Harold Halibut (2024)

Harold Halibut (2024), developed and published by Slow Bros.

Deep under the ocean, a crashed spaceship full of human colonisers has spent nearly 50 years stuck. Having journeyed hundreds of years from a war-torn Earth, the people were looking for a new home, but ended up sinking under the waves of an ocean planet. The people have made the best of their new abode, forming an underwater colonisation, but still dreaming of the possibility of continuing their journey.

Harold Halibut, a janitor, is taking care of his business as usual when he stumbles upon something no one has seen before while cleaning the filter systems. He stumbles upon an alien stuck there, and together with his friend Professor Jeanne Mareaux, they tend to the alien's health. Weeoo, as she is called, leads Harold to a cave, where the harmonious aliens live. And from there, Harold finds a source of energy that Mareaux knows is something the ship needs to get back in space.

Of course, this is not all of the story. The humans have other issues as well, be they political or social ones. Harold needs to stumble his way through the problems of his friends as well as the schemes of the All Water company lording over the survivors.

 

While the overall story is decent enough, what makes Harold Halibut stand out is its graphical style. It's done in the stop motion animation style, with meticulously detailed surroundings and expressive puppets. The style is very smooth, so I'm not quite certain how much of it is handmade and 3D scanned and how much of it is done in camera. 

The voice acting is good, and it has a solid soundtrack. In all, the game works nicely in the aural and visual forms, and for this alone, I can recommend it. But... there's a big but. Harold Halibut is not a good game. It's merely a passable story-driven adventure game, and that is its biggest weakness; it feels like a game that wants to be a movie or a TV show more than a game. It doesn't really have puzzles, more than it has running between paint A and B to see the story continue. Even when you get items, it just means you go somewhere and see a cinematic, where the story progresses.

What this all really means is that you have a slightly gamefied animation in your hands. The game part of it is mostly just the bits which would be cut out from a properly edited non-interactive medium presentation, mainly Harold walking up and down stairs for the hundredth time. This is also something that makes Harold Halibut a bit tedious experience in the long run. You can't skip the boring bits to get to the good bits. There's no fast-forwarding the walking to see the story unfold.

 

So, would I recommend Harold Halibut? With a caveat, yes. If you know what you are going to get, there's a lot to enjoy about it. The aesthetics of it, the story, the acting. All good stuff. But if you are expecting to play a challenging adventure game, then this is not for you. This is a game for those who want to experience an interactive story with some minor gaming in it. There are no hard puzzles here to make you stumped for hours. The hardest it ever gets is basically a variation of Simon Says. If you know how to follow instructions, you'll have problems with the game.

I do feel Harold Halibut is a bit steeply priced at its full price for what it is. If you can find it in a sale for 20 bucks or so, I'd say go for it, if it sounds like something you'd like. In that price range, it's more than enough bang for the buck, considering you'll get a nicely done 10 or so hours worth of stylish, low-key sci-fi. You can get Harold Halibut from GOG and Steam. It's also available for consoles.