'South of the Circle' is a narrative adventure game exclusive to Apple Arcade this Friday

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South Of The Circle Teaser Trailer
South Of The Circle Teaser Trailer (Image credit: State of Play Games)

What you need to know

  • South of the Circle is a new exclusive game coming to Apple Arcade this week.
  • The narrative adventure game features some big names as voice and face actors.
  • It's set in the 1960s during the Cold War.

Apple Arcade has a big new release coming this Friday, October 30. The game, from the BAFTA-winning people at State of Play, has some of the entertainment industry's biggest names involved as voice and face actors. Throw in the premise of an adventure game set in the Cold War and this could be one to watch out for.

The star-studded cast includes naes like Gwilym Lee (Bohemian Rhapsody), Olivia Vinall (The Woman in White), Richard Goulding (Belgravia), Anton Lesser (Game of Thrones), Adrian Rawlins (Chernobyl), and Michael Fox (Downton Abbey). Apple says that their faces and voice work were recorded simultaneously to try and make gamers' experience as cinematic as possible – enough to already pique my interest.

Here's how Apple describes South of the Circle:

South of the Circle is a narrative adventure set in the 1960s during the Cold War and follows the game's protaganist, Peter, a Cambridge academic who finds himself marooned on Antartica after a plane crash. Fighting for survival, Peter's past begins to intrude and blend with the present. As both strands build to a tense conclusion, Peter must face the troubling truth of a decision he made in the past. Only now does he realize it has trapped him here, physically and mentally. State of Play's lovingly crafted South of the Circle is founded upon years of research that brings a unique level of depth to the game including a team visit to Antarctica to gather research material, create sketches, take photographs, and hand-make prints - with a striking art style inspired by mid-century screen printing.

The game will hit the App Store this coming Friday so now is probably a good time to grab yourself a subscription if you don't already have one. It'll set you back $4.99 per month unless you're eligible for a free trial.

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Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.