South of Midnight Is a Southern Gothic Worth Sinking Into
· Dana Whitefield · 6 min read
Some games I admire more than I enjoy, and a rare few I enjoy precisely because of what they refuse to be. South of Midnight is the second kind. Compulsion’s stop-motion fable is not trying to be a great combat game, and holding it to that ruler misses everything it does well.
Atmosphere first, and it works
The stop-motion presentation is the whole pitch and it delivers. The bayou is soaked in mood, the score is extraordinary, and the folklore threading the story together is specific in a way big-budget games rarely risk. It feels made by people, about a place they know.
The traversal sells it too. Moving through this world is unhurried and tactile, and the game trusts you to slow down and look.
Where it stumbles
The combat is the weak link, and it is a real one. Encounters repeat their handful of ideas a few times too many, and the back third leans on them harder than the material can carry.
- Roughly eight hours long, which is exactly right for what it is.
- The writing and voice work are the reason to see it through.
- Performance is clean, and it looks like nothing else on the platform.
Worth your time
If you want a mechanically deep action game, look elsewhere. If you want a short, strange, beautifully made story that stays with you for days, South of Midnight is an easy yes. I finished it in two sittings and thought about it all week.