South of Midnight: Hands-on Preview
The mystery of Compulsion Games’ latest title is slowly unveiling. After a long period of quiet between their previous game, We Happy Few and the announcement of South of Midnight we have been getting bits and pieces through Xbox events and developer diaries. But one question has remained, how does it play? Well thanks to Xbox Australia, I can now answer that because I have spent a few hours with Hazel and her magic powers as she explores a mythical deep south. After spending this time with South of Midnight, I have to say, my expectations have shot through the roof.
The press demo so kindly supplied by Xbox let me experience the third chapter in its entirety. Hazel, the heroine of this tale, is just coming into her powers as a Weaver and is exploring what appears to be a mythical Bayou filled with strange critters and foes. What’s a Weaver? Well, I am not sure just yet, but it appears to be someone who can heal the damage done to the world by nasty events and personal tragedies, helping return the flow of magic to a land that is clearly struggling. This is just my assumption though, because despite my time with the game, I still have a lot to learn about what is actually going on.
That’s fine though, I am happy to wait for the full game to unveil all the mysteries as the ones I unravelled in the demo were more than enough to whet my appetite. During the level, Hazel begins to discover the story of two brothers whose actions left a mark on this world that she needs to repair. These two brothers, one who was despised by the community, protected each other, moving from location to location as they got chased out by the locals. This pattern continues until the accepted brother is sick of uprooting his life for the other brother and refuses to leave, only to find out later that his brother was killed. It is the surviving brother’s regret that has damaged the land so profoundly and Hazel spends her time in this level fixing that damage. The culmination of this story is at the end of the level when a beautiful, almost Nick Cave-like, song plays over the gameplay telling the whole story of the brothers through its heartbreaking lyrics. It was honestly moving and almost brought a tear to my eye, something a press demo has never done before.
This melancholic beauty was everywhere in my time with the game. The stop-motion graphics invoke the feeling of the Tim Burton classic A Nightmare Before Christmas and the level design is both haunting and gorgeous. There is a clear drive by the developers to evoke an emotional response from the player at every corner, using the world, music and style to bring feeling to every action. There are very few games that have done this successfully in the past, especially in the AAA space, but South of Midnight is certainly on the right path to bring more than just bombast and adventure to proceedings. I feel like this is a game that is going to walk in the path of games like Psychonauts 2 and deal with some heavy emotional themes, something that could really leave an impression on its audience.
On the gameplay side of things, South of Midnight feels very much built upon games we have played before, which I feel is the right choice considering how unique everything else is. The platforming is, quite frankly, sublime with wall-running, double jumps, glides and rolls all combining into some wonderfully satisfying parkour that flowed beautifully from one section to the next. As far as movement is concerned, it really felt on par with games like Jedi Survivor or even Prince of Persia and I can’t really give it much higher praise than that. The levels are all designed beautifully to allow this free-flowing movement and also allow players to veer off the path to find bits and bobs that go towards upgrading the player. It is a linear experience, but one that never feels like it is oppressive or to forceful when guiding players along the path.
The combat is probably the weakest element of the game I experienced, not because it was bad, but because it simply felt fine. The game puts players into small arenas from which they can’t leave until they have defeated all of the enemies, a task achieved through melee combat and special attacks. All the standard tools are here; dodges, parries, rolls and attacks, there is nothing here you haven’t done before. It works well, it is just unexciting when compared to the rest of the game. It is, worth pointing out though, that the section I played was early in the game so I hadn’t unlocked a large chunk of Hazel’s abilities so combat could absolutely become more exciting once more tools are at a player’s disposal. The enemy design is pretty cool though and even in this singular level there was a nice variety of baddies on show.
I have to admit, I wasn’t super excited by South of Midnight until now. It looked great but I wasn’t sold on what that game was offering. That has completely changed after my time with the game and it is now one of my most anticipated titles of the year. This is a game that clearly aims to offer an emotional counterpoint to the usual 3rd person adventuring in video games by dealing with some pretty heavy concepts in a nuanced and engaging manner. If that continues throughout the whole game, this is going to be a truly special experience when it is released on the 8th of April. Hazel’s tale is one that has its hooks in me and I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
