Breaking out of Apple Arcade, South of the Circle looks to deliver cinematic Cold War drama to the lands of PC and console.
Available to purchase and download today on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC through both GOG and Steam, South of the Circle sees the BAFTA-winning State of Play studio team up with 11 bit studios (This War of Mine, Frostpunk) to deliver an adventure that is full of life choice and extreme drama.
Priced at £10.74, South of the Circle takes you to Antarctica. Well, it takes the protagonist, Peter, there as you join him on an adventure that fast turns into a fight for survival; both physically and mentally. See, Peter is slap bang at the crossroads of his life, with memories of the past and issues of the present always at the fore. It’s a life’s work that need contemplation and only you can help Peter through it.
What is nice about South of the Circle is that a love story always comes out of it, provided via a stunningly created, well executed cinematic push. With some superb aesthetics moving things along and stunning writing keeping it together, there’s a chance to South of the Circle will turn out to be one of those must play games. If you want to know if it is, check out our full review of South of the Circle on Xbox.
When you throw in the acting quality too, with Bohemian Rhapsody’s Gwilym Lee, The Woman in White’s Olivia Vinall, Richard Goulding of The Crown, Game of Thrones’ finest in Anton Lesser, Chernobyl’s Adrian Rawlins and Michael Fox from Downton Abbey in place, it gets even more exciting.
“I am fascinated by Antarctica’s surreal beauty, particularly in the 60s, because of the low tech that was there at the time,” states Creative Director Luke Whittaker. “We had a family friend who was out there back then and all of his photographs were incredibly inspiring. He told us many stories and some of them even made it into the game. We explored what happens to a person when they are taken away from all the structures they’re around in everyday life. Who are we when we‘re separated from all the political and social constructs? It was a great way to explore someone’s mind because when you’re in a setting like that what else do you have?”
You can pick up South of the Circle by visiting the Xbox Store, playing through proceedings on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. But just remember, some promises stay with you forever…
Game Description:
South of the Circle is an emotional narrative experience with a deep multi-layered cinematic story. The main plot asks questions about the consequences of life choices, of pursuing either career or true love, manoeuvring between now and the past. You play Peter, a Cambridge academic who crashlands in Cold War Antarctica. As he searches for help, his past unwinds before him, revealing how the pressures of power and his own aspirations have led him into this crisis he must somehow escape. A love story between him and fellow academic Clara develops, and Peter learns the weight of all the things he has promised. Like memories from childhood, some promises stay with us forever.
