South of Midnight
Main game
3.60 average rating based on 161 ratings
- Developers
- Compulsion Games
- Publishers
- Xbox Game Studios
- Events
- The Game Awards 2025, Black Voices in Gaming 6.9.25, +4 moreThe Game Awards 2025, Black Voices in Gaming 6.9.25, Future Games Show: Spring Showcase 2025, Xbox Developer_Direct 2025, Xbox Games Showcase 2024, Xbox Games Showcase 2023 less
- Platforms
- Nintendo Switch 2, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
- Genres
- Adventure, Platform
- Themes
- Action, Fantasy
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is South of Midnight?
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An incredible experience.
This is one of the very best looking games in Xbox, running at 4K 60FPS, with a stop-motion style of animation I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. It’s done so well you can’t help but fall in love with this amazing, lush part of America. Pair that with incredible modern fairytale storytelling and a cast of excellent heroes and villains, all voiced to perfection by the actors - it really is something to see. Different, fun to play, with loads of collectibles to find and a deep story that pulls at the heart, South of Midnight is THE video gaming gem of the year so far.
Amazing Atmosphere and Unexplored Folklore!
Let's start with: I REALLY enjoyed this game. The setting, the story, the characters, the atmosphere were all top notch. I absolutely loved the world they created and the exploration of American deep south folklore. The game has a modern fairy tale vibe, with all the dark twists and turns of the classics and manages to feel mature (not feel like it's just trying to be mature). While the twists in the story were often predictable, they held my attention with their emotional weight and maturity.
Now, the less good. The gameplay for the most part doesn't do anything more fresh than a PS2 generation action game. It's never bad, but often repetitive and simply mediocre. You get a fair number of abilities for combat and traversal, but they never really do anything special. The combat is fine but honestly doesn't add to the game and is too frequent for how repetitive it is. That said, if you upgrade your abilities and learn to use them well, you can clear most combat encounters very quickly.
The game is a great experience and absolutely worth the price of admission (though for me that price was simply my Game Pass subscription). I …
Let's start with: I REALLY enjoyed this game. The setting, the story, the characters, the atmosphere were all top notch. I absolutely loved the world they created and the exploration of American deep south folklore. The game has a modern fairy tale vibe, with all the dark twists and turns of the classics and manages to feel mature (not feel like it's just trying to be mature). While the twists in the story were often predictable, they held my attention with their emotional weight and maturity.
Now, the less good. The gameplay for the most part doesn't do anything more fresh than a PS2 generation action game. It's never bad, but often repetitive and simply mediocre. You get a fair number of abilities for combat and traversal, but they never really do anything special. The combat is fine but honestly doesn't add to the game and is too frequent for how repetitive it is. That said, if you upgrade your abilities and learn to use them well, you can clear most combat encounters very quickly.
The game is a great experience and absolutely worth the price of admission (though for me that price was simply my Game Pass subscription). I really enjoyed it overall and was genuinely emotionally moved at several points. If you're willing to put up with some dated mechanics and repetitive combat, the payoff is worth it.
2.5 rounded up to a 3
It has a great art style and vibe to it. I enjoyed the level design and the platforming parts but like most people have already said the combat just isn't interesting enough to hold up for the entire game. It isn't a long game but felt like it overstayed it's welcome from time to time just from the combat and gameplay loop being pretty repetitive.. It's still worth a playthrough though.
Worth Playing
I think the visuals and story are great. I think the way it controls is a little rough. I think the Alan Wake style encounters but with DMC fighting are pretty weak.
There is a lot of little annoyances with just playing that I feel hold this back from great but totally worth trying to see how it sits with you,
Dollerz's review of South of Midnight
There's a lot to like about South of Midnight. While it feels very much like an old-school platformer on the PS2 and you're probably not going to find anything here that is innovative or miraculous, it's still an enjoyable ride. The aesthetic, the lighting, the colors and characters of this Louisiana inspired world are terrific. Voice acting is top notch and the soundtrack is inventive, catchy and unique. I really liked Hazel and the Catfish in particular.
I don't think the ending quite landed (I think it's missing a few scenes to cap things off) but overall was pleasantly surprised. Play this with a controller, by the way. Trying to dodge and weave on a keyboard and mouse wasn't ideal.
