South of Midnighthas had a slightly mixed critical reception, with it currently sitting at a 78 Critic Average on OpenCritic. While many outlets praisedSouth of Midnight’s emotive story, stunning presentation, and beautiful soundtrack,South of Midnight’s gameplay caught quite a bit of flak.
Generally speaking,South of Midnight’s combatwas criticized for being too repetitive, with mechanics and enemy behavior only evolving slightly throughout the course of the 12-hour action-adventure.South of Midnight’s platforming didn’t fare much better, with many critics thinking it was responsive and enjoyable enough, but not groundbreaking by any means. That said, there’s one specific platforming mechanic inSouth of Midnightthat’s a little more innovative than the rest, but it’s trapped behind level design that never lets it spread its wings.
South of Midnight’s Wall-Run Is an Innovative Feature That’s Held Back From Greatness
South of Midnight’s Wall-Run Tries Something New
Though wall-jumps have been around since the early 1990s thanks to games likeNinja Gaiden, wall-running mechanics weren’t really popularized until2003’sPrince of Persia: The Sands of Time. In the two decades since, wall-running has appeared in countless games, both third-person and first-person. And though the mechanic often functions in a uniform way nowadays, there are still plenty of modern titles that try to put a fresh spin on the parkour feature.
Rather surprisingly, this is one area of gameplay thatSouth of Midnightinnovates in. While running on a wall,South of Midnightgives players the ability to ascend or descend by using the right analog stick, allowing them to change the vertical trajectory of their endpoint.
This is far from a revolutionary innovation, but it is something new. Most grounded,physics-based parkour games likeMirror’s Edgehave players naturally descend in an arc as they continue to move horizontally along a wall. And more arcade-y titles, like the recently releasedSplit Fiction, see players remain at the same height as they wall-run. It’s extremely rare that players are given the ability to alter their vertical trajectory while wall-running in any video game.
Spider-Man games might be an exception to the rule, with the superhero’s ability to stick to surfaces often allowing players to run up and down walls while also moving horizontally.
South of Midnight’s Level Design Doesn’t Highlight This Wall-Run Mechanic
While it’s great thatSouth of Midnighthas such an innovative feature, in practice it feels a bit redundant. DuringSouth of Midnight’s explorationsequences, the vast majority of platforms in the world are placed at the same height as the wall-run start point, meaning that players don’t really need to adjust the vertical height of their trajectory while moving.
This is true for most ofSouth of Midnight’s chase sequencesas well, with players rarely needing to change their height mid-wall-run to reach a platform that’s either higher or lower than their starting point. This is especially true givenSouth of Midnight’s double-jump ability, which allows players to reach greater heights at the end of a wall-run already.
With just a few tweaks,South of Midnight’s level designcould have made this innovative wall-run mechanic the star of the show. All it would have taken is a few platforming sequences that see players needing to reach higher platforms, or some chase sequences that require players to avoid oncoming debris while wall-running. But instead, it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.
