GAME CLEAR No. 249 -- South of Midnight

South of Midnight (2025, PC/Xbox Series X|S)

Developer: Compulsion Games
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Clear Version: Xbox Series X
Clear Platform: Xbox Series X
Clear Date: 8/24/25

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Why should I care?
Few tales as reverent and respectful of the South have been told through the medium of video games.

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Down South jukin'

This boy loves his home, the American South. Naturally, I also love art of and about my home. I’m pretty out of the loop on Xbox stuff these days since most of their games arrive on other platforms eventually, so Xbox-exclusive (for now) South of Midnight initially flew under my radar. When a friend who plays primarily on Xbox told me about it, I was immediately enamored with it conceptually. It’s a third-person action game that takes place in the unspecified Deep South in a world of magical realism where some of the scarier bits of Southern folklore are real. Sold! There really aren’t so many games out there that take place in the South and do so as a core part of their identity, so the mere idea of this game is something I really value. Having now played it, I can say it is not a masterpiece, but it’s damn good, and Compulsion Games’ meticulous and loving depiction of the American South, its people, and its traditions means the world to me.

South of Midnight stars Hazel Flood, a recently-graduated high school track star living in Prospero, a town sorta kinda probably in the Mississippi Delta (the game takes some geographic liberties). It’s pronounced “PROSS-purr-oh,” properly butchered as it would be down here. When a hurricane whisks away her home with her mother in it, Hazel chases it downriver and so begins her adventure.

Her home and her mother wash away to quickly for her to keep up, but all is not lost. As the events of the story unfold, Hazel begins to experience paranormal phenomena and discovers artifacts that grant her control over them. She soon encounters a giant talking catfish named Catfish. He informs her that she’s a Weaver, someone capable of interacting with the Strands of the Grand Tapestry of the universe. In particular, she is able to mend the corruption caused by the pain and trauma of humans. In this way, combat is introduced. Throughout the world, “knots” exists, from which “Haints” — the game’s mooks — are spawned. Using her Weaver’s tools, she can battle these baddies and untangle the knot, restoring the Grand Tapestry to its natural state in that area (often clearing physical barriers as well).

Combat is unfortunately where the game is at its weakest. It’s just a bit too simple. It’s a “mash X and dodge in a timely manner” game but without some of the extra wrinkles that elevate that experience. Sure, you get some other fancier moves as the game goes on as you progress through its obligatory skill tree, but Bayonetta or Devil May Cry this is not. I made the questionable choice of playing the game on its hardest difficulty, but I imagine normal is the most pleasant experience. If you really find the combat underwhelming, I think you can even skip encounters altogether. I’d recommend at least fighting the bosses, though, as they’re a solid step up in terms of intrigue.

To be clear, I found the combat passable, but only just. Without any sort of combo system or more sophisticated moveset options, it just became a rather rudimentary game of hitting guys while not getting hit by guys. Playing on a high difficulty made it so I had to try, which I enjoy, but I almost wonder if more trivial encounters would’ve made them seem less tiresome and repetitive overall.

Unfortunately, the other aspects of South of Midnight’s gameplay don’t exactly inspire awe either. Navigating the world of greater Prospero involves a lot of pretty predictable stuff. You’ve got your jump and air dash. Later on you can double-jump and run on walls. Finally, you get a Strand-based grappling hook mechanic. Well-trodden territory here. It’s serviceable but never challenging or interesting. Environmental puzzles are layered on here and there as well, but they never require more than a moment’s thought and generally feel like filler.

Perhaps the most annoying modern gaming trope of all is that the world is absolutely peppered with collectibles. Most of the experience is found in the form of “floofs” throughout the world, usually not particularly cleverly hidden. Health pickups appear here and there as well. Most egregiously, on seemingly every flat surface in the entire game is some hand-written note or book or document with a little lore morsel for you to consume. Some of these are actually nice bits of foreshadowing or story flavor, but the implausibility of their ubiquity and convenient placement makes them a bit of an annoyance and an immersion breaker.

What South of Midnight lacks in riveting gameplay, though, it more than makes up for with its utterly rich and beautiful world. The game’s art direction is outstanding, and its soundtrack and sound design are excellent. It doesn’t matter that the game’s platforming is rudimentary because in every corner of the world you’re traversing there is something stunning to look at and/or listen to. Its sources of inspiration for its boss menagerie taught even this dyed-in-the-wool Southerner a thing or two about Southern folklore. I simply could not get enough.

