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[h1]The gist of it:[/h1]
I have really mixed feelings about South of Midnight, on one hand, it doesn't really do anything super bad, but on the other hand, it doesn't do anything super good either. The first half of the game had charm and felt unique, but from mid towards end game, the game becomes a boring slog.
👍 [u]The good parts:[/u]
+Good music at least for the first few hours
+Lovely atmosphere
👎[u]The bad parts:[/u]
-Garbage combat and boring platforming
-Boring ending
[h1]Story[/h1]
You play as Hazel, a young woman who gets placed into some sort of South American fantasy folklore while trying to rescue her mother. In the first few hours, you're treated to some very sad/disturbing stories that happened around the area you live in, and as you gain the powers of a weaver, you're tasked with liberating the poor souls trapped in endless torment.
As I said, initially the story starts really well, I was enjoying the different stories you encountered on your journey, but around the halfway point, the story becomes extremely predictable and filler-like, as if they were trying to postpone the game length as much as they could. Then the game just ends in the most predictable, boring, and safe end you could possibly think of. It's like they completely forgot that the first half of the game was a tragedy with morals.
Aside from the fish, I really did not connect with any of the characters. I did enjoy the tale of the two brothers a lot, that was pretty much the highlight of the entire game.
Story rating: 6/10
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
Let me just warn you from the start, if gameplay matters to you in the games you play, stay away from this. I'm not joking when I say the combat bored me so much that I was getting sleepy playing the game at times. The combat is basically a hack-and-slash with a dash of limited skills, which doesn't sound super bad, it's not, but the way it's designed makes it much worse. Essentially, the entire game is press forward, do some basic platforming, watch some cutscenes, and drop into the exact same copy-pasted arena with the exact same type of enemies and repeat it 200 times. Luckily, the first few boss fights do spice things up, and I enjoyed them, but then they drop the ball hard and completely ruin them as well, with the final boss being an absolute lazy trash of forcing you to fight the same basic enemies you fought a million times over and over.
Platforming is also as basic as it gets, you have variety, but it never truly becomes challenging at all. It's super on rails, just to guide you from one point to another and at times for collecting the most boring collectables ever invented, which are sadly mandatory to upgrade your skills.
Gameplay rating: 6/10
[h1]Audio[/h1]
The voice acting was really good, especially from all the side characters and especially the fish dude. Then they just kinda drop him from the story, and the game goes downhill, as with everything else. The music suffers the same issue as well, the first songs are truly amazing and felt absolutely perfect with the tone of the story until they no longer do. The sound effects were fine.
Audio rating: 8/10
[h1]Graphics, performance and tech analysis[/h1]
The game runs well considering the engine, had no issues with performance, nor any bugs whatsoever. The atmosphere is great for the majority of the game, with nice locations you end up in visually, and the design of the important npc's were really great, except the basic enemies you fight, they were poorly done and completely out of place. The level design was sadly very basic and linear for the most part, with few side-paths available to explore.
Graphics, performance, and tech analysis score: 7.5/10
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
It's a mixed game overall, an adventure game you probably will never remember, and considering the absurd price, you're better off playing something else. Only recommended at a super cheap price.
[h1]Final score: 6.8/10[/h1]
