South of the Circle Reviews
It's a narrative game from start to finish with very little interaction required of you. And when they do come, the various choices will not change the result at all. However, the story is intriguing and will keep you hooked until the end and the visual style is sublime. It would be nice to say a lot more about the game but in all honesty, there is not much to add. The game ends rather quickly (about 3 hours) and whether it's your time of game or not, is entirely up to you. As for me, I recommend it for fans of the genre.
Review in French | Read full review
South of the Circle runs for about three or four hours, and that is the completionist time. This means that you can do pretty much anything there is to be done in this game in only four hours. So it is an experience you can get through in one sitting, which is something that we all need sometimes. If you want to experience something short and sweet at the same time, South of the Circle is the game you must check out.
As Peter steps into the Antarctic snowstorm, he is suddenly an active participant in his own survival. South of the Circle triumphs by interweaving hopefulness and impending doom without feeling emotionally manipulative. It suggests that life is a culmination of sad and spectacular moments, promises, people, and conversations, all inevitably misremembered. It’s the kind of game that could have made me cry, but instead, it led me to a place of sombre tranquillity. Through Peter, we are advised not to judge stories by their destination, but by their precious in-betweens: a sugar cube plopped into a cup of tea, a train ride, a shared summer sunset, and a cumulonimbus cloud stupendously blooming.
South of the Circle definitely looks and feels like it was made by a BAFTA-winning team, which means that players should know they’re walking into an artistic endeavor instead of an action-packed adventure. Sure, there’s action, and there’s adventure, but it’s more of a passive movie than an active experience. As long as you set your expectations accordingly, South of the Circle will thrill (and chill!) anyone looking for a unique setting and exciting story.
South of the Circle is the ideal game for anyone who wishes to enjoy a sophisticated and engaging narrative without exerting excessive effort. As long as it's viewed as nothing more than an interactive narrative in which we may adjust the emotional nuances and little aspects, it creates an exciting and intriguing adventure that will appeal to fans of this genre.
Although South of the Circle failed to touch me emotionally at anything other than a surface level, it is nonetheless a nicely paced and structured linear narrative adventure, merging the frozen wastes of Antarctica with the golden afternoon sunshine of Cambridge. If you enjoyed Virginia, this game is an unquestionable recommendation given its stylistic overlap, but if you’re put off by linear narrative adventures of this type, South of the Circle probably isn’t going to win you around.
Perhaps, if you’re a bit more easy-going than me and don’t mind the one-note characters and multiple plot points that never really go anywhere, you’ll have a much better time playing this than I did. It’s also worth mentioning that the game itself is rather short, so despite how frustrating it can feel, you aren’t exactly wasting a ton of time making your way through it. All in all, I wouldn’t completely label this game as not worth playing, but I do suggest tempering your expectations so that there is minimal disappointment as you progress through the story. That isn’t to say I regret playing it, but I don’t think I would’ve missed much if I hadn’t.
South of the Circle is not visually interesting like the developer's previous work, and the poverty in its scenarios, the character animations that are not valued in that art even with motion capture, as well as the enjoyment of its gameplay, hamper the appreciation of its good history, which is still not without its flaws. On the other hand, the new game from State of Play Games has a competent musical and acting work and art direction, and brings good ideas in its narrative design, both in form and mechanics, approaching the academic environment with sensitivity in a way not much explored in video games and with an appropriate context of historical fiction in a cinematic tone. The game is recommended for adventure fans looking for a more mature narrative experience in romance, post-war historical fiction and academic life.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
South of the Circle is a fascinating and engaging adventure that will succeed in captivating lovers of narrative and emotionally charged experiences, as long as it's seen as "just" an interactive movie whose path cannot be altered, but in which we can alter the emotional nuances and small details. This and the excellent art compartment definitely make it recommendable for those looking for a good story to experience and relax in front of the screen.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Like most of the games with the same style and gimmicks, South of the Circle fails to end its story in a satisfying way and bets all its chips on a twist ending that betrays the 3 to 4 hours of the experience that came before it. Also with the great audio-visual presentation here, one wonders why they didn’t just cut some of the unnecessary scenes and flashbacks and just release this as an animated feature.
Review in Persian | Read full review