Harold Halibut

I wanted to like Harold Halibut. The demo sold me completely. A giant spaceship stranded beneath an alien ocean, mysterious signals, strange lifeforms, and the promise of discovering what lies beyond the next corner. Combined with the handcrafted stop-motion visuals, it seemed like something truly special. Visually, it absolutely is. The amount of work that went into this game is astonishing. Every environment feels handcrafted, every character has personality, and the world is unlike anything else in gaming. The artists deserve enormous credit for what they achieved. Unfortunately, the gameplay and storytelling never lived up to the setting. My biggest issue is pacing. Harold Halibut feels stretched far beyond what its core ideas can support. Most of the game consists of talking to characters, riding tubes across the ship, delivering items, running errands, and then repeating the process somewhere else. The problem isn't repetition itself—it's that the formula rarely evolves. The game constantly introduces intriguing ideas: alien life, mysterious discoveries, strange visions, new technology, and humanity's future. Yet instead of building momentum around those concepts, it repeatedly pulls you back into another round of errands and backtracking. The result is a game that often feels more interested in delaying its most interesting moments than exploring them. I also struggled with Harold as a protagonist. Despite being involved in major discoveries and important events, he rarely feels like he grows beyond being the ship's errand boy. By the end, I found myself more invested in the fate of the Fedora and its crew than in Harold's personal journey. The ending was where the game ultimately lost me. I understand the emotional message the writers were aiming for, but after spending so much time building anticipation around humanity's future and the possibility of moving forward, the final resolution felt disconnected from what I had been invested in for most of the game. Instead of feeling emotional, it left me frustrated. What makes this disappointing is that I can clearly see the potential. There is a fascinating sci-fi mystery here. There are memorable characters, beautiful environments, and moments of genuine wonder. I just don't think those strengths justify the amount of time the game asks from the player. Had this been a tighter 6-8 hour experience, I genuinely believe I would have enjoyed it far more. Instead, it became one of those games where I was relieved to see the credits roll. Harold Halibut is an incredible artistic achievement, but as a game, it never managed to hold my attention for the length of time it demanded.

I think that the art and narrative are deeply impressive here, but the game seems to feel as if it would rather not be a game. I don't know whether it would be better suited to being a movie, series, or book - but it just plays as if it got turned into a videogame out of necessity rather than by choice. I had a nice time with it but I can't really recommend it.

It's like a whimsical Wes Anderson title in space starring a mild mannered Adrien Brody with an Anton Chigurh haircut, navigating existential crises amongst a tribe of communist fish people.

this game is beautiful in every way. thank you to everyone who worked on this from the bottom of my heart. never let art die.

sadece estetiği hoşuma gittiği için denemek istemiştim ki oynadığım en güzel oyunlardan birisi oldu. arkasındaki emeğin, müziklerinin güzelliğinin, hikayesinin tadına vararak oynayıp, her saniye daha da büyülendim. yavaş ilerleyen, hikaye odaklı, bol sinematikli bir oyun. sci-fi stop motion izler gibiydim oyun boyunca, çok keyifliydi. kalbimde özel bir yer edindi, eski bir anı gibi hissettirdi bitirdiğimde.

Anyone who finishes this game should be given their money back for sheer force of will. can I get paid? Pros: Levels/characters are digitally scanned from physically crafted armature figurines and diorama that is both beautiful and 'throw pc out the window' inducing. The moCAP animations are excellent. Characters interact with items and each other in cutscenes. The sound is well done as is the music. Some interesting tiny interactions and mini games (why they put so much effort into those mini games I have no idea). If it was cut down to just the story beats it would be a great little game. Cons: No mouse control, at all, that means the menu settings etc. The game is really about 2 hours of interaction and 8-9 hours of padding. Padding in the form: - Deliberately slow walking - Illogical fetch quests - Inexcusable baiting of the player with inconclusive quests - Very long un-skippable dialogue (one line at a time) that consist of small talk and pseudo intellectual philosophy, the kind that goes in circles. - Extremely limited interaction - For all the work, there are few 'locations' and a lot are simply hallways with a one-time character cutscene. Hallways that must be traversed hundreds of times. - The transport system has hubs, its impossible to simply go directly to the place you want to go, it's two very slow walks to get there and back and then back again to go somewhere else. Yes I'm confused too. - The voice announcement for using the transport system cannot be turned off, other than mute. After the hundredth time I just wanted the game to end. A story that suspiciously peaks in the beginning for the demo then slows right down until the very last hour, like that anime, you know the one. Very small amount of things change in the locations, and you have no agency or decisions that affect these locations, you must do all quests to advance, there are no 'choices' only the order they are completed. No inventory, which means no traditional puzzles, other than fetch quests, but you have no control over the items or use them in any other fashion. --------------------------------------------- -- - In conclusion as an on and off game to play a half hour at a time over a period of a month this is OK, but if your looking for a roller coaster ride playing the banjo while fighting the devil and eating a mars bar is more your style then avoid.

