South of Midnight |OT| Don't stop me-weavin'

I kind of want to outright buy it. Just to play early and support the theme. Waiting to see more impressions on end game etc. Always like the Deep South atmosphere and not enough media utilizes it.
 
Played a bit till chapter 3 this morning. Did the gamepass upgrade, and glad I did. The charm and atmosphere is off the charts. So far it's a really good sit back and relax kind of game. Graphics and atmosphere are the highlight so far. Only annoying thing is that every so often it stops the gameplay for all the tutorials and stuff, hope it doesn't keep going like that the whole game. Honestly not sure why not more people are talking about it. Hopefully they are just playing the game? One of the stronger Xbox only titles to come around in a while IMHO. I wish more games came around like this and less open world or gass trash.
 
I have read many impressions and people say that the gameplay is boring as heck. The presentation and art style are great but the game it self is a chore, feels more like an interactive movie. I still have gamepass subscription but I dont think I am going to bother downloading this
 
Gonzito said:
I have read many impressions and people say that the gameplay is boring as heck. The presentation and art style are great but the game it self is a chore, feels more like an interactive movie. I still have gamepass subscription but I dont think I am going to bother downloading this
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My biggest complaint so far is the awful, amateur writing.

If they were going for the 'interactive movie' type game that prioritizes story over gameplay, the writing needed to be top-notch. Otherwise, what's even the point!

For me, they missed the mark when it comes to writing, dialogues, story, etc. And the gameplay is basic because the focus was apparently on story. So I don't see many redeeming qualities just yet. Might change in the later parts of the game, but so far the signs are not there.
 
Gonzito said:
I have read many impressions and people say that the gameplay is boring as heck. The presentation and art style are great but the game it self is a chore, feels more like an interactive movie. I still have gamepass subscription but I dont think I am going to bother downloading this
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Hell blade 3 came early?
 
The game is good so far. I just passed Chapter 5 — it was about Tom-Tom Gator. I wish there were more options for exploration and better rewards.
The graphics are really great. It's just a beautiful, beautiful game. Great lore and excellent use of the soundtrack — one of the best in the industry.
I really hope more people get to play it. Of course, there are things to complain about — the gameplay isn't very surprising, and some tools (like Tom-Tom or whatever the toy was called) feel underused. The writing is a bit questionable in terms of quality — it's naive as hell.
I also wish the environment were more interactive. But again, what do we have? The game's on Game Pass, it plays well, and it looks amazing.
 
Couldn't Wait.

Bought the South of Midnight Premium Upgrade, activated my 1-month of Game Pass, and will start playing tonight.
 
Disappointed to read about writing. I'm on the fence about the game; I don't really require some innovative gameplay, I haven't played as many games as average GAFfer, and I certainly don't want complicated platforming; so I thought I might do a walkthrough to learn more about the lore of Deep South which I've always found intriguing.

Music and voice acting in IGN review sounded nice, too. But mediocre writing and this tiresome fashion of showing flashbacks via "ghostly" lazy silhouettes if off putting.

I wish they were a bit braver with MC, since it's a niche game anyway; wouldn't it be cooler if main character was escaped prisoner or something, not yet another young chick or bland dude. There's a horror novel about woman who travels upriver with her intellectually disabled sister to ask dark deity's to release her beloved, a serial killer, who ends up
cutting her to pieces to show his love the only way he knows how - but it's not particularly sad since it turns out heroine disabled her sister to hide incestual fling with her brother from their parents
, I'd be down to something like that in style of gothic horror. :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 
Writing is fine: it is not exceptional, but it is elevated by tons of mood and reasonably fine directing where all the dramatic beats work in their own way. The writing and the game itself is certainly better than Split Fiction, a game that shares a lot of similarities with this. Third chapter is when it starts to become a really cool experience.
 
Finished chapter six. There must be a lot to explore in the game, I apparently missed numerous collectibles in the first five chapters and I was trying to explore everything.

The way the game is set up, each chapter has you learning about or helping someone overcome or confronting someone about deep trauma in the past. Chapter six was really sad. Story and music are both very gripping so far and the combat hasn't gotten stale yet, which I assumed it would.
 
