South of Midnight is a melancholic action-adventure game set in the deep south of America, where the bogs and bayous mix with rich folklore. Read on to know what it did well, what it didn’t do well, and if it’s worth buying.

South of Midnight Review Overview

What is South of Midnight?

South of Midnight is a melancholic action-adventure game with platforming elements, set against the culturally rich backdrop of the American Deep South. Following Hazel Flood on her journey as a budding Weaver—an individual adept at manipulating the threads of destiny, magic, and time—the game weaves a fantastical yet deeply emotional take on Southern folklore, where magic and mythical creatures thrive in the wake of a devastating storm.

South of Midnight features:
　⚫︎　Combo-centric combat loop
　⚫︎　Puzzle-platforming sections
　⚫︎　Semi-linear map that rewards exploration
　⚫︎　Skill-tree progression system
　⚫︎　Stop motion-style visuals for cutscenes and cinematics
　⚫︎　5 difficulty levels with customizable settings
　⚫︎　Collectibles, lore tidbits, and character profiles
　⚫︎　Full voice-acting and original soundtrack

For more gameplay details, read everything we know about South of Midnight's gameplay and story.

Steam			Xbox
Price		$39.99

South of Midnight Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Put Everything Into Its Presentation Absolutely Enthralling Soundscape Great Take On A Niche Mythology and Culture	Mechanics Aren’t as Deep as Everything Else Pacing is Inconsistent

South of Midnight Overall Score - 74/100

South of Midnight is a prime example of a brilliant piece of art misplaced in a medium that can’t do it justice. Its stunning animation, evocative art direction, heartfelt voicework, and rich world-building all point to a creative triumph—one sadly undermined by a vestigial, uninspired combat system that drags down the experience instead of elevating it. This isn’t just a case of missed potential—it’s a game that would’ve thrived as a movie, but instead settles for being a middling action-adventure title.

South of Midnight Story - 8/10

South of Midnight’s story leans heavily on its setting, drawing deeply from the culture and folklore of the Deep American South—a region rich with storytelling potential that has rarely been explored in video games. If not for its inconsistent pacing, it could easily rank among the best at bringing this underrepresented world to life. Alas, it will have to play second-fiddle to a Disney movie and a Rockstar game unless it can somehow pace its chapters better post-launch.

South of Midnight Gameplay - 5/10

South of Midnight’s gameplay is surprisingly light on mechanics and features, centering almost entirely on platforming, combat, and the progression tied to them. This feels at odds with the richness of its visuals and storytelling. Similar games, like God of War: Ragnarok, may have had similarly lean core gameplay features, but at least supplemented it with collectibles and puzzles to add variety. It's shallow, unfun, repetitive, and get's no favors from the game's weird pacing for its narrative and gameplay progression.

South of Midnight Visuals - 9/10

South of Midnight’s stop-motion cinematics and cutscenes are an absolute feast for the eyes, seamlessly carrying over into its gameplay animations. Combined with its masterfully rustic and evocative art direction, the game brings the American Deep South to life in stunning fashion. If atmospheric bayou vistas are your thing, this game delivers in spades…and buckets…and by the handful too.

South of Midnight Audio - 9/10

I’m not usually one for Cajun music—or any music from this part of America, for that matter—but South of Midnight is making me reconsider. The way it expertly weaves this distinct sound into its gameplay, story, and visuals is nothing short of impressive. Pair that with a mostly stellar voice cast delivering masterful performances, and you’ve got a soundscape that stands toe-to-toe with the game’s stunning visuals.

South of Midnight Value for Money - 6/10

South of Midnight lands at a respectable AA price of $39.99, and at that range, it blows most other action-adventure titles out of the swamp when it comes to sheer artistic value. But art maketh not a game, and so for those hoping to just get a game, it’s not exactly the most engaging, innovative, deep, or well-paced experience out there. It feels just about what you paid for— no more, no less.

