South of Midnight Arms-on: A Beautiful, Pull-No-Punches Fairytale

February 11, 2025

At first blush, South of Midnight could possibly be described as a basic action-adventure: a heroine thrust from unusual life right into a exceptional journey; magical weapons and skills; capability ability timber. However spend just some minutes with it, and that feeling merely floats away. We’ve by no means seen a gaming world fairly like this. In taking part in by way of its full third chapter, it’s a revelation that strikes time and again – this setting, this story, these concepts, even the music are one thing model new, all underpinned by difficult fight and blissful exploration alongside the best way.

The preview begins as our hero, Hazel, has already set off to search out her mom, who’s been swept away by a flood. Earlier than we step into her sneakers, she’s found she’s a Weaver, in a position to wield an historical type of magic that enables her to struggle and discover by pulling on the once-invisible threads holding actuality collectively. However round her, that actuality appears to be warping. We step right into a Deep South-inspired countryside that Hazel doesn’t acknowledge – and that’s, in locations, actively hostile to her.

Atone for the story of South of Midnight.

Trailers have confirmed us lots of the world and story of South of Midnight, however getting your palms on it reveals the tight, action-focused sport simmering beneath. As you journey the world, you’ll see shimmering spheres of vitality, refracting gentle like an oil-slicked puddle. Getting into one will see you dealing with off in opposition to Haints, creatures from actual Southern folklore. These creatures are available numerous varieties – some rush you, pulling off melee flurries, others flee for ranged assaults, whereas some merely pump out grotesque bugs to harry you. It rapidly turns into a component of technique to work out which Haint must be taken down first in any given scenario.

South of Midnight doesn’t pull its punches right here. Fight is difficult, typically pitting you in opposition to a number of Haints directly, every in a position to lop off chunks of your health-bar in a single hit. It transforms right into a lean, quick motion sport in these moments – you’ll flit round shimmering arenas switching up your assaults to manage. Melee combos are the apparent fixtures, in a position to take down enemies quickest, however leaving you open to follow-ups. You’ll even have magic at your disposal; enemies may be pushed and pulled (you may even fling smaller enemies as an ersatz weapon), or tied down with magical strands.

Upgrades will let you specialize additional – I rapidly opted for a passive capability that made tied enemies take extra harm, permitting me to neutralize and take down main threats rapidly. Aggression is vital right here – even an ideal dodge turns into an assault, setting off a blast of weaving magic the place you as soon as stood. It’s a fantastic first impression – there’s extra ticking away below the floor of fight than you would possibly anticipate.

And none of that is to talk to the way it strikes. Every character has been constructed to imitate the seems to be of hand-crafted stop-motion maquettes – in cutscenes, they tackle a beautiful, virtually uncanny motion type that echoes the animation classics it attracts from. Whenever you take management, nevertheless, it’s fantastically clean, every of your actions reacting to your button presses instantly, by no means dropping the immediacy of an motion sport. The added artwork is in how easily Compulsion transitions between the 2.

Then there’s the world round these characters. Islands jut out of mangrove swamps, deserted shacks and tumbledown walkways failing to resist nature’s chokehold round them. Big tangles of thorns block your path, and big peaches bob, gently rotting within the water. Attain larger floor, and also you’ll discover that, regardless of the traversable areas being compact knots of sensible degree design, the world you may see extends far past what you may really contact, providing a way of big scale to your travels. It’s a thrillingly unfamiliar location for a sport, all pulled collectively by unbelievable lighting, a low solar casting soupy beams by way of the knotted treeline and low-hanging mist enveloping you.

Getting round this world is a matter of utilizing your Weaving powers (all of your fight magic can be utilized in exploration, too) – conjuring remnants of the previous again into existence that will help you platform round, gliding throughout the flooded panorama, and utilizing your powers to push and pull the world round you to uncover paths to hidden particulars. There’s a particular path to comply with (which you’ll be able to be guided together with a click on of the best stick), however nooks and crannies maintain improve supplies on your talents, to not point out narrative-widening notes. Understanding your powers, and the clues given by the world round you, will see you spending simply as a lot day off the overwhelmed path as on it.

When you’ve determined to comply with the golden path, nevertheless, you meet Catfish, the sport’s mixed narrator/companion character, who’s presently trapped within the clutches of a humanoid tree – the mission he offers you works on one thing like dream logic. To safe his launch, you want to gather a magic bottle from a bottle tree (you may see one on the sport’s brand), and use it to soak up the latent psychic ache that’s twisting the tree, and the realm round it.

