South of Midnight: The Stop-Motion Folk Tale That Kept Winning Awards
Compulsion Games' Deep South fantasy split critics on its combat but won over award juries with its animation, music and heart. A year after launch it reached PS5 and Switch 2. Here is why it is worth meeting Hazel Flood.
Most games try to hide their animation tricks. South of Midnight shows them off. Its cutscenes deliberately move at a lower frame rate, like a stop-motion film, so its characters look as if they were posed by hand one frame at a time. For the real thing, the developers worked with Clyde Henry Productions, a stop-motion studio, using hand-made clay models.
That look helped Compulsion Games' adventure win a remarkable list of awards. South of Midnight launched on April 8, 2025 for PC and Xbox Series X|S, straight into Game Pass, and on March 31, 2026 it reached PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2.
A weaver in the Deep South
The game is set in a fictional, Gothic-fantasy version of the American Deep South, built on Southern folklore. Hazel Flood, voiced by Adriyan Rae, loses her home when a hurricane tears through her town of Prospero. In the aftermath, she discovers she is a Weaver, someone who can mend broken bonds and troubled spirits.
Her journey brings her face to face with creatures from real Southern legend: Two-Toed Tom, a giant alligator; the Rougarou; the Altamaha-ha; Huggin' Molly; and others. Rather than simply defeating them, Hazel learns their stories. The monsters she fights, called Haints, are manifestations of sorrow and trauma.
How it plays
South of Midnight is a third-person action-adventure. Hazel fights with a pair of hooks and casts magic to stun, push or pull enemies. Her companion Crouton, a small puppet, can distract enemies and squeeze through tunnels. She can double jump, run along walls and glide, and uses her powers to solve puzzles.
The game is largely linear, with optional areas to explore for upgrades. Fights happen in arenas that lock until every enemy is defeated, and this is where opinions split: many critics found the combat repetitive.
Critics divided, juries delighted
Reviews were mixed to positive. South of Midnight scored 78 on Metacritic for Xbox Series X|S and 75 for PC, with 68% of critics recommending it on OpenCritic. Destructoid gave it 9/10, GameSpot and IGN 8/10, while Eurogamer, The Guardian and Video Games Chronicle each gave 3/5. Almost everyone praised the story, characters, setting and soundtrack.
Award juries were much warmer. The game won Games for Impact at The Game Awards 2025, Outstanding Achievement in Animation at the D.I.C.E. Awards, Best Character Animation in a Video Game at the Annie Awards, New Intellectual Property at the BAFTA Games Awards, a music award at the New York Game Awards, and Game of the Year at the Canadian Game Awards 2026.
The sound of the South
Composer Olivier Deriviere wrote a score inspired by the music of the American South, using songs with lyrics that tell the story as it happens. Eurogamer's Chris Tapsell called it "one of the best sounding games I've played in an age."
Why it matters
South of Midnight is the kind of mid-sized, story-first game that is increasingly rare at big publishers: focused and linear, with a strong visual identity and a setting games rarely visit. Its arrival on PS5 and Switch 2 a year later gives it a second audience, and its awards show that a game does not need perfect combat to leave a mark.
The studio has since gone its own way: Compulsion left Xbox in 2026 and now runs independently, keeping its own games. If you missed Hazel's story the first time, the new versions are an easy way in. For another 2026 port, see our feature on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.