023. Leaning heavily into Southern folklore, developer Compulsion Games’ latest also carried with it a distinct, frame-jumping visual style. It looked, sounded, and seemed to act different to most.

While that had me hopeful, I couldn’t help but keep Compulsion’s We Happy Few in the back of my mind. While it intrigued us all in its own reveal announcement, it certainly did not live up to what it had promised.

Thankfully, South of Midnight accomplishes what it has set out to do, offering players something truly unique, empathetic, and enthralling.

Set over 14 chapters and taking approximately 8-10 hours to complete, South of Midnight takes place in Prospero, a small town in the American Deep South. Players are immediately introduced to Hazel, a high school graduate looking to transition her track and field skills to college. 

Hazel lives with her mother, a compassionate social worker who spends more time with her clients than her own daughter; her father, sadly, passed away many years prior. Even facing a massive hurricane that’s descending upon the town, Hazel stops and uses precious time to remind her mother of the pain her absence causes.

One thing leads to another, and Hazel finds herself separated from her mother. As she sets off through flooded swamplands to find her, Hazel learns there’s more to herself — and to the town — than she’s ever realised.

Most importantly, Hazel discovers that she’s Prospero’s latest Weaver, armed with magical tools and abilities each designed to mend pain and restore harmony. She and the player use the first couple chapters of the experience to find and use these tools — most upgradeable as you progress — but each chapter involves learning more about Prospero, its inhabitants, and Hazel herself. 

In addition to the floodwaters that have made usual paths unreachable, a stigma — a literal manifestation of sorrow — has fallen upon Prospero. To clear it, Hazel needs to unravel the source of said pain, either a core that’s infected a small area, or a larger mythical entity that has far larger reach.

South of Midnight is equal parts platformer and fighter. Hazel has traversal abilities including a double jump, glide, and wall run, and these are used not only to get from point to point, but to creatively explore. As I said direct from my preview, “platforming is a joy, and chaining jumps, glides, and the like to get to areas you thought were unreachable is a delight.”

There are so many collectibles to find in each chapter and all are useful, either empowering Hazel or providing more insight into Prospero or legends of the Deep South. These moments of exploration and learning are undoubtedly my favourite bits of Compulsion’s latest; so much so, that I wish they were in place of most combat encounters.

Combat is a mixed bag. Hazel is armed with light and heavy attacks, alongside special abilities that push, pull, puppet, or bind enemies called Haints. Combat encounters take place in obvious arenas that close up until you’ve bested all opponents, with combat itself asking the player to rely upon coloured prompts to dodge attacks and deal damage.

South of Midnight‘s combat isn’t bad, it just… is. It’s never too difficult or frustrating, but I found engagements to be a bit uninspired. Boss battles feel the same, merely bits you must engage in to get back to the story and exploration. If you feel about them as I do, it needs to be pointed out that you can go into difficulty settings and remove these bits practically altogether.

I’ve steered away from talking too much of South of Midnight‘s story and characters because they’re better experienced directly. While the core of Compulsion’s latest is rather formulaic — stop the stigma, fill your blue bottle, confront pain, have a chase sequence with ragtime-inspired tunes, explore while a bespoke song plays, fight a boss — its fleshed-out world and Deep South stylings make it all incredibly enthralling and engaging. I even grew to love Crouton.

South of Midnight‘s visual style, part-claymation and part-Spider-Verse, works well to give proceedings a unique look and feel, but framerates certainly fluctuate between gameplay and cutscenes; that change is noticeable and distracting. I also encountered sound clipping at various parts of my playthrough, though Compulsion has noted that as an issue in their pre-release documentation.

I also had one cutscene where an NPC who was speaking to me wasn’t being rendered at all; I only noticed he was supposed to be there because the cigarette he was “holding” eventually came into frame a bobbed along the screen.

On the flipside, the experience I had on Xbox Series X was the same as on Xbox Series S, and the same again when playing on my 2020 Surface Book 3 i7. I don’t give Xbox Play Anywhere as much credit as I should of late.

An incredible mix of exploration, story, and setting, South of Midnight certainly resonated with me. While its individual parts mightn’t be groundbreaking, the way in which Compulsion Games has combined them certainly is. This is definitely one worth checking out.

South of Midnight heads to Windows PC, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X from 8 April 2025, or earlier through more expensive editions. It’ll also be available through Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.

South of Midnight was reviewed primarily using a promotional code on Xbox Series S and Windows PC via the Microsoft Store, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.

South of Midnight 8 April 2025 PC Xbox Series S & X   Buy on Windows PC: Steam Buy on Xbox: Microsoft Store