South of Midnight – Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

South of Midnight may not be winning any awards and accolades in 2025, but it's a game with a great story, all components of which are made with great love and attention to detail. You'll remember this journey into the wilds of Southern Gothic for years to come.

Southern Gothic

Southern Gothic is a subgenre of literature, cinema, and games that originated in the 19th century in the South of the United States and is characterized by a tendency towards the grotesque and mystical, while remaining inextricably linked to the life and traditions of the South of the United States, for example, the consequences of former slavery, racial segregation, or the same hoodoo magic (not voodoo, it's a little different). Typical characters for Southern Gothic are neglected, troubled, and anxious people who hide some kind of tragedy, suffer from physical disabilities, or madness. Their problems are caused by poverty, alienation, crime, violence, sexual misfortune, or some sinister events.

Well-known contemporary examples of Southern Gothic include the films Angel Heart, Interview with the Vampire, Big Fish, Nocturnal Animals; the TV series Ozark, Sharp Objects, Lovecraft Country, the first season of True Detective, which takes place in Louisiana, and many other works.

The genre has not been bypassed by video games. The following projects can be attributed to the gaming Southern Gothic: Night in the Woods, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Louisiana again), the third and fourth chapters of Red Dead Redemption 2, Hunt: Showdown, Kentucky Route Zero and Norco. Well, now we can add South of Midnight to this list, the events of which take place in the Deep South of the United States, possibly in the same Louisiana.

Interestingly, this very Southern Gothic, very American game was created by the Canadian studio Compulsion Games from French-speaking Montreal, founded in 2009 by former employees of the legendary Arkane Studios. You may know Compulsion Games from the projects Contrast (2013) and We Happy Few (2018).

The girl who sees strange things

This story begins somewhere in the Deep South during a hurricane. The girl Hazel is waiting for her mother from work and is packing up to go to a safe place together. And although Hazel loves her mother very much, the premonition of the upcoming separation, and the girl is going to go to college, causes a quarrel. A few minutes later, their house on stilts is washed away by the flood, and Hazel sets off in search of her mother and amazing adventures, because, as it turns out, she is not just a girl who can run fast, but also the last Weaver, a fortune teller who can see the wounds of the universe caused by the suffering and grief of people, and "weave" them.

On this journey, Hazel will meet very, very strange magical creatures, one talkative catfish is worth a fortune, who, although they sometimes act as enemies of the Weaver, require not punishment, but rather compassion, no matter how terrible and disgusting they may look. Because these monsters are the product of someone's longing, fear, despair, pain from loss and hope for redemption. The story of South of Midnight is a story about the pain we can inflict on others, and what grief can turn a person into. This is a sad story with a conditional happy ending, which still leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste. A very beautiful, very touching story, or rather six stories at once, intertwined with each other and helping Hazel understand something important about herself and her family.

Prince and Princess

Two games kept coming to mind while playing South of Midnight – Prince of Persia (2008) from Ubisoft Montreal (yes, Montreal again) and American McGee's Alice (2000). South of Midnight has direct references to both (as well as many other games and movies, actually), but that's not the point.

With Prince of Persia, yes, that very underrated game from 2008, South of Midnight shares some gameplay elements, acrobatics, all these wall runs, platform jumps, etc., sliding, jerks, which since the time of Prince of Persia 3D have become mandatory elements of all action/adventure games . Plus, the combat system, associated with the Weaver's skills, for some reason reminded me very much of Prince of Persia 2008 in terms of dynamics and rhythm. And the way the spider web thread brings Hazel back in case of death is really very similar to how Elika brought the Prince back.

As for American McGee's Alice, despite the gameplay differences, South of Midnight reminded me of American McGee's work with its grotesqueness and atmosphere of madness. Some parts of the game take place in the world of dreams and nightmares, such as the penultimate part in the city of Kushma, where souls seek redemption and oblivion. Plus... well, it's definitely Alice, with a magical catfish instead of a Cheshire cat, with a jump down a rabbit hole and a crazy tea party (it still needs to be found).

Another game that comes to mind is Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, another very underrated project, and again from a French-language studio. Because the heroine of South of Midnight also deals with ghosts of the past that painfully wound the present, and she must cure these vices, give the ghosts and monsters the peace they deserve.

Acrobatics in South of Midnight are easy. Yes, you'll sometimes make mistakes, but as much as I hate long wall runs and series of jumps with jerks, I didn't have any particular problems, even during long escapes from the terrible Kushma, of which there are several.

The combat system also did not cause any particular problems. The weaver easily "untangles" monsters, using an almost standard set - light and heavy blows, an air strike, a dash, a pull, a push, an immobilization and a charm of enemies. There is also a system of improving skills. The only thing I want to complain about is the behavior of the camera during the battle, it lags a little behind the events, although this is probably a problem of playing with a mouse (by the way, the sensitivity settings of the "rodent" were not saved in the pre-version), with a gamepad it should be better.

As for the boss fights that I usually hate, there are a few and they're actually quite easy, which is surprising - the attack patterns are very easy to learn. I had some problems with the giant alligator and the bell, but once I figured out the pattern, everything became very simple.

I played South of Midnight on standard difficulty and it took me 11 hours and 25 minutes, but keep in mind that I spent some time searching for secrets and links and taking almost 300 screenshots, and I generally play slower than most players because I like to look around. So South of Midnight can actually be completed in 8-10 hours, which I think is the perfect length for a narrative game where neither the mechanics nor the story have time to get used to it yet.

A Tale of the Deep South

In my opinion, the biggest attraction of South of Midnight is the thick, even spoon-fed, atmosphere of the Deep South, which you literally immerse yourself in. This is the specific, cartoonish graphics of the game, which, however, sometimes gives simply fantastically beautiful shots (let me remind you, during the passage I took almost 300 screenshots). This is the intentionally omitted phases of animation, in order to make it even more similar to puppet stop-motion animation. This is the attention to detail, such as depth of field, various forest and swamp animals and birds that create the appropriate mood and help you look for secrets, well-designed room furnishings, etc., thematic posters and billboards.

Special thanks go to the voice actors, who have done a great job of getting into their characters, even those who only have a few lines in the game. The actors who play the roles of Hazel and the magical catfish, who also act as narrators in this story, have given their all. The characteristic southern accent complements the picture.

Plus, South of Midnight has a fantastic soundtrack and songs. It seems to be some kind of wild mix of blues, country, folk, gospel and bluegrass, what they call American roots in the US. By the way, pay attention to the lyrics, they complement the story of the game.

South of Midnight uses the Unreal Engine and once again reminds us that this engine can create not only realistic (see S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2), but also artistic, artistic worlds. On my system, the game simply flies at maximum settings. Not a single bug was noticed during the passage.

Instead of an epilogue

In my review of the interactive story Still Wakes the Deep, I already wrote that Microsoft Xbox/PC Game Pass is an ideal platform for small authorial narrative projects. Well, South of Midnight emphasizes this once again. I don’t know what success the game will have on other platforms, but here it has a chance to be noticed and heard. And that’s good, because this is a really interesting and important game that deserves attention.

If only someone in Ukraine would take the same love to translate our own legends, myths and fears into a game format. Why not, we have our own "Deep South" with its own dark stories and dramas, unique magical creatures and dense atmosphere - the Carpathians. Although... every region of Ukraine has enough mysticism and secrets. Let's hope that someday they will make their way onto game screens, South of Midnight shows how to do it in an interesting way and with respect for its roots.