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I'll just play a little bit mo- WHEN THE HELL DID THE SUN COME UP?!

So, for the record. I grew up in Kentucky. Not as deep south as Mississippi where the game is set, but still close enough to recognize the feel of the story and the characters.
South of Midnight is a game set in the deep south focusing on folklore and urban legends of that region, and is something that I started playing around 10:00 PM and had to force myself to stop playing at 6:00 AM or else i wouldn't have any sleep before work. If that doesn't tell you what you need to know, I don't know what will.
But I'm gonna try anyways.
The Good
A damn near unique story and setting
South of Midnight is set in modern day Mississippi but in an urban fantasy setting with folklore figures from the deep south such as rougarou and Hugging Molly (for anyone who's fought her, thats a real cryptid. Look it up.) The ONLY other game I can think of that has done anything with that theme is Where the Water Tastes Like Wine which is a good game, but a completely different genre.
I have related to EVERY damn part of the story so far
That does rather speak for how completely fucked my childhood was, but yeah. So far the story beats from when Hazel gets her weaver picks all the way up to where I currently left off at the start of chapter 10... yeah... I spotted what Molly was well before the story revealed it because, well, I know exactly what those kids were feeling. Been there, done that, worn the bruises. I would've been right alongside that preacher woman ringing the bell. I knew, if not exactly how Benji felt, then at least pretty close to it. This game kinda hurt to play in spots, but it only made me want to play more.
YE GODS THE MUSIC
Get the soundtrack. If you don't get it on here I can promise you it is on Spotify and likely iTunes and Apple Music. Good gods this music. I freakin' wept during the bit on the giant tree.

The Bad
Combat can be clunky at first
I had few problems with it, though early on it was a bear beacuse you didn't have all your tools yet and enemies could easily make mince out of Hazel if she got surrounded... but a few chapters in when you hit the road it became a lot more intuitive for me... for me. My wife doesn't like the combat (though she's from Louisiana originally so she is all in on the story and is going to play it to the end come hell or high water... well... more high water) but I'm perfectly fine with it.
GET THE FLOOF!
Part of my wife's problems with the combat stemmed from this: we realized as we were playing simultainiously that despite being around the same part of the game, I had almost the entire skill tree unlocked that could be unlocked and she... didn't. Hot tip: explore everywhere. You can summon the weave to show you what the correct path forward is at any point. Do that, then go ANYWHERE ELSE! You will likely uncover spheres of (I am not kidding) floof, which let you upgrade your abilities. Grab them wherever you can. You'll thank me.

TL;DR: An outstanding and unique title with a story that has me hooked from the word go. I'm going to likely play this through to the end tomorrow and an announcement of DLC plans would make me a very happy gamer.

My interest in this game throughout its marketing over the past year was cautious; the Deep South setting looked incredibly fresh, and the music of course sounded excellent--but the gameplay immediately underwhelmed with its button-mashy combat. Unfortunately, the marketing proved honest. But the enemy encounters aren't the only thing that's repetitive, the same can be said about the rest of the level design, and even parts of the storytelling. Despite introducing the occasional new ability and enemy type, those do little to shake things up when there's still a strict formula never deviated from.
1. Find item from protagonist's lost mother and watch her soliloquy
2. Basic, not very polished platforming, with Uncharted ledge-climbing
3. Some exploration on a tight leash (your control of the camera often stripped to show a point of interest), finding notes/examinable items and resources to buy skill upgrades or increase your health
4. Squeeze through many different loading screen crevices, though at least it's just an animation here
5. Enter plain, segmented battle arena to fight a bunch of the same enemies you fought before in the same way. "Unravel" enemies upon death--which itself is a repetitive act, as the camera always pushes in to play the animation--to restore health or trigger an AOE blast
6. When the enemies are cleared, unravel the arena's "knot" which brings you into a kind of narrative memory vignette, where for some reason you're forced to walk forward a few yards before actually watching the scene
7. Do the past several actions multiple times until they culminate in a platforming chase sequence with not much going on
8. Eventually fight a boss, putting up with the combat to hear awesome music
9. Repeat, more or less
Something else I noticed and found odd was that almost every camera angle during cutscenes is fixed. I can probably count the number of shots with movement on both hands. Those made the cinematic presentation a tad stale. Shame, because the writing and voice acting are compelling... compelling enough for me to reach the end. I also really liked the protagonist, she talked to herself yet it wasn't obnoxious.
If Compulsion makes another action-adventure title, they desperately need to take a page from Hazelight Studios' book. Variety is king. I think back to the first Psychonauts, how that became one of my all-time favorite games, disregarding the objectively rough edges. People would've criticized the platforming and combat of this game no matter what, but varied level design is a strong crutch, especially when you've got such an original concept.

I really want to like this game but sadly I don't.
South of Midnight looks like a playable Laika movie. The art style is fantastic. More of this please. I'm captivated by the world they created, I like the protagonist, I like the Southern Gothic vibes. I like looking at this world and being in it.
Unfortunately, I don't really think it's all that fun to play.
This is a linear narrative-driven action-platformer in the same vein as Psychonauts, Jak and Daxter, etc., but nothing to make it stand out mechanically. Nothing here is really all that unique which might not matter if it executed its design and gameplay better. The platforming is just so rigid and the environmental puzzles are just so uninteresting. They don't really feel like things I have to figure out and there's no joy in executing some sort of complex maneuver you might find in other games. They're just things in the way you get through mindlessly. Move this box over here. Make this platform appear. Find the button prompt. Find a painted ledge. Get into a locked arena to fight off some enemies. It's all just so very bland and straightforward.
Combat is the worst aspect of this game. Again, nothing unique but that could have been forgiven if it were any fun. If you're going to get this game, I highly recommend knocking the game down to one of its easier difficulties, otherwise they're just damage sponges whose attacks you have to dodge and button-mash your way to victory.
The one "unique" thing about this game is doing a finishing move to take down an enemy permanently (all it is is hitting a thing until its health goes down and hitting a button prompt). However, doing this results in an awkward "world freeze" moment where everything around literally stops moving until you're done. It interrupts any sort of flow in combat you might have had otherwise. It's suppose to give you a bit of health and speed up the cooldowns of your abilities but you're probably not going to be using them very much anyway.
It doesn't take long to see the kind of strict routine South of Midnight has for you: platforming, combat arena, platforming, combat arena, rinse, repeat, beat game. So it's dull gameplay followed by annoying gameplay with some charming cutscenes here and there.
Compulsion Games needs to seriously rethink how they design their gameplay. I don't know if they're afraid to experiment, I don't know if this is just a creative decision, I don't know what, but this marks their third title with the same exact frustrating problem of cool aesthetic but boring gameplay. Contrast suffered from this. We Happy Few suffered from this. Sadly, South of Midnight suffers from this.
TL;DR:
- Fun to look at
- Nice to listen to
- Boring to play