Canadian developer Compulsion Games' third-ever release is South of Midnight, a heartfelt and charming dive into the regional folklore of the American Deep South. The action-adventure game takes you down a crawdad hole through the Southern Gothic subgenre while oozing style. An earnest story filled with dazzlingly animated characters is unfortunately juxtaposed, though, by gameplay that struggles to remain novel despite South of Midnight's relatively short runtime.

That brevity is perhaps a saving grace, though, as South of Midnight's story sees its protagonist, Hazel, engage in a series of vignettes while on an unexpectedly fantastical adventure to find her mother, who at the game's outset is swept away by hurricane-induced flooding. Hazel quickly discovers that she is a Weaver, able to manipulate the fabric of reality through magical abilities that double as her traversal and combat tools. South of Midnight is gorgeous and atmospheric, and has a sufficiently compelling rhythm thanks to its narrative, but certain mechanical aspects are left wanting.

South Of Midnight Has Immaculate Vibes

Incredible Animation & A Striking Color Palette

South of Midnight begins – as so many foreboding tales do – on a dark and stormy night, but once the game opens up, it's a constant barrage of delectable vistas. Vibrant pastels contrast with somber earth tones in one chapter, and are replaced by radioactively warm hues in the next. From the bayou to floodplains to mountain valleys, South of Midnight's art direction is a standout.

The other immediately obvious and equally laudable visual facet is the animation, which has all the game's characters (and other living creatures) moving at a lower frame rate to mimic stop-motion film. While cutscenes are capped at 30fps to really make the effect pop, it's easily noticeable in the course of gameplay, too, where the action remains at a higher 60fps. This animation, combined with the generally striking artwork, makes the game visually captivating throughout, with each South of Midnight chapter bookended by similarly delightful black-and-white storybook cutscenes.

The stop-motion style can be turned off in the settings for gameplay, but cutscenes are pre-rendered with the effect.

The game is also propped up by a notable audio track, that in part, carries the game. The voice acting is great, with clear chemistry between the characters, from whom a mythical giant catfish with a buttery smooth drawl stands out. Instrumentally, South of Midnight's original soundtrack only contributes to the ambiance, running the gamut of southern cornerstones like bluegrass and jazz, but I found many of the lyrical tracks distractingly on the nose.

South Of Midnight Is Smartly Written & Incredibly Genuine

A Veritable Southern Gothic Work

At its heart, South of Midnight hinges on a mother-daughter relationship, but it's chiefly concerned with unaddressed trauma. Hazel's role as a Weaver sees her mending emotional wounds that have been left to fester – Knots in the fabric of the Grand Tapestry that makes up the game's reality. Hazel's journey turns into a string of vignettes where you learn about particularly horrifying events from the past, centering on eccentric characters unable to move on.

It deftly blends the affable Hazel and her modern vocabulary with the centuries-old mysticism of the Deep South.

South of Midnight is frequently unsubtle. You're constantly working to cleanse the land of a malevolent force called Stigma, born from the pain of those victimized by the atrocities of slavery, exploitative capitalist ploys like company towns, the horrors of child abuse, and more. Such abject misery is a staple of Southern Gothic literature, and South of Midnight's overt messaging is deliberate in the interest of asserting that closure can be found through kindness, given the traumatized are willing to accept help.

South of Midnight could potentially feel too heavy-handed in its storytelling if it weren't for the earnestness in its writing. It deftly blends the affable Hazel and her modern vocabulary with the centuries-old mysticism of the Deep South. Hazel's resoluteness in helping others only makes the game more emotionally resonant when the focus turns back towards her mother.

A minor quibble arises from the medium's over-reliance on protagonists who have a tendency to babble to themselves. South of Midnight's writing is generally quite witty, and the banter between characters is especially sharp, so it can feel manufactured when Hazel keeps a running commentary on notes found throughout the game. It feels far more authentic in the rarer times when Hazel instead gives a thoughtful hum or a confused, "What?"

Tedious Combat Weighs Down Respectable Puzzle-Platforming

Traversal Is Fun, Fighting Haints Is Not

A persistent drawback to the overall experience in South of Midnight is combat encounters that not only fail to interestingly evolve, but aren't all that compelling to begin with. Hazel very quickly gathers all her powers, which helps the game's pace, but restrictive cooldowns on each keep you from dynamically controlling the fight. You can push, pull, stun, and even temporarily recruit enemies to fight for you, but each ability will typically only be usable once or twice before you've cleared the battlefield.

Progressing through the skill tree will steadily make each more effective as the game goes on, but that slight iteration doesn't save a slate of encounters that are very uniform. South of Midnight's enemies are known as Haints, and while there are a handful of variants, they're the only thing you fight aside from the few boss battles, and their arenas are effectively the same regardless of the surrounding environments. Said boss fights are technically the highlight of combat, if only for the spectacle they provide.

I felt compelled to play on South of Midnight's default difficulty, Weaver, for the sake of review, but combat could conceivably be expedited by selecting one of the lower two difficulties, Scryer and Healer.

It's unfortunate that the combat is so repetitive, because South of Midnight is otherwise fun to play. The rest of the gameplay comprises various platforming segments and mild environmental puzzling. Neither are groundbreaking, but the novel animation helps give the double-jumping, wall-running, and gliding a certain flair. This side of gameplay also pairs better with the narrative, turning the enchanted, forgotten tracts of swamp into a playground.

An honorable mention also goes to Crouton, a handmade stuffed animal from Hazel's mom, that you get to magically control through areas too small for Hazel. These sections are similarly rather plain – all you do is dodge obstacles along a mostly linear path – but Crouton's animations are exceptionally charming, as are the cottagecore burrows he explores, complete with woodland furniture and typically human knickknacks, that various animals call home.

South Of Midnight Is A Gripping Story About Grief, But Falls Short Of Being Truly Excellent

A Striking Work Of Art From Compulsion Games

In many ways, South of Midnight is a triumph for developer Compulsion Games, and is a notable addition to Xbox's publishing catalog. Its shortcomings can largely be forgiven thanks to its compact scope and sheer artistry. Its art style and animation are fantastic, the writing is smart and powerful, and one-half of its gameplay is sufficiently entertaining. That other half of gameplay, the combat, quickly becomes a chore, though, and because it's such a core part of the gameplay loop, its repetitions become the game's.

South of Midnight isn't going to impress with constant new mechanical gimmicks, and the gameplay loop quickly becomes predictable, but it is almost hypnotizing in its presentation. Hazel and her ing cast are delightful, and they're wonderfully brought to life by exceptional animation and voice acting. South of Midnight's twisted take on the American Deep South is bold and captivatingly rendered, but gameplay-forward players are likely to find it lacking.

ScreenRant was provided with an Xbox Series X/S digital key for the purpose of this review.