The word that comes to mind is "Solid"
South of Midnight feels like a southern take on something like Alice in Wonderland - a girl tumbles into a weird hidden world that mixes southern folklore and real-world pain in an interesting way. I found myself moved at times, and even downright captivated by Hazel's story and the beautifully-designed creatures she meets.
Speaking of design - the stop-motion aesthetics are great! You can barely feel them during gameplay (which is good) but they look fantastic in cutscenes. While the enemies are mostly just weird blobs, all the important characters are so unique and beautiful. Top-notch art design, really. They are also voiced expertly, and the dialogue is (for the most part) engaging.
I don't usually notice the soundtrack all that much when I play, but South of Midnight has songs dedicated to each level's story, and they really sweep you up and set the mood perfectly.
The gameplay is more of a mixed bag. I wish the combat was a bit more varied, since later encounters just felt too long - like I get it, I know how to defeat these enemies and how to use my abilities but this is taking too long. Especially true for boss fights. …
South of Midnight feels like a southern take on something like Alice in Wonderland - a girl tumbles into a weird hidden world that mixes southern folklore and real-world pain in an interesting way. I found myself moved at times, and even downright captivated by Hazel's story and the beautifully-designed creatures she meets.
Speaking of design - the stop-motion aesthetics are great! You can barely feel them during gameplay (which is good) but they look fantastic in cutscenes. While the enemies are mostly just weird blobs, all the important characters are so unique and beautiful. Top-notch art design, really. They are also voiced expertly, and the dialogue is (for the most part) engaging.
I don't usually notice the soundtrack all that much when I play, but South of Midnight has songs dedicated to each level's story, and they really sweep you up and set the mood perfectly.
The gameplay is more of a mixed bag. I wish the combat was a bit more varied, since later encounters just felt too long - like I get it, I know how to defeat these enemies and how to use my abilities but this is taking too long. Especially true for boss fights. Platforming is, again, solid but gets kinda boring the more you play. I think the main problem is that the gameplay just feels outdated - this would've been a great action-adventure one of two generations ago, but we've all done this before...
Still, I like the visuals, characters, themes, writing (even when it was a bit on the nose), and overall vibe. Great Game Pass game!
Ride out the storm
I enjoyed my time with SoM. It is a beautiful game to gaze upon.
I never had any motion sickness issues or any graphical hiccups which I think some folks might have had issues with?
The soundtrack is fantastic and has been on my rotation in the classroom already.
Really cool characters with Hazel, catfish and the other creatures(Huggin Molly is creepy awesome) the lore of this game is just so damn entertaining.
It has collectiables for health, upgrades and story notes. It has some wild achievements for finding everything which I’m never really a fan of when it’s lesser collectables like tin flips(finding metal to move) or the upgrade spheres. So I didn’t upgrade everything either cause it’s based upon exploration
Which exploration isn’t a strong suit here. It’s fine and does let you wonder juuuuuust a tiny bit but at times I must have just overlooked things for as simple as it felt.
The upgrades/attacks are pretty basic. Push/pull attacks, a giant blast thing and the little teddy bear can take control of the baddies at times too. Which I feel is more combat than some folks mention but they’re not wrong in the fact the combat it …
I enjoyed my time with SoM. It is a beautiful game to gaze upon.
I never had any motion sickness issues or any graphical hiccups which I think some folks might have had issues with?
The soundtrack is fantastic and has been on my rotation in the classroom already.
Really cool characters with Hazel, catfish and the other creatures(Huggin Molly is creepy awesome) the lore of this game is just so damn entertaining.
It has collectiables for health, upgrades and story notes. It has some wild achievements for finding everything which I’m never really a fan of when it’s lesser collectables like tin flips(finding metal to move) or the upgrade spheres. So I didn’t upgrade everything either cause it’s based upon exploration
Which exploration isn’t a strong suit here. It’s fine and does let you wonder juuuuuust a tiny bit but at times I must have just overlooked things for as simple as it felt.
The upgrades/attacks are pretty basic. Push/pull attacks, a giant blast thing and the little teddy bear can take control of the baddies at times too. Which I feel is more combat than some folks mention but they’re not wrong in the fact the combat it the weakest aspect of the game.
It is very much set in an old school style. It reminds me of say Uncharted with the combat zones and Zelda with the kinda attack three times during boss battle stuff. It very much feels outdated or just that classic combat from like ps2 era or so.
