South Of Midnight

Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC

When the town of Prospero is devastated by a hurricane, Hazel Flood's first priority is to rescue her mother Lacey, swept away in the torrential waters. What she finds on her journey is a connection to an ancient line of Weavers, women with the ability to stitch together or unravel the strands that bind reality itself together – powers she now must use to try to save her mother and uncover a legacy of pain that appears to be woven through her entire community.

Set in a fictionalised American deep South, South of Midnight taps into folklore and Southern Gothic influences to present a world that, visually at least, is unlike almost anything else. Developer Compulsion Games – previously responsible for the trippy psychedelia of We Happy Few and the art nouveau-inspired Contrast – paints Prospero in dream-like colours and dapples everything in mesmerising bursts of light, takes a literal patchwork approach to the designs of increasingly fantastical creatures Hazel encounters, and animates everything in a mock stop motion style that makes characters feel like marionettes brought to life. It's stunning, and only elevated further by an incredible soundtrack boasting a beautiful instrumental score and several original vocal tracks.

Sadly, the gameplay itself is far less impressive. Hazel's journey is an almost painfully linear trek through a natural world rendered more as a corridor — a near-endless tunnel of forest paths and swampland trails. It's all navigated with a host of been-there-done-that mechanics such as Uncharted-style clambering along explicitly marked hand grips, almost inexplicable double-jumps or air glides, and the occasional ethereal platform that can be rendered solid with Hazel's newfound Weaving powers – all of which are introduced with a hand wave of just being something Weavers can do, Hazel barely questioning her newfound superpowers at any point.

There's a vague attempt at creating a sense of exploration with the odd branching path, but they're only ever used to hide lore notes and Floofs, the energy macguffin that Hazel spends to upgrade her Weaving abilities. Hilariously, it's easy to find all of these thanks to another spell that guides Hazel to her next objective – if that says go right, go left instead and you'll reach something. It's all incredibly basic stuff.

Some of its deeper plot points have an unexpectedly powerful emotional weight to them too – you'll find yourself tearing up over the fate of more than one tree, believe us.

Worse though is the combat, every battle a scripted encounter in a specifically placed arena along the road. In each of these, a group of Haints – monsters borne of the accumulated pain of the land around them – materialise, pester Hazel for a bit while she hacks away at them, before she clears the knot of "Stigma" attracting them and returns to running down that corridor. A handful of Weaver-borne combat abilities – charged attacks, push and pull moves, and the ability to briefly possess enemies using Crouton, Hazel's childhood stuffed toy turned vodou doll – all fail to spice things up much.

Despite all these failings, South of Midnight is still somehow strangely enjoyable, its big ideas and bizarre creatures, like the giant talking Catfish who serves as a sort of mentor to Hazel, proving oddly compelling. Some of its deeper plot points have an unexpectedly powerful emotional weight to them too – you'll find yourself tearing up over the fate of more than one tree, believe us. The voice cast also impresses, particularly Adriyan Rae as Hazel and Walt Roberts as the Catfish.

It's a shame so much is lost in incredibly dated gameplay and rigid linearity, but if you can tolerate those hallmarks from an era of game design more suited the Xbox 360 than the Xbox Series X, South of Midnight can still weave its southern charms.