Opinion: South Of Midnight Reminds Me Why I Love Xbox Game Pass

I've talked before about how April 2025's Xbox Game Pass lineup has looked amazing for ages now, but admittedly it was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that I had my eye on the most - and definitely not Xbox's own South of Midnight.

That's not to say I thought South of Midnight looked bad, but after years of covering the game throughout its development, I'd never found myself being drawn to it for whatever reason. It was only when I actually sat down and played SOM that I realised I really like it... and I would never have found that out if not for Xbox Game Pass.

Ben's review of South of Midnight on Pure Xbox goes into detail about what you can expect from it, so I'm not going to elaborate too much, but I've been really blown away by the visual style, the atmosphere, the character performances, the soundtrack and all the backstory behind its narrative. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but I'm very impressed so far.

There's unfortunately been some attention placed on the low Steam numbers for South of Midnight at launch, with the game racking up a peak of just 1,411 players on that platform yesterday, but perhaps that indicates exactly why it needed to be an Xbox Game Pass title. It feels like for the people who are playing it on Game Pass, they're being pleasantly surprised by just how good it is - here's an example of some comments I've spotted:

South of Midnight feels, to me, like a game that probably won't be an overnight success, but something that we'll still be talking about as an "underrated gem" in another 10 years' time. Again, it's still early days for my playthrough, but alongside Split Fiction, it's already feeling like the most memorable gaming experience I've had in 2025 so far.

This is what Xbox Game Pass is all about to me. Sure, I love the ability to play all the old classics, and all the big AAA releases that you know are going to be worth a try at least, but it's the surprises that really make it worth the value in my opinion. South of Midnight was not really on my radar until yesterday, and now I suddenly don't want to put it down!

What Do You Think Of South Of Midnight So Far?

But how about you? What do you think of South of Midnight so far? Let us know in the poll and comments.