South of Midnight is the latest game from Montreal-based developer Compulsion Games, taking you on a magical journey through this gothic version of the American Deep South.
There's a lot of story, art, and music to dig into in South of Midnight, and of course, plenty of gameplay. Before you get started, though, there are a few things you're going to want to know heading into South of Midnight that'll help you get the best experience possible over the dozen or so hours it'll take to complete the game's story.
Tips for starting South of Midnight
You need to keep moving in combat. You don't have a parry, but you do have a dodge, and if you can time it right to perform a perfect dodge, then you can create this small explosion that'll knock back enemies and give you another opportunity to get a couple of hits in. That being said, enemies won't be waiting one by one to attack you, so it won't always be possible to time a perfect dodge. Keeping yourself moving and dodging is vital to getting through the many combat encounters you'll play through in each chapter.
Your traversal abilities are also crowd-controlling abilities in combat, and you should use them. Every ability you get that helps you traverse the world outside of combat is a tool to crowd-control enemies when you're in combat. Yes, you can just constantly dodge and run around the small arena rooms where combat takes place and get your licks in when you can to make your way through each fight. But you'll have a more efficient experience if you're taking advantage of the fact that you can pull, push, and tie up enemies at almost any moment.
You'll always know where to go, so take the opposite path as much as you can. One thing that helps keep you moving through South of Midnight's story is that you can always know where to go with the press of a button. Clicking R3 on your controller will show you exactly where to go to continue the story, so any path that is not that main path is where you'll find all the optional bits of storytelling you'll otherwise miss. There are plenty of little well-written notes scattered throughout each chapter that add plenty of solid context to the story. It's worth your time seeking these out, and not just for the story, but also because you'll find XP pick-ups next to many of these notes, which will help you move through the skill tree faster.
Focus on the general skill tree first. There's one main skill tree called 'General,' and four other lines of skills you can upgrade based on the abilities you'll acquire throughout the game. Your preferred playstyle might incline you to upgrade one of the abilities first, but, as the title of the 'general' tree would suggest, you are generally better off working through that as quickly as possible. Or at least until you get to the point where you can dodge twice in a row in quick succession.
There's no special points for playing on hard. I can save you some time right now, there's no special achievement for beating the game on hard. The combat also doesn't exactly evolve in an interesting way if you play on hard. The enemies get more spongey, and Hazel gets more fragile, is the limit of what happens. If you find the combat more engaging on hard, then all power to you, but the storytelling and the art design is where South of Midnight really shines. Less time spent on the combat means more time spent on experiencing the best parts of the game.
These are just a few tips that can help make your experience with South of Midnight as fun as possible. It's a wonderful game, to begin with, and keeping these tips in mind will help you experience the full breadth of that.
