SHOUT OUT - The soundtrack is the star in South of Midnight
Heart strings are tugged.
By Jonathan Garrett
09/04/25
NOTE: Shout Out’s are not sponsored content. They’re games, developers, individuals, or issues that we want to highlight and share purely out of interest.
Compulsion Games have rightfully been praised for the art style, character design, and performances found across the board in South of Midnight. But the further we plunge into their latest IP, the more it becomes apparent that Oliver Deriviere’s soundtrack is far and away the true star of the show. It enhances each key narrative moment, and leaves a lasting impression that cannot be denied.
Without diving too deeply into spoiler-tastic territory, there is a chapter fairly early on which presents what appears to be a side story discovered as you’re travelling around the bayou. It quickly becomes clear that while at first glance these sequences appear to be ancillary, they end up being much more vital and tell a moving tale of two brothers, their relationship to each other. and the folks in their town.
It’s the restraint with which Deriviere and the team at Compulsion have deployed here which makes the music have so much more impact. As the chapter comes to a close, a rousing acoustic ballad accompanies an extended sequence of traversal. Even the lyrics build on prior narrative beats, and thematically it feels like the final piece of a satisfying puzzle.
This is hardly the first game to utilise music to elevate the player experience; Gustavo Santaolalla’s moody soundtrack for the Last of Us, Matt Naylor and Sonny Rey’s work on Knockout City, and even Rare’s delightful jingles across Banjo, Conker, and Sea of Thieves, are all memorable for different reasons. But what Compulsion have managed to achieve here is a blending of music and storytelling not unlike Remedy’s approach in Alan Wake 2.
It’s unclear what lies ahead for this team now South of Midnight is out in the wild. Given their established history of developing original IP with Contrast and We Happy Few, it would be reasonable to assume that they’ll continue to forge ahead with something new. That being said, we’d love nothing more than to continue Hazel’s adventures, either as DLC or a full blown sequel. Whatever the case may be, Deriviere and his team deserve another shot.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
