Released quietly in 2020 on the Apple Arcade program, South of the circle finally arrives on most consoles on the market after a period of exclusivity a bit long. Its arrival was so discreet that I didn't see it appear on the App Store, which I consult fairly regularly. No regrets however, since this second highlight allowed me to discover this narrative game with an atypical artistic direction on PS5. And although the adventure was short (4 hours dragging a bit), it was no less exciting to follow!
We follow the adventures of Peter, a researcher and lecturer in meteorology, who leaves for Antarctica to take weather readings and analyze the radiation emanating from the different winds, all for the purposes of a scientific article. Bad luck, the latter sees his makeshift plane crash in the middle of the snowy desert, and his pilot Floyd can no longer move following the crash which damaged his leg. After a discussion with the pilot, Peter has no choice but to go alone in search of a British base to find help... So here we are embarked on a singular journey, which will leave Peter alone in the middle of the cold, only able to rely on his memories to hold on and get out of there.
The result is an extremely successful staging, with superb transitions between the inhospitable mountains and the various professional and romantic moments in the life of our researcher, which creates a special bond for this man in search of recognition and who will evolve by meeting the endearing Clara, a Scottish researcher who will push him up and help our protagonist in his research. I found the relationship between these 2 characters superb, with a progressive and timid development of feelings, very beautiful to see... which contrasts all the more with the passages where we return to the present, in search of humans who all seem to have mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the Cold War, which will push Peter ever deeper into this white hell.
I can't reveal more about the plot at the risk of spoiling quite severely, but the story of South of the circle is clearly its strength, and that's what motivated me to do everything in "only" two game sessions. It must be said that on the other sides, the game clearly shows several limits. First of all, the controls: although redesigned to be playable with the controller, we feel that the character is very heavy to move. We can possibly explain it by the snow present in abundance, but even indoors, the movements of our character are imprecise and slow. Fortunately (or unfortunately, it depends), the game very regularly goes into autopilot mode, which means that you just have to tap a button to interact with objects or to make a choice of discussion.
One of the - daring - bets of the game of State of Play, also comes from the way of managing its answers to the very numerous dialogues of the game. Rather than a chosen answer as we commonly see in narrative games, we will answer using an emotion. It's certainly not the first game to do this, but the result is surprising, since you never know exactly what our guy will say. The result is several choices of unforeseen dialogues that provoke reactions that we certainly didn't want from the other party... What's more, the emotion is to be selected via different "pictograms" that are not always clear, and we find ourselves a little pressed for time with a gradual disappearance of these. If you don't answer within the allotted time, a random answer is given, so be careful to stay attentive during these phases!
A quick point on the technique, which will dazzle almost no one... Fortunately, we can count on a rather unique graphic touch, which I personally liked a lot, with the exception of the faces, which were not sufficiently expressive. The high-flying dubbing, however, makes up for it all. The actors interpreting Peter and Clara are excellent, with an accuracy of tone that gave me chills! Clearly an excellent job at this level. The French subtitles, however, have not benefited from the same care, with quite a few small typos here and there.
I didn't expect anything from it, and I was really charmed by this South of the circle. Imperfect, the title is certainly, but it has a sufficiently solid history to make us ignore its faults. A work to discover for any fan of narrative games!
- PlayStation Store
- Xbox Store
- Steam
