Xbox exclusive South of midnight just released a new game fragment showing more of its supernatural swamp world and a megalithic alligator named Tom.
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound so familiar. two fingers Thomas. Are we cool two-fingered Tom? Please don't eat me, two-fingered Tom.
There might have been a time when I wouldn't have flinched from seeing, as he first revealed South of Midnight Gameplay Traileran evil alligator abomination with several rusty, tetanus-encrusted spikes and adult trees protruding from its scales. Tom was calm, once.
“Two-Fingered Tom wasn't always the terrifying giant that people in [fictional town] Prospero knew it and feared it,” developer Compulsion Games explained on Twitter. “He started out as a tiny little thing, raised by Farmer Swopes, a cruel man who starved his animals for entertainment and profit. But Swopes' cruelty became his own undoing: when Tom was finally freed from his captor, he did everything in his power to ensure he would never starve again.”
Two-Fingered Tom wasn't always the terrifying giant the people of Prospero knew and feared. She began as a tiny little thing, raised by farmer Swopes, a cruel man who starved his animals for entertainment and profit. But Swopes' cruelty became his own undoing: when Tom was… pic.twitter.com/FLQDnE78usDecember 17, 2024
Now, Two-Toed Tom can apparently lash out, punch, and bite South of Midnight's protagonist, Hazel, with his overly large jaws, kicking up mud and retreating into the swamp water whenever he wants. He looks exactly as American folktales describe him; According to legend, the monumental reptile Two-Toed Tom roams the Florida peninsula eating cows and women, impervious to any bounty on his head. It is also the namesake of a Florida festival that sometimes features roasted corn.
Two-Toed Tom's version of South of Midnight reminds me a lot of Rotjaw in Hunt: Showdown, another game that embraces the macabre Southern Gothic.
Like Two-Toed Tom, Rotjaw is a ruthless alligator who broke free from his confinement and decided to inflict oppression on other people. I love her and animal bosses like her, who, to me, represent the nuanced brutality of the world better than a Calvin Klein model like Sephiroth.
But Tom also has the benefit of demonstrating the size and decadent majesty of a FromSoftware villain, so his demonstration of how nature conquers us all could make him, visually and ideologically, my favorite video game villain. I just have one question: can you pet the alligator?
The historical and magical realism of South of Midnight not only creates “imaginary nostalgia,” but highlights the game's most difficult themes..