Finished chapter 5 and I am starting to like it more and more, thanks to the overall vibe. Those haunting bluesy choir songs make the game feel pleasantly otherwordly and weird. This is clearly a niche game and bless MS for financing these oddities before they realise they are not commercially viable and start making more mainstream games just like everybody else.
 
N0S said:
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Man thats a triple bagger
 
Roberts said:
Finished chapter 5 and I am starting to like it more and more, thanks to the overall vibe. Those haunting bluesy choir songs make the game feel pleasantly otherwordly and weird. This is clearly a niche game and bless MS for financing these oddities before they realise they are not commercially viable and start making more mainstream games just like everybody else.
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I just finished chapter 5 and feel the exact same way.
 
Hayabusabruh said:
Does this game have a block or a parry?
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I'm on mission 9 out of 14 I think and I haven't come across a block or parry. You can upgrade one of the abilities to stun an enemy if you time it right as they attack you, I guess that could be considered a parry. Maybe a real block or parry opens up later. Other than that you have dodge.
 
Roberts said:
Finished chapter 5 and I am starting to like it more and more, thanks to the overall vibe. Those haunting bluesy choir songs make the game feel pleasantly otherwordly and weird. This is clearly a niche game and bless MS for financing these oddities before they realise they are not commercially viable and start making more mainstream games just like everybody else.
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Agreed on all of this. The vibes are incredible, I think the story is very well done and well written. This is the type of small new IP we have been missing this gen from MS and Sony.

The music is top notch. I don't know if it translates well to listening outside of the game, but when in the game and these jazz and folky songs start going, it's very nice.
 
Bumblebeetuna said:
The music is top notch. I don't know if it translates well to listening outside of the game, but when in the game and these jazz and folky songs start going, it's very nice.
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Sounds great.

Am intrigued by the music, lots of vocals, don't normally see that in game soundtracks.
 
I'm on chapter 12. I will have a few chapters to go in and clean up some floofs and tin kicks if I want to 100%. Game says I am at 8 hours. Love a game that respects your time like this. They could have fleshed it out with a huge open world and repetitive material collecting and fetch quests and shallow RPG systems and made it a 60 hour AAA experience but they did not. Every level is a well crafted labyrinth wrapped around a very unique story.
 
2 hours until launch and the game is #54 in top sellers on Steam.

This will be megabomba as far as actual sales are concerned.

But, I will try it on gamepass myself, the graphics and music seems nice enough.
 
The fighting gets a bit old in later chapters, but then again it is just not my favourite type of gameplay: I never finished the last DMC game, for example, and was bored from fighting near the end of Spider-Man 1. That said, I still low-key love the game, because it offers so much more in terms of atmosphere and tone. An occasional fighting encounter here and there doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the game itself.
 
I made it to chapter 11 I think. Starting to get burned out by the repetition. Already turned of all the combat outside of bosses. The main character is starting to annoy me every time she opens her mouth. The music is also starting to grate on me. Some of the songs and lyrics just don't flow well. The only thing pulling me forward are the environments at this point. I just love the art design.
 
Bumblebeetuna said:
I'm on chapter 12. I will have a few chapters to go in and clean up some floofs and tin kicks if I want to 100%. Game says I am at 8 hours. Love a game that respects your time like this. They could have fleshed it out with a huge open world and repetitive material collecting and fetch quests and shallow RPG systems and made it a 60 hour AAA experience but they did not. Every level is a well crafted labyrinth wrapped around a very unique story.
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I see this game getting downplayed because of the length but it actually sounds like the exact kind of game we need more of in 2025.

My hype goes up a little every time someone complains about no open world or it "only" being 10-12 hours
 
Started this. Anyone else notice a bit of crackling in the audio, I noticed in the flash flood radio warning that plays when you're packing your things at the start of the game.

Other than that, performing very smooth, looks nice as well though in the best case scenario there should have been the option to disable the stop-motion in cut-scenes too, not just game-play.

edit: Also, there's no photo mode? or I can't find one.
 
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Played some chapter 1. Nice, vibrant visuals and the performance is real smooth. The game, so far, plays like a bog standard 3D platformer, nothing out of the ordinary. But it's already much better feel to the game than Compulsion's previous stuff.


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The combat is such a afterthought, you can even skip fights. Story sucks and the art style sucks even more, not for me. Won't bother with it anymore. Whoever enjoys this slop, have fun I guess.
 
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