But the story and look/sound of the game made it compelling to complete. I very much enjoyed my time with Hazel and company. Even with all it’s issues I think it’s best to ride out the storm and enjoy the adventure.
3.5
Fantastic world-building, gorgeous art direction and a (mostly) good story marred by unbearably repetitive combat encounters and janky platforming.
South of Midnight builds a world I want to explore and spend time in, and then rips control away from me (including my camera) constantly. It railroaded me through this beautiful world, forcing 'stop here fight 2 waves of enemies, rinse and repeat' encounters every 10 minutes interspersed with very unreliable platforming sections that have often unresponsive controls and hitboxes (not to mention a VERY flighty camera) in an attempt to break up the monotony that just ends up jarring me from enjoying the game world that I want to run around and experience.
I've never had such a great game be so utterly irritating to experience.
I love the characters, the southern folklore, the critters, the mythology,. the overall design--everything but the actual gameplay itself is perfect. Unsatisfying mechanics (I am aware you can skip combat, and I may very well do that next playthrough) just completely rip me from my infatuation in a tedious loop that is painfully repetitive. The story can be quite on-the-nose and lack subtlety, but it is an important tale that--while the execution is …
3.5
Fantastic world-building, gorgeous art direction and a (mostly) good story marred by unbearably repetitive combat encounters and janky platforming.
South of Midnight builds a world I want to explore and spend time in, and then rips control away from me (including my camera) constantly. It railroaded me through this beautiful world, forcing 'stop here fight 2 waves of enemies, rinse and repeat' encounters every 10 minutes interspersed with very unreliable platforming sections that have often unresponsive controls and hitboxes (not to mention a VERY flighty camera) in an attempt to break up the monotony that just ends up jarring me from enjoying the game world that I want to run around and experience.
I've never had such a great game be so utterly irritating to experience.
I love the characters, the southern folklore, the critters, the mythology,. the overall design--everything but the actual gameplay itself is perfect. Unsatisfying mechanics (I am aware you can skip combat, and I may very well do that next playthrough) just completely rip me from my infatuation in a tedious loop that is painfully repetitive. The story can be quite on-the-nose and lack subtlety, but it is an important tale that--while the execution is fumbling--is clearly told with love and respect.
This is so close to an amazing game, there is a wealth of things to love in the world design itself, which is why I bumped to 4 instead of 3 to represent my 3.5 rating. The closest Compulsion has ever come to wholly realizing one of their fantastic concepts. It's a shame they fall short, but a massive step-up from their previous outings and consistent enough to make me excited for what they learn moving forward with whatever their next project may be.
Remember to use all of the abilities in combat. It really helps.
I'm liking a lot about this game so far but oh my god is the "let's make the character do commentary on every little tiny thing the player sees or inspects" on overdrive in this game. Holy shit.
"Show, don't tell" is a great philosophy for visual media in general, but WOW does this protagonist never shut up. She is really cool in cutscenes, but in the gameplay... Oh my god. 🤦Stop.
I feel bad that this game just isn’t quite hitting for me as I would like to reward developers for trying different cultures and thematic worlds and exploring other ideas. But the gameplay is just so wrote and boring. Here’s a platforming section with a few secret resources to find. Here is a small circular combat arena with a bunch of uninteresting monsters to fight. Your special powers have extremely long cool downs so much so that I forget I have them. And even then the powers are a fairly bland force push and force pull.
The game is beautiful, I like the art style, but the story is just kind of standard stranger discovers they are special and are transported to an alternate world to explore. It isn’t compelling enough.
This game reminds me a lot of those movies from the 90s where a kid would fall into a portal and end up somewhere and have to deal with a bunch of weirdos, and fight monsters to rescue their dog or whatever; except in this they say "fuck."
Controls are a little stiff, but excellent presentation.
I am digging the aesthetic and the unusual world design. A bit of a bland gameplay start with stock platforming and your typical weird monsters in combat arenas to fight. However, I like the slow progression to allow me time to learn all the moves. I am not looking for fast paced action platformer right now and this seems to work well so far.
Only about an hour in so will keep trucking to see if it really clicks with me.
Watching the Xbox direct, and South of Midnight looks visually, thematically and narratively rich and interesting. Combat looks safe and familiar, which might be a bit of a downer, but combat can also be hard to judge from visuals alone. Looking forward to trying it out.