If all goes according to architectural plan , Xbox has a fully grown 2025 ahead of it . Obsidian will kick matter off withAvowednext calendar week , Doom : The Dark Agesis bound to be a hit , andNinja Gaiden 4will give a classic serial the revival it deserves . All of that is chance in just the first few month of the yr , with toilsome hitters likeFableandGear of War E - Daystill to come . The most exciting game in Xbox ’s lineup might be its smallest , though : South of Midnight .
The latest secret plan fromWe Happy Fewstudio Compulsion Games left a big impression during last calendar month ’s Xbox Developer Direct . The action at law - escapade game take up musician to the American deep due south , which is brought to living with a striking art style inspired by stop - motion liveliness . That ’s the kind of item that ’s bandage to catch eye , but it left me wondering what it would really find like .
Now that I ’ve meet a full chapter , I have a much clearer picture ofSouth of Midnightbeyond its aesthetic . Hardly anything feels out of plaza , as every system , fructify piece , and locale connects back to a clear and humble artistic vision . It ’s a turn of a low density for a New biz of its size of it : a tightly crafted adventure that ’s optical maser focalise on being exactly what it wants to be .
Reverse engineering
My demo takes me throughSouth of Midnight ’s third chapter . At that tip in the story , a hurricane has already wash over the modest town of Prospero . fiddle as Hazel , I ’m leave to sort through the wreckage as I move through an eerily serene swamp bake in the Southern sun . What ’s bracing to determine right off the bat is thatSouth of Midnightdoesn’t burden players with an overpoweringly expectant map . This is a classically analog escapade secret plan , a decision that work totally in its favor .
This does n’t feel like a Earth composed of repeated asset to make the illusion of scale . Every recession of Prospero feel delicately handcraft . When I walk into a decay household , I ’m taken aback by how much it feel like a real space . There ’s a molding mattress nuzzle under a stairwell , fellowship photos on the wall , even a quilt generally drape over a balusters . In these cramp spaces , I can feel their old owner trying to solve their storehouse needs with scarcely any blank to do work with .
There’san authenticity therethat kick the bucket beyond esthetical . What sticks out to me most during my playthrough is the foreclosure sign on house and government note interchange to doors from a shady company forcibly reclaiming house in a landed estate snap . I can feel the economic struggle of the community of interests in those details . All of that is by design , as Writer and Narrative Director Zaire Lanier tells me in an audience .
“ Prospero is a small town , and a stack of small towns in America — north , south , east , west — do have those form of trouble , ” Lanier tells Digital Trends . “ They do n’t have resources . People move away and do n’t come back . But they ’re still places that matter to the great unwashed , and places that have a culture and history . The way we have Hazel interact with those things , she ’s emphatic . She ’ll be mad that your house got foreclosed for you ! But we also have glimpse of community . You ’ll go into a house and see pictures of families or leftover quilts . Even though the world is kind of empty because of the hurricane , we populate it to make it feel lived in . This was someone ’s household and it had to be leave behind because of a natural catastrophe . ”
That ’s all brought to life thanks toSouth of Midnight ’s distinct prowess mode , which mimics physical stop - apparent motion living . I ’ve appreciated what I ’ve seen in trailers , but it ’s even more impressive up close and in motion . Early in the chapter , I assemble a elephantine mudcat who ’s in need of help . As I get close to the screenland , I can see the attention paid to his building . He ’s a patchwork of textures , as if he was rumple into creation with fabric salvaged around town . Though everything here is a 3D model , fiber look like they were crafted by hand .
That look came from research . The team was exalt by fellow Canadians Clyde Henry Productions , an animation studio that Compulsion tapped to produce a handmade presentation cinematic for the game . Compulsion study Clyde Henry ’s employment closely , repeal engineering the physical models used in its own moving picture to convincingly mirror them in 3D. Art Director Whitney Clayton explain that the physical process instigate its artist to separate out of their usual drug abuse and take notes from a different sensitive ’s nicety .
“ There ’s a muckle of questions that fall up that we did n’t substantiate would be question , ” Clayton tells Digital Trends . “ If this survive in real life , what would the scale be ? Because the plate next to a human being will determine the size of it of a rumple on somebody , or the amount of particular one could put into something by manus . It fetch up a lot of questions of what checkboxes do the artist need to always consider when they ’re wee a airscrew . And by the time we got to the third or 4th prop , they jump to interiorise it . ”
Weaving into battle
It does n’t take long for me to grasp the straightforward gameplay loop . I take the air through the bayou , once in a while prod around for collectable Floofs hidden behind little platforming segments squirreled away in optional paths . I have a two-fold leap , air hyphen , and glide to help me get around , and I get a line to fence escape on billboards and hanging quilt midway through the chapter . All of my apparent movement feel fluid , despiteSouth of Midnightboldly choose to replicate a filmic “ exalt on twos ” looking ( everything is still running at 60 frames per second under that , and picky player can deactivate the frame trick ) .
As I explore , I also get a feel for Hazel ’s weaving power , which act into both geographic expedition and combat . For the former , I can expend witching train of thought to construct platforms , fracture down detritus in my path , and yank fall scraps of metal off the undercoat to find obscure Floofs .