Harold Halibut is a gem made for a specific playerbase. I love it because I can put myself in Harold's shoes. It's the first game I ever found with a protagonist like this. I was laughing and smiling all the time because I noticed things that wouldn't be noticed by someone who doesn't experience the world in a way Harold does. If you do, you are most likely what today is called "on the autistic spectrum". Harold has been leading a pretty dull life in the past, doing the only job he thinks he is capable of, compensating his mental confusion with a PDA device. Which seems to have been invented exclusively for him as a kind of medical aid. No one else on the ship is using one. He has learned to communicate with others, although he has this habit where he has to approach people in a certain way to be able to speak to them, often turning around before he actually speaks to someone. It looks like a glitch or awkward movement animation, but it fits Harolds personality so perfectly that I think it's intentional. Just like him taking only every second step on the stairs and always stumbling over the same tube on the floor. But then, things begin to happen on the fedora. For the first time in his life, Harold experiences that his actions will affect the future of the community. I'm surprised hat there is little discussion about the ingame dialogue topics. Someone in the reviews called them "woke" and I think that is pretty accurate. Although for me personally, it is a pro. But people with a conservative world view will most likely not enjoy it. It did not surprise me that most of the thumbs down in reviews criticise the slow pace. Because it is slow. What surprised me is that so many people expected it to be faster or have more "game" elements. Because the description says it's a narrative game, the developer's name is literally "Slow Bros." and reading the reviews would also have given them an impression of what to expect. I absolutely enjoy the pace, walking around on the ship even if there is no quest that tells me to do that, and look for changes that might hint at what is going on in the community. Because there are things happening in the foreground, things that are talked about in quests, messages or cutscenes. But I always have a feeling that the things happening in the background are acutually there some time earlier, and I can find hints before the questline finally sends me to those places. The storyline is linear, but there is a ton of things you will acually never see or know if you only follow the quests to "walk through". It's not a game for those who generally skip dialogues. It's for people who have an eye for details, patterns, traces and differences. Those hints make it a kind of a detective game. On the ship there is something strange going on and my task is to find out what it is, who is involved, who is lying. The "fetch quests" that feel tedious for some are meant to lead you to places where you can find those hints. It's not about flipping a switch on the filters and then return. It's about the people you meet on the way, writings on walls, info boxes, advertisements...

It's not an adventure game. It's a story book written by depressed, gay, woke, communist folks that was turned into a navigable linear storyboard. Really horrible if you were looking for an adventure game, or even something mildly entertaining. This should be avoided if you were looking for something interesting, fun and enjoyable.

Fun game that makes you think about life. It has a relatively slow pace and you have to walk a decent amount, but it is worth it. I really liked the story, graphics and sound-design. I also like that the game doesn't constantly show you where to go, as the ship isn't that big and you really get to know that place. A totally different world the game puts you in. Truly fantastic!

Impressive art and music. I think the voice acting was great too. Though I feel it is all hindered by a big pacing problem. Traveling back and forth through the tube system quickly became a slog. The interesting and exquisite tidbits of the story and its memorable characters overall felt diluted by this general slowness that I think doesn't work quite well in a videogame format. Ultimately, I was wishing for the game to end despite the fascinating premise and captivating story twists.