Here’s a fun fact. I have always been into folk tales and mythology. I am mostly into Greek Mythology, which is why I loved God of War from the PS2/3 era. If you sit me down anywhere, and start spinning about old tales about entities and beings, I won’t believe you, but I’ll still find it absolutely fascinating. I’ll listen to anything once or twice, and may even research it to see how far, or how believable, these myths are.
So imagine Microsoft, and Compulsion Games takes those myths, and puts them into an action adventure game held in the deep south. Again, I’m all ears, or in this case, all eyes. But much like someone sitting me down and spinning about old tales, it’s fun to watch and listen to, but hard to believe. This will be a non-spoiler review. And the word of the day, is “consistency.”
South of Midnight tells the tale of hardly mentioned track star, Hazel Flood. Hazel and her mother are in the middle of hurricane season, and one is bearing down on their small impoverished town of Prospero. Hazel and her mother Lacey are packing to prepare to find higher ground and shelter. Her mother is a social worker and ended up being late to get home. At the request of her mom, Hazel reluctantly goes out to check on two of her neighbors to make sure they’re ok in the storm. You know, during the hurricane. With the wind and rain blowing in her face.
It’s already time to suspend your disbelief.
While talking to one of the neighbors, Hazel hears a loud crash and looks to see her home being washed away down the river—with her mother in it. Hazel, again, in the storm that just took an entire trailer off its foundation, takes off after it. In the distance she sees her house, carried further than reach, and a monster that gives Kaiju vibes. I’d watch Gojira vs. Nawlins in a heartbeat.
Now you don’t have to be the brightest firefly in the bayou to know that Hazel is your main protagonist. This is your first time controlling Hazel, and whoever was the engineer behind her movement should hold a masterclass. Hazel moves amazingly well. She can sprint endlessly. There is no stamina bar. You actually have to stop running, or click the right control stick again, to get here to do a small trot. She eventually gets a double jump, a wall run, she can swing from vines and branches, and use her magic to float.
Every single thing you want her to do, is done with precision. One of the best characters I’ve ever felt full control of on a video game. No fall damage. No nonsense. There’s even a chase scene that pops up, and though you can skip this, I recommend doing it, as it is mental exercise for more control over the game. There are a few nuances with the in-game environments, because as I’ve stated earlier, the word of the day is consistency.
You will scream louder than a bullfrog’s croak at the first stage hazard: water. Because the town is so gross, and I suppose uninhabitable, Hazel cannot fall into water without taking damage. It’s not damage over time, it’s screen fading water damage. Even in the shallow water, Hazel will take damage, and reappear on the screen at the last checkpoint. This will happen often as you test your navigation skills.
The second major environmental damage is bramble. Thick branches covered by thorns will chip away at Hazel’s health bar like some cheap hooch. Sometimes, there are thorns that protract and retract. If she gets caught in those, you’ll take multiple hits. Hazel does not have an invincibility cooldown, so once she’s trapped, just mash on your jump button to lessen the blow.
If you let Hazel perish, she’ll come right back. The game wants you to win. It’s one of those unlimited-lives keep-respawning games. You’ll be finer than the wife of that trumpet player you saw downtown at the jazz spot.
As you progress in the story, you find out that Hazel’s grandmother has been studying Weavers and their magic abilities. As she navigates through, she finds weaving hooks. These are Hazel’s main weapons to defend herself.
When the music comes to a halt, and it’s time to fight. The game does teach you how to control Hazel’s attacks, and they are just one button mostly. She can use a jump strike to extend her combos, or she can use a charge attack. The enemies that stand in your way are called Haints. The game lets you know that these monsters come from a combination of townspeople sorrows and stigma.
There isn’t a wide variety of these creatures, but they’re enough to be more painful than losing your dog to one of them gators on a hot day. Once defeated, Hazel can unravel them and get some of the life they surely have taken away. There’s also a life refill, one per battle.
Dodging is your friend, and on perfect dodging, it’ll knock back enemies, later restraining them. Again, if at first you don’t succeed, die, die again. Is it hand holding? Yes. Is it more fun than watching your dog holler our the window on a hot day right before you watch him get mauled by that gator? Yes.
To add to her powers, she also eventually gains spindles. Spindles adds more magical moves to her arsenal, such as weaving a strand to pull enemies closer to you. Of course I screamed, “Get over here!” every time I did it. I’m a gamer.
She also gets a magical iteration of her childhood toy named Crouton. Crouton helps you get into smaller places during the campaign. He’s an absolute gem in battles. You can throw him toward any enemy and he will take over that enemy like a charm spell. That enemy turns from red to blue, and helps you fight the other Haints. The more powerful ones will kick out Crouton quicker than a man on horseback caught cheating with the milk maid.
