To play South of Midnight is to be transported into a storybook world of magic and monsters. Set in the American South, it follows a young woman named Hazel who discovers her legacy as a “weaver” – a bearer of strange magic which controls the threads of the world. After a magical flood sweeps across her town, she must pick the pieces up, wielding her newfound power to re-thread the world and push back the forces of chaos.
Thanks to Xbox and Compulsion Games, I was recently able to play through the game’s third chapter, and came away feeling buoyant and hopeful about the next steps to come. South of Midnight is unlike anything I’ve played, and with its incredibly unique visual style, and a bounty of rich concepts to play with, it’s already imprinted on my brain.
The crux of the third chapter is about solving a simple puzzle: a giant catfish has been caught by a living tree, and it asks for your help to get free. The catfish is one of many strange, beautiful creatures Hazel meets in South of Midnight, and it’s immediately endearing, thanks to warm, funny voice acting and a script that well-maintains a balance between horror and humour.
Hazel’s circumstances are, understandably, frightening. She’s been thrust into a strange new world, beset by creatures made of darkness and light, and part of her role involves the discovery of inner pain and suffering in a world filled with it. But the script, as far as the third chapter goes, does well to chart emotional shifts in tone – even as the chapter’s tale grows darker, and its beating heart is revealed.
As you explore a swamp filled with strange, dream-like structures, weeping trees, and encroaching darkness, you’ll stumble into a variety of clearings where smog and smoke are thicker and more threatening. Here, you’ll deploy the art of the weaver, in dance-like combat that seems Hazel flitting across the battlefield like a ballerina.
You’ll throw out magical projectiles, spin away from darkness spew, flit back to throw a force field or weaver blast, then duck back as your opponents – strangled creatures of darkness and pain that require unthreading – glow with an explosive light.
This combat takes some getting used to, as in the early stages of the game (but presumably not later), Hazel doesn’t have defensive measures. Rather, she relies on flying through the air with precision, dodging and weaving to avoid enemy attacks. It requires a change in behaviour, particularly if you’ve got baked-in instincts when it comes to video games.
You can’t simply whale on enemies, staggering them into oblivion. You’ve got to avoid attacks while watching enemy motion, analysing patterns and behaviours, flinging yourself forward on invisible wings. Hazel is a relatively delicate fighter and can’t take too much damage, at first, making every attack feel like a smooth tête-à-tête of motion.
It’s different, of course – but beautiful to watch, and I can only imagine combat will grow more complex as Hazel begins to harness her abilities better. In the overarching journey of South of Midnight, I could see the beginnings of this growth, suggesting a deep, character-focussed journey to come.
There are moments where dialogue feels superfluous to fluid action, largely as Hazel maintains a wordy running commentary to keep her sanity as she explores and fights, but voice actor Adriyan Rae manages these moments well, ensuring Hazel is a fun, confident, and often funny protagonist to lead the action. And when it counts, South of Midnight lets its breath-taking visuals do the talking.
Read: South of Midnight officially launches in April 2025
After a brief segment with the caught Catfish, South of Midnight really opens up – and I can see just how bright and visually ambitious the game is going to be. In a word, it’s beautiful. So often, I would stand at the precipice of a cliff, just to look out at the sky, the trees, and the water moving around. Compulsion Games has created a phenomenal-looking world, and it’s supported by the very clever decision to artistically limit frame rate, for a stop-motion feel.
Playing South of Midnight feels like interacting with marionettes, but not so much that you’re taken out of the action. In motion, Hazel simply has a lower frame rate, so you can see her bobbing and weaving in little breaths. This technique is also deployed to show a full range of emotions, which are most clear in her conversations with the catfish.
Every part of Hazel’s face is emotive and expressive. Her eyebrows tweak at varying degrees, her eyes and mouth open wide to convey shock, horror, apprehension. That emotion is often reflected in her body language – shoulders hunched or slumped, arms shrugging. Her model is gorgeous – and this same level of care is reflected in every texture, every environment of the game.
As I charted oozing swamps, rickety homes pulled apart by magical disaster, and forests laced with darkness, I became more in awe of the talented hands behind this game. And at the chapter’s close, Hazel leapt onto the back of the catfish to find new shores – suggesting there are even bigger, brighter worlds to see and marvel at in the coming tale.
This third chapter – my first taste of the game – painted a bright, moving picture of what’s to come, with plenty of rich, compelling concepts illuminating its future direction. In this taste, I was enamoured by Hazel and her complexity, and the strange, surreal world she comes to occupy. South of Midnight does well to explore the layers of its tale, even in this early chapter, and that’s wildly promising for the full game.
For now, I remain incredibly keen to see more – and I await my next taste of South of Midnight with bated breath. At the very least, there isn’t long to go before the game releases, and its entire hand is shown. It’s currently set to launch for Xbox Series X/S and PC on 8 April 2025.
