12 Likes
Good stuff I’ll be playing it next Tuesday god willing
Achievements for beating bosses without taking damage 
Really digging the game so far. Stunning visuals, which Compulsion usually deliver on to be fair, and great music. Combat is basic, but not bad, though still a bit early for me to judge completely.
6 Likes
Good job on the layout. It’s awesome !
4 Likes
Is there chapter select?
I thought Jon was excited to review this one? 
Played through the first three chapters. Playing on hard and I turned off stop motion as well as a few HUD options like the screen effects and the detection arrows for enemies.
The environments/characters look great. Love the art style. Audio is excellent with good sound, great voice acting and an excellent soundtrack. Story and characters is solid thus far. The side story during chapter three is dark. Have a ways to go but so far, so good. Gameplay wise, the platforming feels great but the combat is basic and generic. You get your abilities on a cool down but nothing really special through three chapters. The biggest issues though is the lag/delay as so many times I press LB to freeze an enemy and it just doesn’t do it fast enough or not at all. They need to fix the timing on this because it’s annoying. Even worse is the camera. It’s bad regardless of how you set it up because it’s too close during combat. The camera should be zoomed out so you can get a better view of your surroundings.
Will post my review once I complete the game this weekend. 
1 Like
Would you suggest this for Midnight? I’ve noticed recently that normal mode has become easy mode. I don’t even know what easy mode is any longer. I suppose that is visual novel mode now. I regret playing most of Indy on normal - it is just far too easy.
Yes. There’s story, easy, balanced (default/normal) and advanced (which I just put as hard to make it simple) along with a custom difficulty level that you can setup to your own liking.
Through three chapters, I have died a lot on advanced, however, excluding the first upgrade that is mandatory and during the tutorial, I haven’t upgraded anything at all as I want to see how far I can get before I truly have to start upgrading my skills.
I’m in Chapter 5, taking it slow because the gameplay can be a bit repetitive but playing it in short bursts helps that. I love the stop motion animation look and the audio is amazing.
I had to look up where Compulsion Games is located, because they 100% nailed the South with the voice acting in this. I know and work with people who are like the characters in this game.
1 Like
This is the best game I have played in ages so much better than DMC 5 and with fantastic visuals and and the best videogame soundtrack in years
This is such a joy
Just completed chapter 3 and it’s been a great experience so far. Comcast might be the weakest part but it isn’t bad. Just shows how much better every other aspect is. And the sound track is amazing big time the Benji song.
2 Likes
Best game I have played in ages, loving the music and how each level is themed
This is a masterpiece
1 Like
Completed South of Midnight about an hour ago. Played on advanced (hard) difficulty. Total play time was approximately 18 hours. I did miss some collectibles and one of the nine health shards that increase your maximum health. I did max out all the skill trees.
- Video - 9.0/10 (excellent)
From beginning to end, South of Midnight looks awesome. I loved the art style, the character designs, animations and environments are absolutely stunning. HDR also looks great. Weather effects are also really good.
- Audio - 9.0/10 (excellent)
Arguably the strongest aspect of the game. The soundtrack is amazing. Loved every single music track as they all sound great, have great tunes to them and most importantly, fit the game and even more so, the chapters themselves. Voice acting is great as are the sound effects.
- Gameplay/Combat - 7.0/10 (good)
Two parts to this. First, the great part which is the general movement/control, the platforming which I love as it just feels great overall and the exploration which revolves around the collectibles and upgrades. Second, the worst part which is the combat itself. Throughout the entire game in every combat encounter, there feels like there’s a delay when pressing the buttons. So many times, I would press buttons and it just doesn’t do the action that it should. I have to press the button multiple times just to perform the action. After that would be the camera as it’s never in the place you want it to be in. Also, I didn’t like the camera zooming in when finishing off an enemy.
- Story/Characters - 9.0/10 (excellent)
From start to finish, was completely engrossed with the story and characters. Love the setting and the mini-stories within the main story. Some of the story aspects are dark and mature which I appreciate because games like this are few and far between. Won’t mention anything else. I will say that im hoping for a sequel/second game with this IP as outside of the combat which would need to be improved, I enjoyed everything else from beginning to end.
- Overall - 8.5/10 (great)
Compulsion Games has won me over with South of Midnight which is a great action adventure game with an excellent soundtrack, gorgeous visuals and art style along with an excellent dark and mature story. Gameplay is mixed with great platforming and good exploration but with weak combat that has a few issues.
4 Likes
I wrapped it up last night and your review sums up my thoughts. I didn’t experience any lag with the controls, though, and generally felt the combat was fine. However, I do think the camera could’ve been pulled back a touch to make it easier to deal with off-screen enemies.
A minor complaint about the story is that I’d liked to have seen some follow-up with Jolene, and the ending felt a bit short.
Great story overall, though, that touches upon some heavy subjects, such as the Underground Railroad and toxic masculinity. Combined with the music, writing, and performances, this will definitely be one of my highlights of the year, and I hope we get to see more of Hazel & Co. I’m sure there are plenty more folklore stories that can serve as a source of information, so maybe a sequel where Hazel becomes an investigator of paranormal activities in the Deep South.
Shoutout to Compulsion; they were pretty much the overlooked purchase in the acquisition spree because of their previous games not really delivering on the promise, but I think they did so here.
2 Likes
Perhaps it’s just me then because my friend went through the first two chapters and had no issues with the combat.
Agree with everything you said. Hoping Compulsion Games continues with this IP.
I am liking this so far. Gameplay wise all of it feels fairly standard but there’s something very engaging about the aesthetic and feel.
1 Like
Is there a photo mode ? I don’t think there is and that’s a shame !!
Nope. I just changed the hud settings so they only appear during combat and got some great shots
1 Like