Game: Harold Halibut
Genre: Indie, Adventure
System: Steam (Windows)
Developers | Publishers: Slow Bros.
Controller: Yes
Price: US $29.74 | UK £25.07 | EU € 29,74
Release Date: April 16th, 2024
A review code was used, with many thanks to Popagenda PR.
Harold Halibut is a 2024 adventure game developed and released by Slow Bros.
Premise
Harold Halibut takes us to an ark-like spaceship on the bottom of an alien ocean. It’s been 250 years since the ship and its inhabitants fled Earth, on the verge of a Cold War, to find a habitable planet to preserve humanity. While most of the people on board have gotten used to their new surroundings, Harold’s boss, Jeanne Mareaux, the ship’s leading scientist, is still working on a way for the ship to leave the ocean and find a new, more hospitable home.
The Gameplay of Harold Halibut
Per the developer’s suggestion to play Harold Halibut, the easiest way is with a gamepad. I tried it both ways and while the controls with a gamepad were smoother, I mainly played on the keyboard. Why? Because I need to improve with a gamepad in general. That being said, both ways work. Controls aren’t remappable. Movement is with WASD, run with holding Shift, and interact with the Space.
Movement and interactions are smooth. We control Harold, and there is a useful option to zoom in on him and his surroundings. I really liked the way it was done—very smooth and very cinematic, which can be said about the whole game. The transition between gameplay and cut scenes is almost non-existent, to the point that you might not realize immediately that you are no longer controlling Harold.
Walking was slow for my taste, but running speeds things up a bit. Also, during dialogues, we can speed things up, and it looks similar to speeding up a VHS (remember those?), which is very on point with the retro-futuristic style of the game.
Since Harold Halibut is an adventure game, we also have some puzzles of different varieties. Some require you to work out how to operate specific machinery, and others require you to make difficult choices or just clean. There are no instructions for some of the puzzles, but somehow, instinctively, you solve them—and relatively fast. For others, some of the characters will instruct you what to do. Everything is set within the storyline – it feels logical and organic for Harold to do – clean a filter, find something lost, feed the fish.
The Art Style
Harold Halibut is a special kind of game. For one thing, it’s been in development for ten years. For another, it’s genuinely a handcrafted game – each element in Harold Halibut is handcrafted using traditional sculpting and model-making techniques. Every element is created by clay, welded metal, and textiles sewn against tiny wooden floorboards, among other techniques.
As someone who has built a few dioramas and diorama kits over the years, I can’t even imagine the amount of work, craftsmanship and creativity that went into Harold Halibut. The finished game looks like a claymation movie, including the feeling of stop-motion animation. Claymation is a challenging type of animation, so claymation movies are rare, difficult and very expensive to produce but oh-so-great. When I first saw the game, I wondered if the name Harold Halibut was a homage to William Harbutt, the inventor of plasticine, the material commonly used in claymation, but that’s probably just a coincidence.
The way Harold moves around the ship, called Fedora, reminds me of a marionette on strings. That’s not a bad thing. It fits within the whole game.
Harold Halibut is fully voiced – all the characters have distinctive voices and characteristics. I was very impressed by the voice acting. It makes the game feel rooted in reality despite its absurd settings. In fact, in-game, there are instances where classic drawn animation is used to illustrate a point or tell a story to the characters.
The transition between those in-game animations and the rest of the game is not jarring per se, but it certainly made me feel for a moment that the claymation parts of the game were genuine. It’s a clever and well-executed trick- there are plenty of games where transitions between styles like this feel jarring in the bad sense of the word and break immersion. In Harold Halibut, this trick works the other way around- if anything, it improves immersion.
As mentioned above, all the characters are voiced. All of them feel, behave, and talk like real people. The dialogues feel natural. It’s not like watching a play. The sense of frustration at being stuck in a submarine all your life can be felt clearly, but it’s not overwhelming. The people on Fedora have found a way to make do in their situation – they are still curious about the world and looking for ways to get out and explore. At the same time, regular problems are still around for distraction – only one telenovela to watch or something breaking down.
The World of Harold Halibut
Harold Halibut is set in a world stuck in the 80s, at best. The date is 200 years after Fedora crashed on the alien ocean world. While on the way there, the ship picked up alien knowledge and new materials and technologies. Still, visually, the surroundings are very retro-futuristic.
Recently, I played another sci-fi adventure set on a multigenerational ship like Fedora- Between Horizons, so comparing the two while playing felt inevitable. While the games have similarities purely on a gameplay level, the feeling while playing them was very different. Harold Halibut feels way more personal and intimate.
There’s a sense of nostalgia here since I’ve loved claymation since childhood, but the overall game felt somewhat cozier despite the similar big-stakes mysteries in both games. That is not to say that the feeling of urgency is missing in Harold Halibut- it develops slowly over time as the mystery progresses, from little hints here and there to a full-blown adventure. I think this approach works beautifully here since it allows us to grow our connection to Harold and his world.
In Harold Halibut, we have a sense of wonder and humor. We also have some interesting technologies, like the travel water tubes, which are basically giant pipes going through the whole ship. Of course, having a ticket for the Tube doesn’t necessarily mean that you can use it since some days it’s out of order.
Some Other Notes
Harold Halibut has extensive audio, display, and video settings. I stuttered here and there when moving through doorways, but nothing game-breaking. The game has an automatic saving system, and it always kept my progress. Also, one thing to note is that the developers have continuously released updates for the game since sending me the code, so there are enough indications that they are hard at work and committed to improving it. Harold Halibut has Steam Achievements, but Trading Cards yet.
Conclusion
Harold Halibut is a long-awaited game that more than pays off the wait. It’s a classic adventure game with a lot of soul that shouldn’t be missed.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up: 
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