I can’t really hope to do justice to its visual style with just some text description and a few screenshots, but please know that this game is truly gorgeous. Its world and its characters are colorful and stylized and its people ooze personality before they utter a line of dialog. They’re also animated in a slick stop-motion style (as is its cool, higher-fidelity opening cutscene). Its rural Southern setting provides it a lush, biodiverse outdoor world for Hazel to explore, but if the sights of Southern swamps and farmlands aren’t enough to make you start feeling the humidity on your skin, perhaps the sounds of evening cicadas chirping in the background will.

While those familiar bug sounds perhaps rank as my favorite of South of Midnight’s sonic touches, it’s a competitive list. Its vocal-laden soundtrack is well worthy of praise, with composer Olivier Derivière crossing genres to deliver song after song about the events of the game to accompany the events of the game. I found the lyrics of the first major vocal piece to be a bit gratingly on the nose, but I had no such issues with the remainder of the tracks. Plus, if you don’t love the lead vocal, you can disable it in the options, leaving behind just the skillful backing chorus of children to carry the tune.

The best of these pieces accompany the game’s boss battles and help them swell with drama. The boss music is usually teased in the events leading up to the encounters as the backing chorus (seemingly made up of the spirits of the Grand Tapestry) will occasionally pipe in with a word or two from the song when Hazel uses powers that engage with the Grand Tapestry, such as attacking or double jumping. It’s a brilliant little thing and not something I’ve ever really seen before.

Twice now I’ve praised the boss encounters, but neither time was for their greatest strength, which is in their selection and sources of inspiration. Throughout the game, Hazel must fight daunting beasts from Southern folklore, such as Two-Toed Tom, a Rougarou, and Huggin’ Molly. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit I’d never heard of any of these, but I feel quite enriched to be aware of them now. Compulsion Games took their own spin on each of these Southern cryptids, and their interpretations thereof are wonderfully designed and a treat to experience (and battle).

And that’s where I must return to my praise of Compulsion Games for their dedication to authenticity with this piece. The studio is based in Montreal — far from the Deep South in the True North — but what I’ve read of the development process shows a truly admirable effort to get the setting right. The recorded the aforementioned cicada sounds on location in the South. They consulted with Donna Washington, an expert on Southern folklore, to learn more about those details. They hired Southern musicians to record the game’s impressive soundtrack. I felt at home in the game’s world, and I consider myself pretty picky with respect to this matter.

It’s also no minor detail that this celebration of the South was written by a Black woman (Zaire Lanier) and features a Black woman as its protagonist. The American South is where Black Americans are most densely populated, and they are inextricable from and responsible for so much of the region’s culture. I mentioned that games about the South are rare; Black women as video game protagonists aren’t so common either. As a pair, the two things make perfect sense. Did the choice come under fire from the worst folks online? Of course. Further confirmation that it was the right one.

If the studio did cut any corner with its depiction of the South, it was with its voice acting cast. I don’t have much of an accent myself, but as a native Southerner, I can spot a fake one a mile away. It’s tough to get right, and I don’t really think anyone quite nailed it in this game. It’s far from a deal breaker, but it does seem like a shame to have shied away from Southern voice talent when they actively sought to import so many other elements of the game from the source. Overall, though, that’s about the only fault I can find with this foreign depiction of the American South, which I think is quite the feat.

In the same way that the wonderful Prospero and its surroundings serve as a mediocre playground mechanically, the narrative that drive us and Hazel through it also leaves a bit to be desired. Hazel’s goal to save her mother takes her on a trip through Southern folklore, which is awesome, and her determination makes her easy to root for. Her role as a Weaver is admirable, but some of the wounds she heals in the fabric of the universe seem a bit too little too late. Perhaps to witness past tragedies and just hold compassion for those involved has some value, and maybe there’s a lesson in that, but it made some of the subplots feel unresolved or unsatisfying.

Still, I stand by my claim that South of Midnight’s lovingly-crafted world elevates it to greatness despite the somewhat underwhelming events that actually take place there. That probably sounds like its getting an enormous bump from my personal biases, and that’s probably true — it sure is special to me.