South of Midnight Review: Gorgeous— If Only You Didn’t Have to Play It

Have you ever seen a great idea executed well—but in the completely wrong medium? Like a beautiful painting hung in a dark hallway, or a symphony performed for an audience that can’t hear? It doesn’t happen often, because most creators know where their art will thrive. But sadly, in a rare and unfortunate misfire from the developers of We Happy Few—a game that probably would’ve been better as a book—comes South of Midnight, a title that looks, sounds, and narrates with brilliance… but falters in the one area that matters most for the medium: gameplay.

There’s a lot to cover here—mostly good things, tragically dulled by the context of the game's medium. So let’s untangle those shoelaces, channel the Weave, and dive headfirst into a game that should’ve been something else entirely with how it ended up being.

A Brand-New Story From the American Deep South

Unlike most games, South of Midnight isn’t a rollercoaster of highs and lows that ultimately balances out to a middling experience. No, this is a much more clear-cut case of a good game being dragged down by a single, glaring flaw. We’ll get to that later. For now, let’s focus on what South of Midnight does best—its three S’s: Story, Sights, and Sounds. And at the heart of it all is the story, because more than anything, this is where the game draws its strength.

Set in the American Deep South—a region generally defined by Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina—South of Midnight roots itself in an area with a complex and deeply storied past. Historically, these states thrived on cotton as a cash crop, which in turn fueled a brutal system of plantations and slavery. But from this painful history emerged a cultural identity unlike any other, rich with folklore, mythology, and spiritual traditions. South of Midnight taps into this very essence, weaving a fictionalized yet deeply atmospheric adaptation of the South’s legends and mysticism. It’s not just a setting—it’s the game’s lifeblood.

From this lifeblood comes Hazel Flood, the game’s protagonist and a weaver-in-training. What’s a Weaver, you ask? Well, in the world of South of Midnight, Weavers are wielders of Weave magic—arcane arts that tug at the Threads of the Grand Tapestry, a metaphysical web binding nature, destiny, and human connections. In simpler terms? Southern wizards.

Hazel’s journey begins after a powerful storm tears through her hometown of Prospero, sweeping away her mother in its wake. In the aftermath, she learns to harness her latent Weave magic and sets off across the Deep South to find her. Along the way, she encounters mythical creatures, battles legendary foes, and must master her newfound craft to bring her mother home. It’s classic action-adventure hero fare, complete with a “chosen one” narrative baked into her emerging powers.

Normally, that might be a little too familiar—a by-the-numbers tale that blends into the backdrop of countless other hero’s journeys. If this were set in Greece, Rome, or Viking-era Scandinavia, it might feel like yet another retread of mythologies we’ve seen a hundred times before. But South of Midnight stands apart by drawing from underexplored folklore, making its world feel fresh, vibrant, and deeply rooted in something that hasn’t had its time to shine.

I mean, don’t get me wrong—I’m always down for another divine rampage à la Kratos, tearing through a pantheon one brutal quick-time event at a time. But South of Midnight offers something different. The stories it tells, and more importantly, how it tells them, are far more captivating than any button prompt to rip someone in half. It’s deeply personal, emotionally resonant to a fault, and builds its world, lore, and characters in equal measure through collectible lore bits.

You’re not here to destroy—you’re here to save. Standing between you and your goal is an entire ecosystem of mythical creatures, spirits, and supernatural forces, both friendly and hostile.

If South of Midnight were a novel, that would be enough. The strength of its storytelling alone could carry it. But video games offer something unique: the ability to experience a world not just through words, but through sight, sound, and interaction. So the question is—does the game’s vision of the Deep South live up to its storytelling?

Stop-Motion Meets Princess and the Frog in the Bayous

I mean, not to answer the question right away, but yes, absolutely—and not for the reason you might expect. It’s not just the game’s character and set design, though both play a huge role. The cartoony-yet-naturalist depiction of marshlands and decaying Southern architecture gives the world a distinct visual identity. But what truly sets South of Midnight apart is its art direction, which leans heavily into stop-motion-inspired animation to create a uniquely textured and mesmerizing experience.