There is a skill tree for both Hazel’s regular attacks, and her spindle spells, and you power those up with the only in game currency, Floofs.
It’s easy to get a little turned around. With a click of the joystick, you can have a guide tell you where to go. I hardly used my guide to do this, but I did use the guide to tell me that there may be Floofs around. Floofs are hidden off the linear path. The more you collect, the more you can power up your attacks.
There are only nine general attacks, while there are four spindle attacks that you can power up three times. Every time Floofs are collected, the game will tell you how much and if there’s an upgrade available. Power up at your own detriment, but I found that going straight down the general tree was the right move.
The game does handcuff you quicker than a drunkard on a night out during Fat Tuesday, but only for a short time. You can’t just be out there smashing Haints without getting more of that story. The Floofs are non-refundable, so make sure you do the right thing the first time. There are also life extensions, and the game tells you if you missed some—for replay value.
All of those powers and abilities I mentioned will be also used during the campaign. You will use the push and pull magic to help you with platforming. You will use the thread to swing through trees, or pull yourself to an island. You’ll make things from the past reappear to go further, like bridges, and ledges. Be sure to look every where for things. If you can’t go further in a certain part, the game will show you, just as it will show you what to do to proceed. Sometimes you have to trigger cut scenes.
This leads me to the lore, and that is what hooked me (get it?). The game has lore for every single character Hazel comes in contact with. They also have lore ready for every creature and world. To be honest, this is the most elaborate part of the game.
As you’re going through the campaign, there are pages, murals, and even pictures you can interact with. Hazel has a quip for each one. There are some blanks here and there, because maybe you missed one, or maybe you didn’t suspend your disbelief enough.
There’s even a tab for cosmology, explaining the environment in detail. Just don’t look at the lore for the creatures once you run into them for the first time. One’s story was ruined for me via the description and the animation. Because the word of the day is consistency.
The boss battles are excellent. Larger than life, and stressful, but fulfilling. These monsters will be trying to tear you apart. And you will die a lot. The game will tell you what you can do to avoid attacks, but it doesn’t always work, so make sure you’re finding your own strategy, and you’ll be unraveling knots in absolutely no time. Beat the stigma out of em!
Ok, so let me get this fly out of my soup. The stop animation is cool, for the first 10-15 minutes. I was playing this on an Xbox Series X, on an LG OLED TV, which means that with the FPS setting, and the TV setting, the stop motion animation just kind of goes away. I ended up turning it off in the myriad options and customizations.
They really thought of a lot, but you can only turn off the stop animation for Hazel. Everything else in the environment stays with it, and it’s a little jarring at times. It wasn’t that much of a hinderance, and may seem a little nit picky, but it’s there. Again, a myriad audio and video options, including accessibility and difficulty. In this case, the South is your gumbo.
The word of the day is consistency. This may be my fault going in, but I thought the music was going to be so good. Really really good. I over hyped myself, because while it isn’t all bad, there are some ear sores that made me want to take a nice swim in a raging Mississippi River. I found out later that you can turn this off, but the lead vocal will just interject with lyrics of something you already know or are experiencing at that very moment.
For instance, there’s a character named Rhubarb, and he has a brother name Benjy. The song goes “He was my brother, Benjy’s his name.” I get it. Though the song for Two Toed Tom is pretty cool. I also didn’t like the children singing, until I got why the children were singing. I wanted it to be better, sonically and musically. Think of that meme where the guy is squinting while taking his headphones off. The fact that I’ve resorted to meme culture should tell you why I was so disappointed.
There is a lot of that discovery in this game. You will fill in your own blanks at times, because you missed a page, or the subtitles blended in with the background. This game deals with a lot of traumatic events as well, so brace yourself for a lot of betrayal, murder, and sorrow. Hazel is here to heal, even if it means smacking the wounded around with a needle or two.
It does hook you (there it is again), but then it just kind of ends. I wish there was a little more tying up of some of the loose threads. I get why the antagonist is the antagonist, but do they get to tell you? It kind of left me hanging. And no, you can’t pet the pigs or the cows. The sound cues—when Hazel jumps, floats down, and when she defeats a Haint—are very very cool. They’re even in key with that music, which is a feat in itself.
Overall, I did enjoy South of Midnight. I did catch myself trying to tell some of my non-gaming friends the story, then found myself telling a convoluted story. But I did like the lore. There are some nitpicky things, like Hazel keeps going in and out of an accent. Collision detection with the flora and fauna was a little off, too. The mythical beings are amazing looking. Half the game takes place in the dark, but this is not a bad thing.
Original characters and a relatable protagonist going to save her mom. What more do you need? I personally have more questions, but perhaps that’s the point. Can’t be walking around with a brain bigger than a two-toed alligator named Tom with a small island on his back. And now I’ve said too much. Perhaps I should play it again.
* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company.
