The devs of We Happy Few will lead us through the folklore of the Deep South with their new game South of Midnight.
With We Happy Few, the Orwellian survival game, Compulsion Games showed us that they're good at creating compelling stories and authentic characters. Now, during the Xbox Games Showcase 2023, they revealed their new project South of Midnight and will lead us through the misty swamps of the American South, full of darkness, mystical creatures and magic. Just like in We Happy Few, the moody art style of South of Midnight seems quite fitting for the setting.
The freshly released trailer doesn't tell us much, but there are a few things we do know about the upcoming game.
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South of Midnight – A Dark Modern Folktale
With South of Midnight we find ourselves in a modern world intertwined with magic and the more we stray away from the influences of civilization, the more magical creatures and mysteries we will find.
The rural areas between the major cities hold a sense of wonder, but also a constant hint of hazard. Magic realism means that you know, that monsters are real – therefore you usually avoid them.
Not Hazel, though. The protagonist of this gloomy adventure sets out to explore the creatures and magic of southern folklore as disaster strikes her hometown. She becomes a weaver, a "mender of broken bonds and spirits". We see her use this kind of magic at the end of the trailer with the help of a spindle, and it can be used for combat and for traversal.
Creative director David Sears and narrative producer / creative specialist James Lewis explained what Weavers are in an interview with Xbox Wire:
Essentially, you take the strands that make up the universe and weave or spin them into useful forms for the player to use. Weavers are born with the ability to see deeper and see the way the universe is really constructed by these energized, semi-autonomous strands. The universe has intention, but sometimes it breaks down. And that’s why we have Weavers – to repair tears in the grand tapestry that makes up every person, place and thing in existence.
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So it's definitely not the usual: "I cast Fireball"-type of magic we see in most games. It seems like it's not Hazel's task to destroy the monsters, but to help them heal? Interesting.
These monsters and the magic Hazel is using are rooted in the southern folklore, which some of Compulsion Games members grew up with. As the Altamaha-ha she looks for in the trailer. It's a folklore from Georgia about a river monster routed in Muscogee tradition. The menagerie we'll see is a cultural mix including European, Caribbean and African stories as well as indigenous ones.
Knowing, what compelling stories Compulsion Games is able to create, I'll definitely look forward to this gem, and I'm curious to explore this unconventional setting with Hazel as the lead. There's unfortunately no release date yet. So I guess we'll have to wait, until we can find out more about the folklore tales in the Deep South. It has been confirmed, that South of Midnight will come to Game Pass day one though.
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