Loved South Of Midnight? Here Are 5 Games You Should Check Out Next

South of Midnight is one of a kind, but because it heavily leans into the Southern Gothic genre, there are a handful of great games that have a similar vibe. Southern Gothic is specific to the American Deep South, and deals primarily with the region's socio-political climate, often examining fraught and even disturbing characters. South of Midnight is distinctly fantastical, as are some of the games below, but magical elements aren't necessarily a qualifying aspect of the genre.

Southern Gothic has grown in scope since it was defined roughly a century ago, but the works therein are uniformly sardonic in many facets, and often touch on subjects that hearken back to the region's history of slavery and the following Reconstruction period. South of Midnight's beautiful adventure doesn't have any exact peers visually, and you won't find perfect gameplay matches below, but all five games have a similar atmosphere, primarily thanks to their settings.

5 Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar Games, 2018

Red Dead Redemption 2 is among the best games of all time, so you shouldn't need much convincing to play it (or replay it), but the thing it shares most closely with South of Midnight is its incredibly sharp character writing. You won't encounter any quick-witted, talking catfish, but the entire Van der Linde Gang – not to mention practically all the supporting cast – is a delight to interact with. It's a much longer game than South of Midnight too, so if you're looking to get stuck into a particularly great story, RDR2 is the way to go.

Despite its numbering, RDR2 is a prequle to Red Dead Redemption, and while I recommend playing them in release order, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a self-contained experience. The original game is safely a Western, taking place primarily in the desert, and while it has some characteristics of Southern Gothic work, RDR2's setting puts it more distinctly within the genre. Especially in some of the earlier chapters, you deal with southern aristocratic families in the wake of Reconstruction.

A particularly disturbing Southern Gothic detail in RDR2 is Gertrude Braithwaite, who was born with physical deformities and unaddressed mental issues, and was locked in an outhouse on the Braithwaite property for her whole life out of fear she'd tarnish the family name.

RDR2's character models aim for realism, in contrast to South of Midnight's stylized characters, but Rockstar Games' opus is similarly spellbinding in its presentation. From thick forests, dense swamps, and open plains to humble campsites, logging towns, and urban sprawls, Red Dead Redemption 2's map is wonderful to explore, just like South of Midnight's varied take on the region. You won't be double-jumping and gliding all over, but there are plenty of atmospheric horse rides to be found.

4 Kentucky Route Zero

Cardboard Computer, 2013–2020

As a point-and-click game, Kentucky Route Zero is a far cry from the action gameplay and combat in South of Midnight, and you won't find a massive, stunningly detailed world like in Red Dead Redemption 2. That doesn't mean Kentucky Route Zero's art direction is any less impressive, though; it's a gorgeous game. With a frequently haunting atmosphere, Kentucky Route Zero sees you take control of a trucker named Conway, tasked with delivering a package to 5 Dogwood Drive, but even finding directions turns into a deep mystery.

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Kentucky isn't technically part of the Deep South, but the game is heavily inspired by Southern Gothic literature, and has the same melancholic view of a troubled past. You'll meet plenty of off-beat characters, and Conway's journey gets progressively more bizarre. Kentucky Route Zero can be as overtly magical as South of Midnight, and there's a similar mysticism that permeates the whole game as you experience a similar rabbit-hole adventure.

3 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Capcom, 2017

Resident Evil 7 was a turning point for the long-running and famed survival horror franchise. After a couple of entries that hewed too close to the action genre, RE7 overhauled the formula significantly, providing the series' first foray into first-person perspective and limiting most of the explorable area to the Baker estate in rural Louisiana. The game is steeped in Southern Gothic themes, prominently featuring the maniacal Baker family, who have been transformed by a novel virus known as Mold.

It's in this body horror that RE7 finds more common ground with South of Midnight. Where South of Midnight sees Benjy merge with a tree, Laruent turn into the Rougarou, and Honey become a swamp monster, Resident Evil 7 gives each member of the Baker family a horrifying transformation. The Baker estate and the surrounding area are steeped in a tragic past with connections to the Umbrella Corporation, the RE series' ever-looming menace.

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The major departure from South of Midnight, aside from the survival aspects, is that Resident Evil 7 is terrifying. Exploring the Baker's home is like stepping into The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The switch to first-person did wonders in bringing the horror back to Resident Evil, and the terror is only heightened by the confined spaces you're forced into. There aren't any of the feel-good moments from South of Midnight in RE7, but it's worth checking out if you dig the deeply troubling stories Hazel uncovers.

2 Hunt: Showdown 1896

Crytek, 2018

Hunt: Showdown 1896 is in some ways the greatest gameplay departure from South of Midnight here – it's almost purely a multiplayer game. It stands alongside Escape from Tarkov as one of the enduring entries in the extraction shooter genre, and as far as live-service games go, it has an unmatched atmosphere. Most of its maps are set in an unspecified bayou, where hunters accept bounties to slay grotesque and otherwordly creatures.

You and a teammate or two will fight other duos or trios for the bounty, which can be gained from finding and killing the boss creature, whose location must be narrowed down as you explore the map. If you're lucky, you'll find the boss, kill it quickly, and escape with the bounty, but you're more likely to become embroiled in nail-biting shoot-outs involving semiautomatic rifles and revolvers galore.

You'll want surround sound headphones to play Hunt: Showdown, as listening for particular noises is a major part of learning opponents' whereabouts and keeping yourself hidden.

Hunt recently went through a major overhaul, which resulted in the addition of 1896 to its title. While it's certainly gameplay first, leaning on incredible sound design to make navigating the map stealthily a task in and of itself, it uses its setting very well with Southern Gothic flair. For instance, one of the bosses, Scrapbeak, was a Civil War soldier who lost their legs to cannon fire, and whose prosthetic legs were just the first of many body modifications that turned them into a lumbering, bird-like creature covered in various bits of scrap.

1 Norco

Geography Of Robots, 2022

Norco is another point-and-click adventure, like Kentucky Route Zero, but it takes place firmly in the Deep South, set mainly in the town of Norco, Louisiana (and other areas around New Orleans) in a dystopian future. Like South of Midnight, Norco revolves around familial mysteries, with the main character, Kay, returning to her hometown after her mother's death to search for her missing brother. Norco differs from Kentucky Route Zero with its first-person perspective, but still boasts enchanting lo-fi graphics. You'll explore the town and talk with a range of eccentric characters while the mystery around Kay's family deepens.

Norco won the first-ever Tribeca Games Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2021.

Norco is unique in that it's a more modern take on Southern Gothic themes. It draws heavily on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated Louisiana – and New Orleans specifically – in 2005. Climate change is a major theme, as is the role therein of major corporations, which may interest those who were particularly touched by the South of Midnight section examining the logging company town Hazel explores on her way to find Laurent.

Just like Kentucky Route Zero, Norco won't keep you on your toes gameplay-wise, but it has all the style of South of Midnight. The societal decay in Norco evokes a similar feeling to the Stigma plaguing Prospero in South of Midnight, and Norco's Shield oil company hangs over the town like Bunny's hoarded wealth in South of Midnight.

Only Compulsion Games could make another game exactly like South of Midnight, but since it's so well-rooted in the Southern Gothic genre, these other titles will hit some of the same notes. Admittedly, none of these are an action-adventure game with the same kind of combat and platforming as South of Midnight, but its themes and atmosphere are far more important to its identity. If you loved South of Midnight and want to play another game with similar vibes, try Red Dead Redemption 2, Kentucky Route Zero, Resident Evil 7, or Norco.

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