South of Midnight (PS5) Review: Deep South Action Game Is Gorgeous

March has been a busy month for PS5 house owners, and it ends with the arrival of one other first-party Xbox sport. The most recent PlayStation 5 title from Xbox Recreation Studios is Compulsion Video games’ South of Midnight. A winner at The Recreation Awards 2025 and on the twenty ninth Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, which options an intriguing fictional model of the Deep South, PS5 house owners will wish to try the action-adventure sport.

The very first thing that gamers will discover about South of Midnight is its unbelievable animation. Compulsion, which beforehand did Distinction and We Comfortable Few, isn’t any stranger to creating a putting sport visually, however that is the studio’s most formidable so far. It includes a distinctive look that emulates stop-motion animation throughout cutscenes, and it’s an unbelievable sight. The gameplay itself can also be beautiful, that includes nice artwork design for its world and its demon-like “Haint” enemies. It’s actually a visible delight from begin to end.

Fight can also be fairly enjoyable, as you employ a pair of hooks to break foes and string collectively combo assaults. Gameplay is fast-paced, forcing you to pay full consideration as you’ll need to dodge away from strikes. There’s additionally magic that helps you handle the swarms of foes you possibly can encounter in fight arenas, as ensuring you don’t get overwhelmed is essential. One of the enjoyable mechanics is the power to unravel a downed foe, which lets you carry out a ending transfer and achieve again some HP within the course of. The fights can get a bit repetitive as the sport goes on, however a extremely stable core retains it from ever changing into unfun.

Neatly, South of Midnight additionally by no means overstays its welcome. It takes round 12 hours to beat, and the story consistently propels itself ahead with fascinating characters and a mythological-heavy model of the South that’s enjoyable to expertise. I additionally need to acknowledge actors Adriyan Rae and Cynthia Okay. McWilliams, who do an excellent job of building a mother-daughter relationship that serves as the guts of the story.

The PS5 port comes with a full suite of accessibility choices, starting from tweaking the HUD to navigation help and movement illness deterrents. As for fight, there are a number of problem modes, so when you simply wish to expertise its story, you possibly can simply try this. In actual fact, there are precise fight and boss skip choices that may be toggled, permitting you to skip encounters fully. I’d advocate enjoying on one of many tougher difficulties, because the gameplay winds up being extra rewarding that approach, however it’s all the time nice to have a variety of choices.

South of Midnight (PS5) Evaluate: Ultimate Verdict

South of Midnight includes a well-told and gorgeously animated story that’s price experiencing. Its mythological Deep South setting is a pleasure to see depicted so lovingly, and its distinctive fight retains the sport enjoyable. Whereas it’s not Xbox’s finest PS5 outing, as it may possibly get barely repetitive, action-adventure sport followers will wish to test it out.