Whereas this will sound a bit whimsical, the trauma you’re making an attempt to heal is rapidly revealed to be spectacularly darkish – with out spoiling something, you’ll slowly study the story of how this a part of the world has remodeled an everyday man right into a horizon-blocking tree by way of a (tragically shortened) lifetime of torment.

It’s one other aspect of South of Midnight that feels refreshingly new – identical to the fight, this story doesn’t maintain again. Hazel isn’t afraid to swear (let’s face it, you’ll too should you have been in her scenario), and the tales she uncovers are removed from the fairytales we’re used to. Compulsion Video games has at all times known as this a Southern Gothic story, and that’s extremely evident – the tales it tells may be actually bleak, and there’s no flinching from the horror that’s suffused this world. Hazel’s function as a Weaver is to fix what’s damaged – and this world is very damaged.

However South of Midnight has extra surprises in retailer. Simply as you’re feeling you have got a deal with on the movement of fight and exploration, the preview enters its last levels by turning the tables on you – one thing unkillable begins to chase you, and fight rapidly turns to flee. In an exhilarating sequence, the light platforming you’ve been doing out of the blue turns into a survival methodology, asking you to string collectively jumps, glides, and wall runs to get again to security. South of Midnight is prepared to shift issues on a dime, altering the type of the sport you’re taking part in below your ft.

The preview’s standout last sequence does this another time. We already knew that each main space within the sport will function a Legendary Creature – gigantic obstacles drawn from actual folklore, standing in Hazel’s approach. However right here, we understand that not all the Legendary Creatures will finish with the anticipated boss battle. You’re in the end a healer, not a destroyer, and on this case, that enormous tree you’re aiming to treatment isn’t a menace – it’s simply harm. The climax of this degree sees you scaling your approach up, providing an unbelievable view of in every single place you’ve simply journeyed, to not kill your goal, however heal its wound.

As you tackle this platforming problem, the sport’s music displays your ascent. All through the extent, you’ll have heard snatches of a music float like mist throughout the soundtrack, however as you climb, that music involves life, telling the story you’ve pieced collectively, providing extra data for each bough you attain. It’s a wedding of gameplay, story, and music in a single second – there’s nothing fairly prefer it.

And that goes for this sport as an entire – a single degree reveals how Compulsion Video games has created one thing actually distinctive. If there’s a lot that feels new, this early within the sport, that solely makes its mysteries additional down the road all of the extra compelling.

South of Midnight will likely be out there on April 8, 2025, on Xbox Collection X|S, Xbox App for Home windows PC, Steam and cloud, and arrives on day one with Sport Move. If you wish to immerse your self into the macabre and fantastical world of South of Midnight early, get the Premium Edition to play as much as 5 days early, and get entry to digital extras.

South of Midnight Premium Version

Xbox Sport Studios

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$49.99

Immerse your self into the macabre and fantastical world of South of Midnight with the Premium Version, which incorporates the complete sport, as much as 5 days early entry, and digital entry (in English) to:
• South of Midnight Artbook
• Authentic Soundtrack composed by Olivier Deriviere
• The Boo-Hag Comedian guide by Rob Guillory
• Music Video: Songs & Tales of South of Midnight
• Documentary: Weaving Hazel’s Journey, Director’s Lower

UNRAVEL THE PAST
From the creators of Distinction and We Blissful Few, South of Midnight is a spellbinding third individual action-adventure sport set within the American Deep South.

As Hazel, you’ll discover the mythos and encounter creatures of Southern folklore in a macabre and fantastical world. When catastrophe strikes her hometown, Hazel is named to grow to be a Weaver: a magical mender of damaged bonds and spirits. Imbued with these new talents, Hazel will confront and subdue harmful creatures, untangle the webs of her circle of relatives’s shared previous and – if she’s fortunate – discover her solution to a spot that seems like house.

A DARK MODERN FOLKTALE
When a hurricane rips by way of Prospero, Hazel is pulled right into a Southern Gothic world of reminiscence made actual and should embark on a journey to rescue her mom and safeguard her hometown. On this folktale for contemporary occasions, Hazel might want to reconcile the burden of household, historical past, and legacy in opposition to her personal id.

CONFRONT MYTHICAL CREATURES
Wield an historical energy to revive creatures and uncover the traumas that devour them. Solid weaving magic to struggle damaging Haints, discover the various areas of the South, and reweave the tears within the Grand Tapestry.

HAUNTING BEAUTY OF THE GOTHIC SOUTH
Uncover the luxurious, decayed county of Prospero and its locals. Expertise a crafted visible type, touching storytelling, and immersive music impressed by the advanced and wealthy historical past of the South.