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The swamp is a place of caustic beauty. The sun seems heavier there than anywhere else, the song of hidden creatures is more resonant and throatier, and the pain gets buried deeper there than anywhere else. The thought seemed to hit hardest when playing the upcoming action-adventure game South of Midnight. It’s the kind of game that may be worth the time to experience the art style and music that paints a distinctive overture to the southern U.S.
Microsoft invited me to play three hours of the game, which will be released on April 8 on PC and Xbox. It’s a southern gothic fantasy set in a fictionalized version of the “American Deep South,” but it’s more centered on the folklore and folklore of a side of New Orleans you won’t find by strolling through the tourist-clogged streets of New Orleans’ French Quarter or watching the first season of True Detective.
I got to dive into the game’s Chapter 3, a vertical slice of gameplay that accounts for about three hours’ worth of wandering, jumping, and smacking around enemies called “Haints.” I was asked not to spoil too much about the setting or characters outside the chapter, though I could pick up on a few hints based on the context of the chapter. It’s the point where most of the mechanics start to take root, and you can expect the rest of the game to play out with a similar structure.
The developers at Compulsion Games are making the subtext and the main text about pain. Players take on the role of Hazel (Adriyan Rae), a young woman on the brink of graduating high school and leaving for college. Her house and beleaguered mother, herself a social worker in a fictionalized Rust Belt town, get blown away in a hurricane, and Hazel searches for her in a world that mixes the mundane with the mystical. There, she slowly falls into the duty as a “Weaver,” a person able to combat other people’s pain and mend their spirits.
South of Midnight Asks Players to Unravel People’s Pain By Hitting ‘Haints’ in the Face
Chapter 3 sees Hazel still green to her newfound power when she encounters a giant Catfish hanging by its tail by the outstretched hand of a giant tree. You encounter another character, a recluse named Rhubarb, who is described only as the owner of a defunct swamp tours business. He’s so disturbed by the Haints that he has become so protective of his “bottle tree.” The idea is you can put all your pain inside a bottle, stick it on the tree, and be healed. Hazel must learn how to find the patterns of people’s pain and bring their suffering into the light of day.
If it isn’t clear by now, South by Midnight is suffused with folklore that may seem esoteric, but Hazel is just as new to this as the player. I will avoid spoilers, but Rhubarb has a deeper connection to the tree than he initially lets on. There’s heartbreak and tragedy there, and a secret past hiding tragedy. Judging by this one small section of the game, you’ll relieve a lot of pain before the adventure ends.
© Image: Microsoft The game is structured between traversal and combat. Those systems are separated into your typical action-adventure style. You enter a closed-off combat arena where you can’t leave until you defeat every enemy, such as creatures called “Haints.” They are the strands of the great tapestry damaged by sorrow that can only be healed by “unraveling” them. Are you catching onto the theme yet?
There’s the typical dodge mechanic, plus a host of special attacks that lets you push or pull enemies or freeze them to get your licks in without worrying about a reprisal. There’s no XP track or anything like that, though you’ll accrue points to spend on unlocking new skills for your general abilities.
There’s no block button or combos. That’s not bad, though I couldn’t tell by my few hours of game time if there’s enough variety to keep things interesting. The flow of combat took a bit of getting used to, but I still found it somewhat challenging despite the limited move set. The levels are full of interesting sights; I felt slightly disappointed by repeatedly being locked into combat on a flat plane.
South of Midnight Uses Stop Motion-Like Animations to Promote Its Storybook Nature
South of Midnight did a better job selling me on the world’s beauty. It’s a game of small details, decaying buildings, and broken dreams, sinking into the mud and swamp. The abandoned Cajun community where the level took place included an old community center and dilapidated homes surrounded by boulder-sized peaches (those fruits tie into the story at the center of the area).
The music is an absolute standout. It’s the kind of American folk that hits deep, but even more musical flourishes chime in when double jumping or wall running. There’s a final track of soulful guitar that I wish I could talk about without spoiling anything, but it’s the songs that sell the experience even more than the cell-shaded visuals.
© Image: Microsoft The game’s animations take inspiration from stop motion, akin to the work of the studio Slow Bros. with the adventure game Harold Halibut. When enemies are flitting away on the screen, and you’re watching out for the tell-tale red icon alerting you to an incoming attack, you won’t notice the animation style. But during platforming sections or talking to characters, it’s particularly charming and fitting for the story-book nature of the setting.
It’s enough to make me want to try more. Compulsion Games has a track record for trying new things, even when they don’t stick to the landing, such as 2018’s We Happy Few. I just hope the experience can hit the right notes on those promised themes when the game arrives on April 8 this year.
