South of Midnight Review (Xbox Series X|S)

Ever since wrapping up my early preview of the game almost two months ago now, I've been desperate to get back to Xbox's South of Midnight. That single-chapter sneak peek drew me in with its gorgeous visuals, smooth gameplay and undeniable charm - I just needed a bit more context to get a proper idea of what Compulsion Games was going for. Now, after rolling credits on South of Midnight, I can confidently say that this is one of my favourite Xbox Game Studios releases in ages.

Here's the basic premise: you play as Hazel, a young woman on a quest to save her mother after a deadly storm wreaks havoc in the Deep South. The adventure starts out as a grounded, desperate scramble to help and ultimately save the ones you love, until Hazel realises she's a 'Weaver'; a unique character that can interact with some of the more supernatural goings on down there. There's a nice bit of growth to Hazel as you progress through the game, and she becomes a more-than-capable monster-whooping young gal by journey's end.

Despite a lowkey start to South of Midnight's story, the characters in this game are immediately captivating - and that always helps in bringing the player along for the ride. Hazel conveys emotion so well, and the little nuances in her performance are brought to life in fantastic fashion. Honestly, the whole cast does an amazing job here - and this aspect of the game feels like a real step up in comparison to previous efforts from Compulsion Games. As I mentioned in my preview, the big talking fish is also a real highlight - so bloomin' charming!

Another huge plus point to South of Midnight are the game's gorgeous, varied visuals. What you've seen from early pre-release footage only scratches the surface - you'll explore the beautiful gardens of some big old Deep South mansions, you'll cross muddy wastelands that have been devastated by the storm, you'll creep through foggy swamps and abandoned shipwrecks as you uncover the game's intriguing mysteries. Part Jungle Book, part Disney's The Haunted Mansion, South of Midnight absolutely nails its overall aesthetic and is a true lesson in how far art design can propel a game's graphical presentation.

Right, enough fawning over the game's characters and visuals for a moment - what about gameplay? Well, South of Midnight very much splits its gameplay into traversal and combat, and the two are rarely intertwined. You see, as Hazel weaves her way through the environment (you see what I did there), you'll come across these locked off combat arenas that are pretty much entirely separate to general traversal. And, to be honest, South of Midnight handles one of these gameplay styles a bit better than the other.

I really like the way you get about the place in South of Midnight. The game's movement mechanics and platforming sections aren't exactly revolutionary, but the game just feels awesome to play as you glide about, exploring its lovely environments. You've got a double jump, a glide, the ability to wall-run, a magical grappling hook of sorts and a helpful wee companion to get where you need to go - and it all works really well when stitched together. Every time I spotted a little side path to gather resources I'd always be happy to go explore it, and this element of gameplay is absolutely a win here.

However, combat is a little weaker, I must admit. To be clear, there's nothing wrong with the fighting mechanics in South of Midnight — they work just fine — but the systems in play here are somewhat limited, and a bit repetitive. You get multiple Weaver moves you can pull off — and build out via a skill tree of sorts — but ultimately, the game's combat arenas will often boil down to quite a bit of button mashing. I must admit that at times you'd get into a real flow, bouncing from one enemy to another and harvesting them a bit like a DOOM glory kill, but I never really looked forward to fighting in South of Midnight. The gated-off nature of these combat arenas also makes them seem like a bit of an afterthought in some ways - it almost feels like you're playing two separate games; the story/traversal bits and the gated-off combat arenas.

There are some boss fights woven throughout the game as well, but I won't get too deep into those to avoid spoiling them. What I will say is that they're super creative in their visual design, but fairly bog standard when it comes to actually fighting them - fitting for how the rest of the game shapes up. Personally, I've never been a huge fan of boss fights in video games so I don't really see this as a negative - I get to see some awesome, large scale monster design without the game artificially holding back my progress through the story. So, yep, boss fights are a box ticked but it's best to not expect anything too creative here when it comes to engaging with them.

Playing on Xbox Series X here, there's no sort of visual modes or tweaks to speak of. South of Midnight simply runs at 60 frames per-second, and despite the odd hiccup here and there, I was more than happy with its performance and presentation. The game's stop-motion elements do naturally run at a slower frame rate — and they can be switched off in gameplay — but they give the game a real sense of style, so I left them on throughout and had no real issues. As I mentioned earlier, South of Midnight's presentation feels like a big step up from Compulsion's previous efforts, and it's nice to see them get the time and space needed to build this game beautifully on Xbox Series X|S.