In a world where so many people complain about frame rate drops in games, South of Midnight is taking an interesting approach.
Images of the game shown by Xbox last summer showed a game with a camera running at 60 frames per second, but characters running at the opposite. This is a deliberate move by Canadian studio Compulsion Games, designed to give protagonist Hazel and the creatures she encounters a sort of stop-motion look, as if players were taking control of an animated film.
It’s a striking look and one that will no doubt be divisive, potentially annoying to some players who prefer the fluid animations expected from action-adventure games. But then, Compulsion has never been a studio that seems interested in bowing to convention.
Their debut title, Contrast, was set in the 1920s and took influences from burlesque, vaudeville, Belle Époche and Art Nouveau aesthetics, while their second offering, We Happy Few, was set in a dystopian alternate reality in London. the 1960s. With that in mind, it shouldn’t have been a big surprise that the studio’s third game once again tried something wildly different.
This time the story takes place in a fictional version of the American Deep South, where Hazel’s hometown has been destroyed by a hurricane. This doesn’t seem like a typical natural disaster, however, because the aftermath finds Hazel in a sort of Southern Gothic setting where she encounters numerous characters and creatures from southern American folklore.
If the stop-motion aesthetic is likely to divide opinion, the character design will almost certainly be more appreciated. Footage from last summer’s game introduced us to a huge catfish that we’re told will follow Hazel throughout the game, as well as a huge alligator enemy named Two-Toed Tom – both of which look tremendously detailed.
One of the most interesting aspects of South of Midnight is that, while it has its fair share of combat (as you’d expect from any 3D action-adventure game these days), Hazel’s attacks are designed to be constructive, non-destructive.
Hazel is a Weaver, meaning she has special powers that Xbox says allow her to “rework the tapestry of energy that makes up the universe.”
What this means in layman’s terms is that during combat she does not attack the mythical enemies she faces (known as Haints), but instead uses her powers to wear down their dark energy, weakening them enough to allow her to perform a special finishing move of “disintegration”. that drags them into nothingness.
“One of the most interesting aspects of South of Midnight is that, while it has its fair share of combat, Hazel’s attacks are designed to be constructive, not destructive.”
When you do this, the enemy disappears and the area around it is magically covered with glowing flowers. Hazel’s quest is not one of death and destruction, she is trying to rebuild her world and restore it to its former beauty, the way it looked before it was destroyed.
While we’re sold on the aesthetics, the proof will always be in the gameplay, especially considering the studio involved. Compulsion’s commitment to art design can never be in doubt, but the reality is that Contrast and We Happy Few earned Metacritic scores of 65 and 64 respectively, meaning the studio is still waiting for its first unanimous critical success.
While there’s a good chance South of Midnight will put an end to that wait, no one gets a free pass based on the art design alone, and now we just have to see if the substance is as accomplished as the style.