Characters deliberately move at a lower frame rate, even in cutscenes, mimicking the rough, imperfect motion of classic stop-motion films. And it’s not just an aesthetic flourish—there’s even a fully stop-motion cinematic sequence at the start of the game, seemingly crafted with authentic stop-motion models and directed to be a cute introduction to the setting.

To go with all those visual frills is the game’s sound design, voice work, and music. The game’s soundscape is so earnest and deeply rooted in its Southern setting—accents, regional music, and manners of speaking included—that it becomes almost transportive. It’s the kind of audio-visual synergy that makes you forget you’re playing a game at all as if you’re not just controlling a character, but stepping into a living, breathing world.

The game has its own suite of original soundtracks, ranging from background combat and exploration music to full-blown ballads and epics sung to describe what you’re experiencing in-game, all with authentic Creole, Cajun, and Jazzy flavors, of course. It comes as a premium edition bonus/DLC if you’re feeling splurgy, and, honestly, I might recommend getting it just so you can enjoy it outside the game too.

Barely Any Gameplay Depth to Speak Of

Unfortunately, the songs of praise must end eventually. It’s time to talk about South of Midnight’s biggest shortcoming: gameplay variety and depth. At its core, South of Midnight is an action-adventure game where players traverse varied landscapes and engage in self-contained skirmishes using the same set of tools and abilities for both exploration and combat. In this case, Weave magic.

It’s a clever system in concept. The same powers that let you pull yourself up ledges or push aside obstacles are also used to yank enemies closer or send them flying. You even have Crouton, an adorable little doll you can control remotely like a drone to slip through tight spaces, solve environmental puzzles, or even latch onto enemies and turn them into unwilling puppets in a voodoo-style attack.

It all sounds promising on paper. After all, even God of War kicks things off with just some basic melee swings and ledge grabs before gradually building out a deeper, more layered combat and traversal system. South of Midnight has progression to speak of, but compared to that or any modern third-person single-player game, it doesn't feel up to snuff.

You get the usual suspects when it comes to a combat toolkit: combo chains, air attacks, dash strikes, parries, dodges, plus the handful of abilities I mentioned earlier. But if you’re hoping for ways to chain combos together, make aerial and dash attacks more strategic, or turn dodges into something proactive instead of purely reactive—or heck, even unlock a second weapon—you’re going to walk away disappointed. It just doesn’t go that deep.

Digging a bit deeper into the game’s skill progression system, it’s built around a currency-based skill tree. You earn upgrade points by veering off the main path in the game’s semi-linear levels, which is a totally serviceable way to encourage exploration. At first, it works—until you realize the skill tree is only 20 unlockables deep, and that might not even be the word I'd use.

To make this meager skill tree worse, most of those upgrades barely move the needle in your favor. They’re just minor damage bumps or slight tweaks to the handful of core moves and basic attacks. Nothing that meaningfully reshapes how you play. Contrast that with God of War, where every weapon Kratos wields feels like its own evolving moveset. Here? There’s no weapon variety, no gear upgrades, no ultimate abilities. What you see is, quite literally, what you get.

And that’s where the real problem kicks in: thanks to the game’s pacing, you’ll probably have unlocked the entire tree by Chapter Four. With a total runtime of around 10 to 12 hours, that leaves a whole lot of game left with basically no progression—aside from the story, a few new enemies, and the occasional boss.

Ultimately, the main gameplay loop feels repetitive, shallow, barely rewarding, and totally out of sync.

Narrative Pacing is All Over the Wetlands

In addition to a general lack of gameplay depth and variety across all of its facets, South of Midnight also mirrors the paving issues of its gameplay progression with its narrative's.

