"South of Midnight" tested: a playable fairy tale with dreamlike visuals and a dull combat system
3/4/2025
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Domagoj Belancic
The new Xbox game from "We Happy Few" developer studio Compulsion Games enchants with a fairytale presentation and disappoints with a boring combat system.
Oh man! How I would love to recommend "South of Midnight" to you in this review. Simply because the playable fairytale is so refreshingly different. The audiovisual presentation and the gritty southern folklore feel wonderfully fresh. Or have you ever fought a mythical albino crocodile in a game while a country song plays that tells its backstory? Exactly.
While the game successfully experiments with unconventional ideas, it fails to realise basic gameplay elements. The dull combat system, the sluggish controls and the unspectacular level design repeatedly pulled me out of the fairytale world during the ten-hour adventure.
After me, the deluge
I take on the role of 19-year-old Hazel Flood, who lives with her mother somewhere in the deep south of the USA. During a violent hurricane, her mum and her house are swept away into a magical world full of mythical creatures.
While searching for her missing house and parents, Hazel discovers that she has superpowers. She belongs to a select group of magical weavers who use special weaving tools to fight dark forces. This is quite fitting, as the fairytale world of "South of Midnight" is full of ghosts and monsters that hinder Hazel in her search for her mother.
Sooooo beautiful
On my adventure, I explore swamplands, an abandoned pig farm and a rugged mountain area, among other things. The game environments are graphically impressive with an art style characterised by bold colours, lots of details and striking outlines of objects and characters. Everything I see has a slight comic book touch - Hazel's proportions are not quite right, the buildings are built at an angle and the vegetation swirls and winds through the landscape with angular edges and large thorns.
The lighting is also particularly successful, bathing the scenery mostly in golden hues. The interiors, which range from decaying swamp huts to luxurious estates, are also a real feast for the eyes. I always find myself pausing to take screenshots to capture the special atmosphere. In still images, the game sometimes looks like an oil painting.
In motion, the game is reminiscent of works such as "Wallace & Grommit" or the "Spider-Verse" films. Hazel and the mythical creatures in "South of Midnight" are animated with a special stop-motion look. This makes the characters look almost like animated clay figures. This effect is particularly effective in the cutscenes. Unfortunately, the visual gimmick is not used consistently during the gameplay - a shame.
Only games can do this
The background music is also a major highlight. The soundtrack mixes country, jazz and blues elements, perfectly emphasising the special southern feeling. Particularly cool: Many songs contain vocal elements and lyrics that relate to what I am currently experiencing.
The musical accompaniment is at its best during the boss battles. At irregular intervals, Hazel faces giant mythical creatures, some of which are hostile to her. She has to climb a gigantic giant tree, fight a monster owl or survive attacks by a giant spider. Many of these creatures have their origins in "real" mythical creatures from southern USA folklore.
The monsters have a tragic background story and were once normal people - or animals. In small story snippets, I learn what the mythical creature in the respective game area is all about. The mythical creatures' traumatic memories have manifested themselves in magical nodes scattered throughout the levels. Hazel can unknot these with her weaving tool and thus look into their past.
The overarching story of Hazel and her missing mother didn't really grab me - but the heartbreaking stories of the mythical monsters fascinated me all the more. The more I learn about them, the less I see them as enemies and the more I feel sympathy for them.
While untangling the nodes, I realise that the giant tree used to be a mentally impaired boy called Benjy. He was bullied by everyone and eventually murdered by his brother. As I climb the tree, the brother confesses his guilt musically:
«He was my brother, Benjy his name // He saw things different, he was my shame // I said goodbye, I said farewell // I took my hammer, my ticket to hell»
The albino monster crocodile mentioned at the beginning was once kept in captivity and almost starved to death. It began to eat itself until it only had two toes left on its feet - hence the nickname "Two-Toed Tom". The story of the mythical giant crocodile is also set to music during the boss fight:
What particularly fascinates me about these game sequences is the way in which the music is interwoven with the gameplay. The songs react dynamically to the combat and my actions. They are not just passive background music, but an interactive part of my gaming experience. Storytelling, music and gameplay intertwine, creating magical moments that would not be possible in any other medium.
Monotonous level design
These special game passages stand in stark contrast to the rest of the game, which sometimes seems generic and uninspired in comparison.
The level design of the beautiful game worlds fulfils its purpose, but leaves a conservative and unspectacular impression overall. The process is always the same: Hazel traverses a level in search of clues and magical nodes. Once she has completed everything, she is sent to the boss fight.
The environments are linear and offer little space to explore. Every now and then, I discover exciting notes in small forks that tell me more about the lore of the game world. I also collect upgrade points for Hazel's skill tree - more on this below - away from the main paths.
Hazel moves acrobatically through the levels. As an athletics runner, she runs and jumps around at lightning speed. With her magical weaving tool, she can also run along walls and glide through the air for a short time.
Hazel's moveset is successful and varied, but the controls feel imprecise in hectic moments. Hazel often jumps or moves a little too much or too little. The sluggish camera is also unable to keep up in many situations. Platformer passages in particular don't feel as smooth as I'm used to from other games.
From time to time I am confronted with very, very shallow puzzles. I usually just have to activate a switch or move something to progress. During the course of the game, I also find my lost stuffed animal "Crouton", which has come to life in the magical world. Hazel can take control of the toy and use it to navigate to places she can't reach. It's actually a cool idea - unfortunately, it's very rarely used in a creative way.
Nope, not again!
While I can live with the unspectacular level design and sluggish controls, the repetitive and frequent battles really annoy me. They really spoil my overall impression of the game.
On her rescue mission, Hazel is repeatedly attacked by black spirits. This usually happens at the aforementioned nodes with traumatic memories that Hazel has to unravel. The battles take place in small, enclosed arenas. These empty areas are separated from the rest of the levels. They therefore do not offer any exciting interactive elements that Hazel could use in battle.
Source: Compulsion Games
There are a handful of different ghost types that differ in their attack patterns and visual appearance. The minimal variance between the ghosts is not enough to provide variety. After the fifth fight at the latest, which always follows the same pattern, I'm no longer interested in the ugly black blobs of colour.
During the course of the game, Hazel unlocks new abilities via the skill tree. She can pull enemies towards her, paralyse them or even control them for a short time with Crouton. However, even the additional abilities do not manage to noticeably enhance the dull and repetitive battles. The motto is: hit, dodge, get annoyed by the sluggish camera, repeat. Over and over again. It's a mystery to me how an otherwise so creative and lovingly realised game can confront me with such horribly generic enemies and a frighteningly boring combat system.
Source: Compulsion Games
"South of Midnight" is available from 8 April for Xbox Series X/S and PC as well as in Game Pass. The "Premium Edition" will be available from 3 April. The game was provided to me for testing purposes by Microsoft for the Xbox Series X.
In a nutshell
A fantastically beautiful fairy tale, caught between creativity and monotony
The playable fairy tale "South of Midnight" impresses above all with its audiovisual presentation. The southern atmosphere is perfectly captured with a detailed art style and interactive soundtrack. Narratively, the game works particularly well in the small story vignettes about the various mythical creatures from southern folklore. In terms of gameplay, however, the game disappoints with its conservative level design and monotonous battles. These are in stark contrast to the otherwise loving and creative realisation.
Pro
- Beautiful game worlds with southern flair
- Successful soundtrack with interactive elements
Contra
- Boring combat system
- Linear and monotonous level design
Header image: Compulsion Games
Domagoj Belancic
Senior Editor
Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.chMy love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.
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