Soaking in the Swamps and Myths of South of Midnight

In South of Midnight, the regional folk tales of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi take center stage during a sorrowful adventure embellished by magical realism and strands of hope. The difficult history of one girl’s community unfolds in a world inspired by the humid swamps and bayous near New Orleans and the dusty sawmills of LaSalle Parish.

Moments after the game begins, a frightful hurricane takes young Hazel Flood’s home. It bobs away down a raging, windswept river with her mother trapped inside. During her ensuing search, Hazel encounters the ghosts of slaves and the downtrodden everywhere.

Through a combination of cynicism and empathy, she uncovers tales of child and animal abuse, accidental or murderous. These affecting, sometimes shocking, stories are told carefully and with respect for the dead.

Hazel (voiced by Adriyan Rae of “Chicago Fire”) is a weaver, a paranormal human who receives powers through two formidable knitting needles. Even when she complains that she needs a bath after falling into polluted water or hog waste, she never stops moving forward. While the story could benefit from moments of self-doubt, Hazel’s love for her mother is all-encompassing. She needs her mother, who is a social worker, to be found alive more than she herself needs to live.

Too much of the game play, however, is familiar: skating on walls, squeezing between rocks and battling with bold pushes that momentarily throw gruesome creatures across grim, bramble-filled terrain. These monstrous haints are made from a damaged Grand Tapestry. They’re angry and ugly, and they must be fought until their strands can be unraveled.