South of Midnight Review

South of Midnight has been turning heads since its reveal, largely thanks to its fascinating art style that mimics stop-motion animation. After playing through the game and collecting most of the collectibles in the process, I can attest that South of Midnight is indeed gorgeous, and it has a lot of other things to like about it as well, but it falls short in the most important category: the gameplay.

In other categories, South of Midnight produces award-worthy work. The stop-motion art style used for the characters is striking against the game’s stunning environments, with impressive lighting that helps create breathtaking views. South of Midnight players will find themselves stopping to simply take in the sights and admire the craftsmanship that went into building the game world, from the glow of the morning sun shining through a cave to the reflective puddles on the ground. South of Midnight‘s graphics are nothing short of majestic and deserve all the praise they can get.

The same praise can be directed towards South of Midnight‘s audio design and soundtrack. South of Midnight‘s bayou comes to life with the sounds of insects and birds, while the catchy, lyrical folk music adds a lot to the game’s most important scenes. The audio is perfect for South of Midnight‘s Deep South setting, blending with the art style to create the exact vibes that one would expect from a game like this.

South of Midnight is all about Southern folklore, with protagonist Hazel Flood coming face-to-face with jaw-dropping mythical creatures as she explores hollers, boggy swamps, and steep mountains. After a hurricane sweeps her home away, Hazel discovers that she is a weaver, which means she is uniquely equipped to deal with this fantastical world and the creatures that dwell within it. Hazel has an arsenal of magical powers that expand as the game goes on, giving her the tools necessary to complete the variety of platforming and combat challenges that she encounters on her adventure.

South of Midnight‘s story is fairly predictable, but it’s well-acted, and Hazel is a fun character. She has natural and oftentimes amusing reactions to the wild things happening around her, but there are also moments where she pulls at the heart strings. Adriyan Rae turns out an impressive performance as Hazel, and the other characters in the game are all interesting in their own right as well. South of Midnight‘s overarching narrative is supplemented by mini-stories that center around specific folktales that are sometimes disturbing, but are always entertaining.

South of Midnight’s Bland Gameplay Holds It Back

Its characters, graphics, and soundtrack all hit the mark, but South of Midnight‘s gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. There are times when the platforming is fun, with Hazel running on walls, shimmying along edges, and later gliding from one perch to the next, but it never kicks into the next gear. There are chase sequences that pop up multiple times throughout South of Midnight that would have been the perfect opportunity to inject more challenging platforming sections into the game, but they are ultimately toothless. What’s here is functional, but it lacks the “oomph” necessary to make South of Midnight really shine.

Sadly, this extends to South of Midnight‘s combat as well. South of Midnight combat encounters take place in sectioned-off arenas that feel completely disconnected from the game world. While in these arenas, Hazel squares off against Haints, which are boring blobs with mind-numbingly predictable attacks. Hazel herself is equipped with a standard button-mashing attack along with a few special skills that are obtained as players progress through the story, but they hardly shake things up enough to make combat interesting. There isn’t nearly enough enemy variety either, so the fights all play out more or less the same – button mashing, using skills when they’re available, and occasionally dodging.

Perhaps combat could have been made more compelling if Hazel’s skill tree opened the door to more exciting attacks, but as it stands, it’s very basic. The upgrades do give Hazel an edge in battle, but since the Haints never pose a serious challenge after the first few encounters, it’s an edge that she doesn’t really need. Upgrades are purchased using a currency called Floofs, which are the primary collectible in South of Midnight, often tucked away slightly off the beaten path. Floofs are pretty easy to find, with most chapters sticking with a super-linear design.

The only time combat in South of Midnight is ever particularly exciting is during the boss fights, of which there are precious few, and even those fall short of reaching their full potential. The bosses in South of Midnight look incredible, and they are fun at first, but they all go on a little too long. The fights become repetitive and start to suffer from the same problems as the rest of the combat.

South of Midnight gameplay revolves almost entirely around combat and platforming, but there is also light puzzle-solving thrown into the mix. As one might expect, South of Midnight‘s puzzles are perfectly serviceable, but they’re nothing special and do nothing to challenge the player in any way. Most of the time, they consist of using Hazel’s weaving powers to solidify a ghostly object and then moving that object to let her reach the next area. It’s all too basic to be engaging.

The final nail in South of Midnight‘s gameplay coffin is the lack of solid replay value. There are collectibles to find, sure, but there is no chapter select, so going back to get them means replaying the entire game. And considering how linear and basic the whole thing is, that’s not exactly an appealing prospect, even with its short 10-hour runtime.

South of Midnight has 14 chapters. It took me about 10 hours to beat it, but that was with thoroughly exploring every level and finding most of the Floofs and other collectibles.

South of Midnight excels in key areas, but its gameplay is so underwhelming that it’s hard to truly appreciate everything it does well. Those playing South of Midnight on Xbox Game Pass may be more accepting of its shortcomings, and the fact that it’s a budget release also helps, but the game falls well short of its full potential.