South of Midnight dropped day one on PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate back in April 2025. It’s been sitting in backlogs ever since — the kind of game people bookmark and never get to. That’s a mistake, and an easy one to fix right now.
The verdict up front: If you like story-driven games with world-class art and music, this is one of the best things in the Game Pass library. If you came for deep combat or a 50-hour epic, it’s going to frustrate you. Know which one you are before you boot it up.
What South of Midnight Actually Is
Compulsion Games made this — the Montreal studio behind Contrast (2013) and We Happy Few (2018), owned by Xbox since 2018. It released April 8, 2025, day one on Xbox Series X/S, PC, and both Game Pass tiers (PC Game Pass at $11.99/month, Ultimate at $19.99/month).
You play as Hazel, a young woman whose home in the American Deep South gets swallowed by a supernatural flood. She discovers she’s a Weaver — someone who can see the trauma embedded in the land itself and heal it. The entire game takes place over a single day, which explains the runtime.
The folklore source material is specific: haints, hoodoo, the Boo-Hag, a giant catfish deity called the Catfish King. This isn’t sanitized mythology. The stories Hazel uncovers — drowned children, generational violence, spirits stuck in decades-old grief — hit harder than you’d expect from an Xbox first-party title. Honestly, the story hit harder than I expected for a 10-hour game.
The Art Style Is Genuinely Unusual
The game intentionally runs characters at a lower frame rate to simulate stop-motion animation. Enemies jitter like claymation figures. Hazel moves with that slightly jerky, handcrafted feel you get from Laika films. It takes about 20 minutes to click — and then it looks like nothing else in your library.
OpenCritic aggregated 29 reviews and landed at an 82 average with 69% of critics recommending it. The splits are predictable: art and atmosphere get near-universal praise, gameplay gets mixed takes. A Gaming Network gave it 8/10 and called it “a love letter to the Deep South.” But Why Tho gave it 9/10. Console-Tribe (75/100) called progression “formulaic” — that’s the honest middle ground.
The soundtrack by Olivier Derivière mixes original blues compositions with orchestral scoring. The tracks shift as Hazel processes each chapter’s tragedy. It’s one of those soundtracks you’ll end up listening to outside the game — the Premium Edition on Steam ($49.99 vs. $39.99 standard) includes the full OST download if you want it permanently.
The Combat: Good Enough, Not Great
Combat is third-person action. Hazel weaves magic threads to damage enemies, dodges, executes combos, and unlocks new Weaver powers as she progresses. There’s a parry window. Enemy introductions come with brief stop-motion cutlets that look great.
The problem is enemy variety runs dry by hour 6. The same creature types reappear. Difficulty doesn’t escalate much. Combat exists to break up platforming and exploration, not to be its own system. By the back half of the game, you’re fighting through encounters because you have to, not because they’re fun.
Several reviewers said Compulsion should have cut combat entirely and made a pure story-platformer. That’s not wrong. But for most players the combat isn’t a wall — it’s just the weakest part of the experience. You push through it to get to the next piece of folklore, and usually it’s worth it.
If combat becomes a genuine barrier, there are accessibility options including a story-focused mode.
How Long Is It?
Compulsion said 10-12 hours in pre-release press. That’s accurate. GamesRadar tracked it at 10-15 hours for thorough players. HowLongToBeat submissions cluster in the 10-12 hour range for the main story, 15+ for 40-achievement completion hunters. Speedrunners are finishing in 6-7 hours, but you’d miss the point of the game doing that.
For reference: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, also landing on Game Pass this week, is 50+ hours. South of Midnight is the game you play the weekend after you’ve finished the epic. Different mode, different purpose.
The Price Math
On Steam: $39.99 standard edition, $49.99 for the Premium Edition (artbook, original soundtrack, a comic book by Rob Guillory, the Director’s Cut documentary). A $9.99 Premium Upgrade is available if you buy standard first.
On Game Pass: free to play right now, today. PC Game Pass is $11.99/month, Ultimate is $19.99/month. If you’re not already subscribed, South of Midnight alone doesn’t justify the sub — but you’ve also got Dice a Million, Planet of Lana 2 (day one March 5), and KCD2 hitting this week. The lineup earns the price.
If you’re buying outright without Game Pass, $40 for a 10-12 hour narrative game is a tougher call. This one’s worth $25-30. Wait for a sale.
Who Should Play This
Play it if: You finished Indika and wanted more narrative games that take risks. If Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice or A Plague Tale are in your top 10, South of Midnight belongs in your queue.
Skip it (for now) if: You came for combat depth, RPG progression, or a long campaign. The game is honest about what it is from the first hour — a story told through a platformer, not the other way around.
Switch 2 players: a port is coming Spring 2026, announced at the Switch 2 Direct.
Final Take
South of Midnight is what happens when a game studio gets deeply specific about something. Compulsion spent years in the research — consultants, folklore archives, original music. The result is a game that looks, sounds, and feels like nothing else in the Xbox catalog.
The combat is the weak point and everybody knows it. It still doesn’t kill the experience. Play it with the volume up, on a weekend when you can sink into it. The story doesn’t let go easily once it gets going.
Verdict: Play it. It’s free on Game Pass and it earns every hour.
