In the early chapters of the Midnight South, our hero Hazel comes to grasp her new powers – it’s a key tone setter. Because it represents what the developer forced games are trying to do through a 12-hour concise runtime. The mythical creatures, straight from folklore from South Drive, USA, are human stories that stand as a great example of how locals become universal, as the grand tapestry of local culture and history are otherwise wrapped in fairly simple action-adventure games. Midnight South has many aspects that aren’t necessarily groundbreaking, but they’re all uplifted by a clear, well-executed artistic vision that will become the more memorable Xbox console monopoly of this generation.
Hazel’s ability to manipulate the magic threads of the etheric realm is both a weapon used to defeat otherworldly demons in combat, and a tool that stitches together the tragic past of his hometown Prospero’s neighbors and ancestors. It’s a fictional place, but it’s a place that’s deeply rooted in very realistic experiences in the South. Its dark history traces are in stark contrast to the wreckage of communities that were scattered across aging homes after dangerous floods and struggled to survive in those harsh conditions. These touches unleash a bigger story about the pain, guilt and trauma that many experience in our family life, while also working with the rich context of the Midnight South.
From a gameplay perspective, Midnight South is pretty simple. You will be led to a rather linear level that alternates between platform and combat encounters. If you expand Cliffsides with Uncharted, God of War, or Tomb Raider, its frequent climbing sections are quite familiar, but the authentic views and sounds of the frontline American South produce a sense of strong place with a real view and sound, detailed views, wild towns, or rushing rivers. The Hazel weave power will run through the air, or summon the path ahead, in response to the obstacles in front of you. There’s not much to do grasp In itself, you have fun momentum when you are being pretended from one battle to the next, or when you are trying to drive you away with a long platform sequence that closes all the major chapters, but when you are trying to overtake evil spirits.
The battle itself is contained in different arenas at each level, with the idea that Heinz (the demonic symptoms of people’s pain and sadness) plaguing everything about Prospero, and Hazel is someone who can cleanse that corruption. It’s a comfortable cadence if you’re predictable, not actually thin and wear-free, because it’s smart when you actually have to fight. This doesn’t feel repeatedly in the south of the midnight, and I’m really looking forward to the encounters of each of the battles. Like the platform, these fights don’t actually push the boundaries, but Hazel’s attack combo and spells have a certain chunk I really enjoyed. That’s especially true when you fire her stun weave, attach strands and stack damage, leaving a burst with the perfect Dodge. Cycling through a list of such fun abilities will make the basics happy.
Haints comes in a variety of ways that give them plenty of variety. Some are quick and troublesome, while others hold the beast that tunnels underground and cause damage to the effective area. They are all mixed together, and the likes of Hazel dolls that allow you to temporarily control your enemies add some interesting wrinkles when you think about your prioritizing target. There are several boss fights to boost interest even in small sights, but they tend to emphasize the stylistic nature of combat by relying on derivative versions of the mechanisms used elsewhere.
The South of Midnight’s Foundation is completely capable, but everything else around it really stands out, grabs you with its pictorial character design and impressive stop-motion animation style. That unconventional choice helps to pop special moments during cutscenes, but not very prominent in the action. And if it’s too harsh, you can optionally disable the stop motion effect completely. Even without that, the details of the character’s face, expressiveness and great voice acting feel like a real reward chapter after the chapter. Specific accents and slang came across like the real thing, and I never thought about them again.
Southern Gothic folk tales are not actually explored in games like this. The South of Midnight shows how rich it is by bringing these stories to life in a way that we rarely see. Mythical creatures embody the pain and suffering of townspeople, melting the wider urban myths in the struggles of certain characters throughout the story. Two-toe Tom-like figures from Florida’s legendary crocodile appear as bosses, while Cajun Tales’ Shapeshift Lugaroo takes a form I’ve never heard of before – and Alabama’s Huggin Molly has a fascinating reinterpretation. It’s like a fusion of folk tales, and while it’s great to see as someone who’s familiar with some of it, it’s still done in a way that’s invited by beginners.
The Southern South also recognizes the real history of the region in a subtle and effective way, remnants of slavery and reconstruction age continue in our modern world, recognizing that trauma can carry generations. Passing abandoned homes along the Bayou with greedy land eviction notices reminds us of the raging and unfair economic situation faced by many of these communities. It is woven into the main themes of complex family dynamics. This is the best and worst part that can come from a blood relationship. With her weaving power, Hazel is able to peer into the past through the threads that make up the epic tapestry: visions reproduced using all the flows of life and memory. You will see a mother escape the abuse and risk her life and limbs to give her child a chance to fight. I am ashamed of my brothers who take dramatic steps to separate themselves. A child desperately called out to mythical creatures to escape their abusive father.
From the tragic displays of unconditional love to the horrors of abuse that our own relatives can inflict on us, Midnight South focuses on the idea that families are things we embrace and consider, and is spoken in an inseparable way from its environment. Through it, Hazel is desperately chasing possible threads to find his mother after the first flood, but lends a helping hand to the spirits he has endured in the afterlife. When you reveal the efforts her mom will put in as a social worker, it shows that a little empathy can come a long way.
There are many things I love about the story of the Midnight South. But I hope they are said with more elegant or more subtlety. Larger plots sometimes lack the necessary connective tissue, making it easy to lose sight of why Hazel’s journey leads from one thing to another. Character and story threads can be introduced as quickly as they are resolved through segmented story beats in ways that are not entirely clear. I think Hazel’s life is still questioning how he was nurtured as a story-important work. I wish I could tie those loose ends together before the credits roll.
But it has a serious interpretation in its exploration of a region as broad as the American South. It is also a very religious place, but the story is more interested in the spirituality that produces these folk tales. And it’s not all swamps and basins, not just Bourbon Street in New Orleans, but not just politically hostile to marginalized people. Certainly, they are all part of it. But we like that there’s a story that shows it People live thereand they are universal and struggling in ways that are unique to the region. Midnight South understands that too People hurt peopleand I know that pain is not an excuse for the horrible things that drive people. When the story talks about mental health these days, it’s a bit of a tactic, but still true, and Midnight South has its own idea by focusing on this concept in honor of the family.
But perhaps my favorite touch is how South of Midnight uses its fantastic soundtrack to tie it all together thematically. It is a mix of bluegrass, blues, jazz and American folk tunes, interwoven with harmony between choirs, church organs, or vanjos and fiddles, indicating how important music is throughout the history of the region. Big storyline moments are built through songs written by the narrator as if walking to you what the characters felt and experienced in their lives, and they line up at just the right time to help you move forward while you play. That sometimes made me feel like I don’t like anything more than a great soundtrack used as an effective storytelling device.
Many of us in the South have a complicated relationship with it. Born in Mississippi, I adopted a part of my culture as my family and moved across the country. It always has a special place in my heart. I’m grateful that I have a game that helped me reconnect with those roots. It’s an equal measure in a whimsical and miserable way, and it’s not only a good action adventure game with value in the South of Midnight, but it’s also worth taking on a small virtual tour of the South you wouldn’t see otherwise.
