It’s not very often that gamers are treated to brand new stories, unique settings and new worlds to explore. But South of Midnight by developer Compulsion Games checks all of those boxes. Set in the Deep South part of the United States, it’s filled with lore, monsters and stories from that part of the country. And it also tells a fascinating story that has players learning about the secret world of magic weaving alongside the plucky protagonist. It’s available for the Xbox Series X console and for the PC through Steam.
South of Midnight has players taking on the role of a young, college-age girl named Hazel who is living in a small town called Prospero. The exact location of the town is never disclosed, although it could probably be in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama or any other state located in the Deep South. Hazel is living a pretty normal life by all accounts. She resides in a small home with her mother who is a social worker in town. We quickly find out that her father died many years ago, and Hazel seems estranged from the rest of her family beyond her mother.
The story begins with a violent hurricane sweeping into town. Hazel and her mother, whose house is sitting over the water on large concrete pillars, are packing up emergency supplies and getting ready to evacuate when her mom asks her to do one last check on the neighbors. While Hazel is out doing that, the storm topples her house into the river, and it begins to float away without her. It’s sort of like a reverse Wizard of Oz situation. Hazel was a track star in high school, so she decides to chase her home downriver to try and rescue her mom. This is the first indication that Hazel might have magic powers. At one point she falls into the river and dies, only to find herself magically flung back to the shoreline as if nothing happened other than a little bit of a loss from her overall health bar.
When the house finally sails out of reach, Hazel goes to her estranged grandmother’s mansion to look for help. It’s obvious that Hazel’s grandmother never approved of her mother’s marriage, and it’s also clear that she knows a lot more about the magic stuff that is going on. Hazel suddenly gets very sleepy (perhaps hit with a sleep spell) and wakes up the next day locked in a guest bedroom in the mansion. She is able to escape by climbing over ledges and doing some parkour, something that will become a huge part of the adventure. Before breaking out of the mansion, she finds magical weaving hooks in a secret room. They look normal, but in Hazel’s hands the hooks become magical, allowing her to weave or unweave the fabric of the world, especially dark places cursed by pain and violence. With those magical weaving hooks, Hazel can become a spellcaster known as a Weaver.
This is when the actual adventure begins, as Hazel sets off to find wherever her house ended up. Most of the county has been flooded by the storm, so it might be a long journey. Along the way, Hazel’s magic powers awaken, and she is challenged and attacked by evil creatures called Haints, (which might be a southern way of saying Haunts). In any case, Haints are basically spirits who can’t pass on to the other side in Creole culture and folklore.
You will fight a variety of different Haints in little battle-like arenas along the way. They range from up-close bruisers to those that spit deadly magic bolts and even insect-like hives that spawn evil black flies. Hazel can use a variety of attacks to fight the Haints, from standard swinging combos to leaping up in the air and doing a ground pounding that damages everything all around. Even dodging at the last second will unleash a blast that damages Haints. Once you knock a Haint down to zero hit points, Hazel can use her hooks to unweave them, removing them from the world and healing herself in the process. Battles are fast-paced and exciting, and as Hazel adventures she can find or earn Floofs, which is a magical currency used to level up. You can buy new combat moves with Floofs and also make existing ones more powerful.
In addition to the combat, players in South of Midnight will spend a lot of time exploring the world. Those platforming segments can be challenging (even more so than the combats) with double-jumps, wall runs, flying by wire on magical grappling hooks and long drifting segments all mixing together, sometimes very rapidly. Falling off a ledge or missing a jump will often result in death, although Hazel will quickly reemerge in a safe spot if that happens, with only a small loss in overall health. You have to fail a lot of jumps to whittle down your health before missing one is actually fatal – although I came close a few times since I am not that great with platforming. Still, if I can make it through them, most everyone else probably can too.
The combats and the platforming for South of Midnight are nice, although they are far from groundbreaking. What makes this such an amazing game is the story, which is told by a giant catfish narrator between chapters. You also get a good amount of the story presented to you as you play, such as when you watch the ghost of the previous Weaver lead slaves to freedom. The talking catfish, which is a Southern icon too, does an amazing job of setting the stage and making players long to find out what comes next in the adventure. It really set up a “just one more chapter” kind of situation where I kept playing because I really wanted to see what would happen next. Part of the job of a Weaver is to heal the land and right age-old wrongs, and it was very satisfying to see Hazel able to do that.
Another amazing thing about South of Midnight is that it’s literally dripping in the lore of the deep south, which is not something that we normally get to experience. In fact, most of the bosses in the title come straight out of southern folklore. The very first boss players encounter, Two-Toed Tom, is a giant alligator who has found his way into many southern folk tales. He’s sufficiently terrifying in South of Midnight too. But there are many other famous creatures from the South too. The Rougarou is probably the most famous monster from all Southern folklore. In South of Midnight, he is depicted as a kind of griffin-like creature, even though traditionally the Rougarou is normally more of a werewolf-like creature. The Honey Island Swamp Monster, which is kind of like the Bigfoot of the South, plays a big role in one of the chapters.
Amazingly, there are even quite a few lesser known, regional monsters depicted in the game. For example, The Altamaha-ha is mostly featured within the state of Georgia. Meanwhile, Huggin Molly is an Alabama-centered tale. Even the Devil at the Crossroads makes an appearance, which is the South’s version of a Faustian bargain story, and he is just as charismatic and terrifying as I expected him to be. Like the Rougarou, not all of the creatures follow their typical descriptions. For example, Huggin Molly is normally depicted as a ghostly woman in in a black coat with a big hat, but here she is a massive spider. So, while some of the depictions of the different southern creatures might differ from traditional lore, the fact that they are included at all in a video game is a real treat to see.
South of Midnight is an adventure game with a lot of heart. It’s also got a really magical story that is told well. The Gothic Southern theme is amazing, and as Hazel continues her long journey, she unravels a lot of pain from evil plots and previous wrongs set in motion many years ago. Some of those evils are very dark, and being able to set things right is incredibly satisfying in a way that not many video games ever achieve. South of Midnight is a game with soul, and it’s not an experience that gamers looking for a unique adventure will want to miss.