While I love my vast open world adventures and dipping my toe into multiplayer action, nothing quite beats a well-designed linear adventure for me.

What Remains of Edith Finch. Firewatch. Night in the Woods. Oxenfree, just to name a few. And South of the Circle, at times, really does hit those highs.

It provides the player with some compelling choices, it blends narrative between its past and present brilliantly, the way you interact with each scene is creative, the voice acting is first class, and the art direction is often times stunning, a real throwback to the Flashback, Cruise for a Corpse cinematic adventures.

But, and without going too deeply into things to avoid spoilers, the ending really is the game’s most contentious point. The payoff to all of this will almost certainly prove frustrating to players, myself included, even if I understood what the developers were trying to get across almost completely.

South of the Circle is set during the 1960s Cold War and players assume the role of Peter, a Cambridge Academic who is desperately trying to finish a groundbreaking paper that will define his career. He’s spent years working on this thing, so much so that his friends mock him for it and his mentors are telling him he’s pushing his luck for time.

Peter just can’t get his head around the subject, nor can he finish, but just as all seems lost he meets a fellow academic, Clara, who turns his world upside down.

Clara and Peter’s relationship is the foundation of the game and the basis upon which everything is set. Even if 50% of it is spent in the Antarctic with Peter flying mostly solo and fighting for survival His flashbacks to time at home help him power through the treacherous conditions and really piece together the story, explaining to players how he got there in the first place.

One minute you’ll be pushing through an intense blizzard, putting full weight behind your left thumbstick as you try to power through, and the next you’ll be driving a car alongside a windy road coming back from a trip to the cinema. The way State of Play handle the camera pans and pacing in order to keep you glued to your console is remarkable.

South of the Circle also introduces a rather interesting, time-based conversational/emotion system in order to interact in each scene. At first, I was a bit confused by how it works and a little bit daunted as I didn’t know what the response was actually going to be. It’s not like a point and click adventure where it’s spelled out for you in black and white, you kind of have to trust the process a little bit.

You have five main choices to go between when it’s your time to talk in a scene. Silence is an option, and sometimes the only option if you miss a cue, but you can also move between emotions like panic and confusion, to being open, caring and honest. In some situations, it might be better to be forthright and assertive, or maybe even shy and downcast.

These choices appear like speech bubbles above Peter’s head when you can interact, so the player can align their emotional responses to the particular topical at hand. Sometimes this will even lead to a key decision over the context of the game and how you’ve responded, like how many sugars you take in your tea, for example.

It’s a smart way to invest you in the story and the way the all-star voice cast power through the lines will surely encourage you for another playthrough, especially with the prospect of several endings to see.

And that’s the part that caught me off guard as I mentioned at the top of this. South of the Circle has a very meta approach to the way you play through the game. As gamers, we’ve felt very empowered by the choices modern day titles have allowed us to make. From Mass Effect where your actions shape you as a Paragon or Renegade, to the Dark Pictures titles where there are so many possible outcomes as you play with the lives of its cast.

When I rolled credits on South of the Circle, one of my first thoughts was did I break something? It was so unexpected that it really took the wind out of my sails. I’d invested quite a lot of myself in these characters and really been swept along for the ride, did I miss something? But that mindset goes at odds with the message the developers are trying to get across – sometimes it’s just not about us.

I won’t exhaust the topic because I fully believe you need to go in unaware of what to expect for South of the Circle to really appreciate the impact and feel the emotional icing on the cake on top of all the layering set out for you. Part of me is still undecided whether I feel satisfied by the outcome, but I know with an absolute certainty it resonated and will stay with me unlike so many other games I’ve finished and shelved.

Verdict

South of the Circle is a really well-presented game, from art, music, voice acting, narrative and direction, everything aligns almost perfectly, crafting a high-stakes, enjoyable adventure through to its divisive, but ultimately clever conclusion. Its conversation system is different and intriguing, though sometimes feels like a shot in the dark in certain situations and can alienate some players with its focus on timing. All told, it’s a game we should all make time to play!