The overarching narrative is divided into chapters, each beginning with a storybook-style narration to set the scene. It’s a charming touch, but the length of these chapters is wildly inconsistent. Some stretch on for hours, while others barely last a few minutes. At its most extreme, there’s an early-game chapter where you do little more than walk to a building, which can be done in three minutes if you’re efficient. Meanwhile, the opening chapters feel like a slow crawl, packed with 30-minute cutscenes and mostly walking before real gameplay even begins.

This would've been a lot easier to stomach if the story didn’t feel like such a gameplay desert out of the gate—where you're quite literally just a person running from place to place. Honestly, that feels more like a problem with how the narrative is structured than anything else. The pacing issue—where you go a solid stretch achieving basically nothing—is just a symptom of that.

And then, once you do get past those initial doldrums, the game slams the gas pedal and rushes you up the skill tree in no time, which introduces a whole different kind of pacing problem. It’s like whiplash—from crawling to sprinting, with neither end really doing the gameplay any favors.

Was Better Off A Movie Than An Action-Adventure Game

And now we arrive at the heart of it all—the core of this entire critique, the intersection of everything South of Midnight does right and everything it stumbles on. Because when you take a step back and really weigh its strengths against its weaknesses, one conclusion becomes pretty hard to ignore, one that I’ve made many times already in this review:

South of Midnight should’ve been a movie.

Seriously. With the sheer effort poured into its stop-motion aesthetic, the richness of its setting, the strength of its story, and the sharp writing behind its characters and dialogue, this game feels like it was meant to be watched, not played. Its gameplay, while serviceable, is so underdeveloped and uninspired that it almost feels like an afterthought—something tacked on just to qualify it as a video game. To what end, I’ll never know.

Is South of Midnight Worth It?

Yeah, But Maybe Not For Its Gameplay

Okay, so—I’ve given this game plenty of flak and sung its praises, but is it worth the $39.99 price tag? Well… yes and no, but mostly yes.

For starters, at this price point, South of Midnight easily outshines most other action-adventure games when it comes to sheer visual, audio, and narrative quality. It’s a genuinely gorgeous and well-produced experience, and honestly, I wouldn’t even blink at picking up the DLC just for the art and music. It’s that good in those departments.

That said, the game stumbles when it comes to the core of its medium: the gameplay. It’s a serviceable, sometimes enjoyable ride, but it's also nothing groundbreaking, at times repetitive, completely out of sync— and that’s a tough pill to swallow for some. Still, the bells and whistles go a long way in making up for those shortcomings, enough that I’d say the value tips slightly higher than breaking even.

Digital Stores
Steam			Xbox
Price		$39.99

South of Midnight FAQ

Who Is The Protagonist of South of Midnight?

South of Midnight’s protagonist is Hazel Flood, who is voiced by Adriyan Rae.

Can South of Midnight’s Difficulty Be Changed?

Yes. South of Midnight’s combat difficulty can be set at the start of every playthrough across four difficulty levels as well as a custom game difficulty. It can also be changed at any time through the game’s pause menu under the “Difficulty” tab.

Game8 Reviews

You may also like...

	Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Review | A Proper Adventure Action, Adventure
	Monument Valley 3 Review | Simply A Work of Art Adventure, Puzzle, Platformer
	FANTASIAN Neo Dimension Review | A True Final Fantasy Game in Everything But Name RPG, Adventure
	Star Wars Outlaws Review | A Galactic Adventure That’s Lightyears Ahead Open-World Action-Adventure

South of Midnight Product Information

Title	SOUTH OF MIDNIGHT
Release Date	April 8, 2025
Developer	Compulsion Games
Publisher	Xbox Game Studios
Supported Platforms	PC (Steam) Xbox Series X|S
Genre	Action-Adventure,
Number of Players	1
ESRB Rating	ESRB M
Official Website	South of Midnight Website

Aaron Bruce Albert..

A massive fan of roguelikes, turn-based RPGs, and open world adventure games. His gold standard games include The Binding of Isaac, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Dragon Quest Monsters Joker.