South of Midnight Review – a Southern Gothic Masterpiece with Heart, Soul, and Accessibility (spoiler-free)
There are games that entertain, games that impress, and then there are games like South of Midnight, titles that reach into your chest, grab hold of your heart and stay with you long after the credits roll.
This is not just another action-adventure game. This is something special. A labor of love, a heartfelt letter to folklore, loss, and healing wrapped in a stunning Southern Gothic package.
I fell in love with South of Midnight the very first time I heard its superb music and charming voice acting. It was one of those rare moments where a game grabbed my attention and complete interest. Since then, I’ve followed its development closely, eagerly watching every trailer and absorbing every new detail.
Now, having played through the full game, I can say with confidence that it not only lived up to my expectations, it far exceeded them altogether.
Developed by Compulsion Games and published by Xbox Game Studios, South of Midnight is an experience I won’t ever forget.
Last week we have received the game for review purposes, from Xbox Nordics, and over the last few days, my wife Alina and I played through the entire game together. And I can say, without hesitation, that this is one of the best games ever made.
Before going blind, I played thousands of games across every genre imaginable. Even now, I still find it entertaining to explore virtual worlds through sound design and haptics, thanks to accessibility tools. But South of Midnight did something few games have done since I lost my sight, it truly delighted and entertained me endlessly.
Let’s get one thing clear: South of Midnight is perfect.
Yes, even though there are a few barriers that make the experience difficult for totally blind players, the game itself, on every other front, is flawless.
Before I dive into this review, I want to mention a few things for my blind readers. Although narration isn’t enabled by default, you’ll be greeted by the Quick Start menu immediately after the intro cinematic ends. If you press the A button on your controller at that point, you’ll enable text-to-speech. It’s not ideal, but it’s definitely the next best thing to having TTS activated automatically.
A Story Woven from Magic, Memory, and Mystery
In this coming-of-age adventure, our main protagonist, Hazel embarks on a deeply personal journey to rescue her mother and unravel a haunting web of folklore and family secrets, ultimately confronting the truth about her own identity. When a hurricane rips through the town of Prospero, Hazel is pulled into a Southern Gothic world where reality and fantasy blur together, and ancient creatures from folklore begin to surface.
To survive this surreal new world, Hazel must wield an ancient power that allows her to restore corrupted beings and explore the emotional trauma that consumes them.
Throughout her adventure, she casts powerful weaving magic to combat destructive spirits known as Haints, explores diverse regions of the South, and works to reweave the torn threads of the Grand Tapestry.
A Visual and Musical Feast
Alina tells me that the visuals are absolutely stunning, with each chapter introducing a new environment, color palette, and gameplay twist. From overgrown bayous to ghost towns to dreamlike spiritual realms, the environments are vibrant, eerie, and imaginative.
The music… well, the music is still what I think about long after putting the controller down. It’s mesmerizing. Rooted in Southern blues, jazz, and folk, the score dynamically follows you through exploration and combat. It’s not just background, it’s part of the soul of the game.
I’m super happy that I have access to the soundtrack on Apple Music and every time when I want to return to Hazel‘s world I can just hit play on my favorite tracks, all of them no skips, as the great Lin-Manuel Miranda says.
In an industry that often chases numbers and is oversaturated by the next live service, battle pass, or competitive multiplayer trend, South of Midnight feels original, bold, and refreshingly different. It’s a focused, narrative-rich, single-player experience and in 2025, that makes it stand out for all the right reasons.
Designed with Accessibility in mind, South of Midnight is a triumph not only in its worldbuilding and storytelling, but in its thoughtful accessibility design. Compulsion Games clearly understands that accessibility isn’t a checklist – it’s a core part of inclusive game development.
Features like menu narration, scalable UI , directional audio cues, captions, and a navigation assist system that uses magical threads to guide the player, are all present and thoughtfully implemented. The ability to adjust combat difficulty, enable invincibility, skip boss fights or chases, all these settings empower players to tailor the experience to their needs.
As a totally blind gamer, I was able to play the first two chapters on my own. The combat, exploration, and storytelling were all accessible and enjoyable. However, once I encountered precise platforming segments, I started to struggle. That’s when Alina joined in. I continued to handle exploration and combat, while she assisted with platforming and tricky navigation.
This shared play experience didn’t take anything away from the game, it actually enhanced it. We felt like a team. And the game supported that dynamic effortlessly.
Still, there’s one more feature that could take South of Midnight across the finish line in terms of full blind accessibility: a “Skip to Next Checkpoint” option. It’s already possible to skip boss fights, chase sequences, or entire combat arenas. But when a puzzle, traversal section, or spatial challenge becomes a roadblock, the experience can come to a halt.
Other developers, like Rockstar Games, Insomniac, or Naughty Dog, offer this feature to allow players to move past barriers without missing out on story content. For South of Midnight, adding this option would feel like the next natural evolution of its already excellent accessibility suite.
And for even more immersion, I’d love to see audio descriptions added in future updates. The game already excels at audio-driven storytelling, but descriptive narration for cutscenes would open the door even wider for blind players. I currently work at a special school for adults with disabilities in Oslo, Norway, where I teach blind and physically impaired students how to play video games. And when a title like South of Midnight comes along – with features that lower barriers and empower players – it’s not just entertainment. It’s inclusion.
My students are deeply grateful when accessibility features allow them to participate in something they thought was out of reach. Whether it’s universal design, flexible controls, or audio-based navigation, it all matters. It creates joy, community, and opportunity.
The amount of love, passion, and talent poured into South of Midnight is staggering. From the writing to the music, the character design to the pacing, every detail feels handcrafted. This is a team telling a story that matters to them, and it shows.
Heartfelt congratulations to Xbox Game Studios also for continuing to back bold, accessible, and unique experiences like As Dusk Falls and South of Midnight. This kind of publishing support is vital, and it’s making a difference for so many of us.
I also want to give a shoutout to the social media team behind the South of Midnight accounts. They consistently include alternative text descriptions for images, actively engage with everyone, and maintain a high level of transparency with fans.
South of Midnight is a modern masterpiece – a rare blend of heart, creativity, innovation, and inclusion. Whether you’re drawn in by the folklore, the Southern setting, the characters, or the sheer beauty of the presentation, you’re in for something unforgettable.
South of Midnight launches on April 8 for Xbox Series X|S and PC, with early access starting April 3 for select editions.
At the end I want to say a big thank you to both Xbox and Compulsion Games for giving me the opportunity to experience and review this unforgettable masterpiece.
Review copy provided by Xbox Nordics
Victor Dima
