South of the Circle tells a well-written, affecting story of the relationship between two university academics, relived in the memory of the protagonist after a plane crash on the way to a research expedition to the Antarctic, alongside also following his attempts to find rescue from the crash. Gameplay is mostly very light, with the core mechanic being dialogue choices through choosing the 'mood' of a response rather than specific lines (for example, fear, empathy or enthusiasm). It's a system that works better than I honestly expected, though only a handful of these choices are actually meaningful to future events.

While it's perhaps disappointing that a greater degree of branching isn't possible, that's arguably outside the scope of what the game aims for and at the overall end, even if the differences in events don't account for much of the time that we see them playing out, they still feel quite deeply meaningful. This isn't a game with particularly lofty aims, but what it attempts it makes a laudable success of.

This is an interactive movie, not really a game. The story is well told. The voice actors did a great job, there appears to be lots of animation and the transition between past and current time was a good choice. The story is supposed to be somewhere in the 60s where Cold War is a big topic, women are not treated fairly wrapped up in a love story with an ending you can’t change. Personally the story gave me feminist vibes, masculinity is bad, lots of guys are in on it etc. Even though it’s realistic and it could have happened at the time, it’s cliche and also kind of hard to believe. It focuses on the negative aspects in exaggerating ways in a way to influence your believes about certain topics indirectly. I’m personally so over that and might be more sensitive to it compared to others. Also the icons were confusing. You get different dialogue choices by selecting icons and I can make a guess what they mean, but nothing definitive. I just found out there’s a tutorial after reading someone else’s review. This should have been explained while you were playing and not hidden in a menu somewhere.

Anyway, it’s definitely worth experiencing for the performance alone if you care about stories and are fine with very minimal gameplay. It took me 3 hour and 17 minutes to complete it. I kept thinking about it and wanted to see how it ends.

Good voice acting, good characters, good story. I also didn't mind the fact that choices didn't really make any difference in terms of how things went: what I liked was the chance to see what the character felt, through those choices. In a way, it is something that only this medium can do through some simple game design ideas. What I didn't like though was the ending.

One aspect that the game explored well in the first two and a half hours was the relationship between power, toxic masculinity, and how these two elements ultimately shape the mind and behaviors of an individual. They determine to what extent one can prioritize oneself over others. The historical context of the Cold War is excellent, and the inclusion of a discourse on women's rights is highly fitting in addressing the theme of power.

Unfortunately, for reasons I'm not quite sure of, the decision is made to undermine the connection between choices, attitudes, power, culture, and social relationships by revealing that the protagonist lies to himself even within his own memories, trying to remember his past under a different light (maybe a better one). Apparently, what is said and done never corresponds to the truth. Yet, this is something that has no impact on the entire game, is not significant for any of the themes explored, and I absolutely do not understand the significance of this kind of unreliabilty. In the last half hour of the game (quite a significant slice, considering the game is barely three hours long, and very short at the same time since it develops suddenly and too fast), the focus shifts completely, destroying everything that was being built up to that point. I can't help but think that perhaps the protagonist behaved, throughout the many events in which we were involved, modeling himself after his father or something like that; unfortunately, even if that were the case, the execution is horribly superficial. And it's a shame, especially considering that there are some moments where the transitions are truly impactful in revealing the character's past: in my opinion, they could have been the real strength of the entire game and yet they were not explored enough

The Cold War was a rough time, and you really feel it in the South of the Circle. You play Peter, a British scientist struggling between love, his career, and being stranded in the Antarctic during one of the most strenuous times with Russia. Peter is a climantologist and ends up meeting a Scottish woman, Clara, who is protesting the war. He ends up torn between her companionship, his career, and the present times of him stranded at a remote research station trying to find rescue.

I don't want to spoil the story because that's all that South of the Circle has going for it and is the only reason to keep playing. There is almost zero gameplay outside of pressing buttons for dialogue choices. These come in the form of emotion bubbles that range from neutral, scared, sad, happy, and so on. I don't quite know if this effects the overall story path, as my choices almost seemed to not matter. As Peter is talking to people, a bouncing red ball means a scared response. A blue ball hanging low means a sad response. A sun icon will make Peter respond joyfully, etc. These come up pretty frequently, so you're always pressing something. Occasionally, you can move Peter around and interact with the rare object here and there, but that's all there is to it. There are no puzzles or anything like that.

You follow this linear path of Peter trying to find people at this station while seeing flashbacks. You start in the middle, and as you move forward in the story, the flashbacks start from the beginning. It's very entertaining, and I was interested in the story until the end thanks to the well-written dialogue and fantastic voice work. The visuals are striking in the sense that they almost look rotoscoped. There is motion capture for this minimalistic style of art, and it's quite captivating.

The entire game is a linearly scripted adventure and lasts less than four hours. It's a bit longer than most super-short story-driven walking simulators, and the excellent writing will keep you hooked. All of the characters have depth, and you actually have feelings for certain characters, despite some having only a short time on screen. Scenes can get intense and emotional, and you can feel the dread that Peter is facing in his struggle for survival. It's just so well done, and it's sad there isn't more gameplay attached to it. It's one of the better walking simulator stories I've finished in recent years.

Overall, South of the Circle provides an entertaining, well-acted, and well-written story and script, but the lack of gameplay makes you question whether this is just enough here to be an excuse for a game. The art is fantastic, and the motion capture is enticing. I wish the dialogue choices were a little more obvious about what they did or if they changed anything at all.