South of Midnight

Gameplay

In South of Midnight the action is viewed from a third-person perspective (TPP). The story told in the game is divided into chapters, throughout which we visit various locations in the southern United States. The story is linear, but the places Hazel visits in the game have a fairly open structure, giving us some freedom in terms of exploration.

While trying to repair the world, we are hindered by various opponents who embody negative energy. The so-called Haints play the role of ordinary opponents and they appear in variants differentiated in terms of appearance, strength and resistance to damage. From time to time we also have to face powerful bosses originating directly from the folk beliefs of the southern United States. For example, we are talking about the Two-Pawed Tome, a blind albino alligator of a size that makes it a kind of moving island. The gigantic creature is not the only mythical creature in the game that was not a human before its transformation.

On the battlefield, Hazel makes use of her magical ("weaving") skills. The heroine can attack enemies in close combat or at a distance, and she must constantly be on the move to perform lightning-fast dodges and launch quick counterattacks. It's worth noting that the protagonist does not actually hurt, let alone kill, enemies. As they are an emanation of human traumas and negative emotions, attacking them gradually eliminates the pain that led to their creation, and by dissolving the bonds connecting them with her world, it repairs what was previously broken.

Hazel's supernatural abilities, which we expand as we progress, also come in handy during exploration. Thanks to them she can glide, make use of a kind of energy rope with a hook, and also move some elements of the environment to access hard-to-reach places.

Engine and music

One of the distinctive features of South of Midnight is the stylized graphic design, with animations reminiscent of stop-motion films. The game was developed on Unreal Engine 4.

The action on the screen is accompanied by a soundtrack. It was composed by Olivier Deriviere, who is also responsible for the music in games like A Plague Tale: Requiem and Get Even. Every creature that Hazel faces has received a dedicated piece that tells its story, the successive parts of which we discover as we progress.