Those mightiness mostly add up into play during battles against dark creatures , call Haints . These materialize in set scene of action placed on my path . When I walk into one , the surround close in around me and I have to wipe out a few creatures to sublimate my way forward . Like everything else inSouth of Midnight , the fight system is n’t a mechanically heavy patchwork of ideas . Every undivided tool require to be used in conflict , from canonic attack to Hazel ’s elemental weave power . Failing to use those is a formula for disaster . I almost got pass over out in my very first conflict because I did n’t listen the developers ’ former warning to utilize my scheme roll .
Haints hit like a motortruck and Hazel does n’t have a healing flash to salute out of . Instead , each arena only has one healing aureole that can be picked up if she needs it . Otherwise , the only way of life Hazel heals is when she takes down an enemy ’s health and then unravels them , cede her a bit of wellness . It’sSouth of Midnight ’s wholesome rendering ofDoom ’s finisher . Once I understood the flow , it was gentle to incur the regular recurrence of battle . It ’s a game of measured healing resource management , as I always wanted to know when I could push the vantage on an already counteract foe if I take a hitting and take a agile heal . That makes for some surprisingly tense combat where it feels like I ’m fighting down to the conducting wire .
apart from slashing , Hazel has a few weaving powers at her disposal . One yanks an opposition towards me while another repels them , two tools that are crucial in allow me contend enemy spacing when I get crowded . Another power have me temporarily net an enemy up in thread , perfect for close down an incoming attack and quickly pushing the impulse to burn down a wellness ginmill in a pinch . The piece - casting system of rules callsHogwarts Legacyto bear in mind , but it pulls more astuteness out of much fewer options .
If there ’s any headache I have about the full game , it ’s that these fights seem like they could get old tight . I was tossed into a handful of battles throughout the chapter and each felt more or less the same . I only faced off against a few enemy types , from a bug - spewing hive to tower Haint whose projectiles I could send back with the right timing . I get the sense that Compulsion is being conservative with how much it peppers battles in so as not to stretch its concise arrangement too thinly , though I ’m hoping there ’s a picayune more to canonical enemy variety in later chapter .
Hazel does have more tools that I ’ve yet to see , though . There ’s a whole skill tree that augment each weaving ability and give Hazel a few supernumerary trick . During my demo , I ’d unlock the ability to perform a ground slam attack . Later in the plot , she also gets a raggedy doll familiar named Crouton who can mind control an foe and sic it against another . Hopefully there ’s enough in the tree to evolve later fighting .
Deconstructing Southern gothic
Any combat nitpicks do n’t feel like they ’ll be terribly meaning in the grand scheme ofSouth of Midnight . More than anything , its charm is in its tale so far . It ’s a account forge from film and literary influence , telling a magical realist tale in the vein ofBig Fish(in fact , that ’s the name of Chapter 3 ) . obsession drew from a wide range of Southern mediaeval art history to build up a world that match into that storytelling custom .
“ I read Alice Walker , Toni Moirrson . I rereadTheir Eyes Were watch Godby Zora Neale Hurston . I watch Eve ’s Bayou , which is a terrific flick , ” Lanier say . “ And this is n’t Southern gothic , but I rewatched Spike Lee’sCrooklyn . It ’s one of my favorite movies . The mother daughter kinship is a loose framework and I really care how it ’s handled . We pulled from a lot of different matter . I felt more extract to some of the Black 1 to make that air of genuineness . What does Black southerly gothic look like , specifically for Hazel ? ”
A mood that ’s a moment pondering , macabre , and symbolic .
That research comes out in the piece of writing . While there ’s an overarching narrative , Chapter 3 houses its own narration electric arc that almost reads like a short myth . The chapter has me free my wolffish pal from the Benjy Tree . I do n’t know what that means at first , but I unravel that whodunit as the chapter progresses . It builds to a colored revelation about a deadly spat between pal , turning one into a living tree that I finally need to climb up in a climactic platforming segment . That segment is soundtracked by a full - on musical number , as the other sidekick blab what happened from his perspective . It ’s a moody fairy story , but one bear out of a grounded pain that run through Prospero ’s origin .
For Clayton , the goal was n’t to copy scene from books and motion picture . Rather , it was to travail into the genre and figure out how it ’s built . It ’s not so dissimilar to the way of life the art team took aside Clyde Henry ’s role model to repeal engineer them into video biz asset .
“ There ’s a deconstructing of what the ocular tropes of Southern black letter are , ” Clayton says . “ There ’s this smell of being trapped in meter because these story are commonly in some way of life timeless . They ’re usually position in a small , quiet spot and everything is concentrate in that place . There ’s an overarching narrative , but then you have these very intimate stories that follow along with that . You kind of find like the world stands still a second . There ’s the decaying computer architecture , the hanging moss on the alive oak . It all establish for a mood that ’s a act contemplative , macabre , and symbolic . ”
All of this careful employment shows in the final product , at least in the snippet I played . From reminiscent sound and visuals to a sub history that feels like it was ripped from local caption , South of Midnightlooks to be accomplishing exactly what Compulsion fructify out to do . No more , no less . That ’s refreshing in an old age of bloated plot that essay too hard to be everything for everyone . This feel more sustainable by comparison : a focussed vision that ’s befittingly scoped around an consultation that approaches game as art with perspectives , rather than seeing them as something to wipe out and spit out . I jazz which mathematical group I diminish into .
South of Midnightlaunches on April 9 for Xbox Series X / S and PC .
