Harold Halibut Explores What Home Really Means
Harold Halibut is a hand-crafted stop motion game set under the ocean of a faraway world. There are some mysteries and even a deadline of sorts. The countdown is so lenient however, players can focus completely on each character and their interactions. It has a slow pacing that seems to purposely drag in places. The player is just as stuck in the everyday drudgery of Harold’s life.
This is a narrative focused game, but there is limited gameplay. The player has to manually wipe off graffiti (if they choose), plug in cords, move the covering to repair a printer that might not need repairing, etc. It’s not fun to play whether this is done intentionally as part of the narrative or not. This could serve to highlight just how unimportant Harold sees himself to the Fedora inhabitants. Until the moment Wewoo, an alien fish-like being, enters the picture Harold shows no excitement towards anything.
After constant running back and forth at a sluggish pace, my own excitement was beginning to wane. This makes actually playing Harold Halibut feel so tedious that enjoying its story becomes hard. That being said, there were moments of weird clipping but no bugs that hindered progress. So if a story about finding where you belong as an adult sounds interesting, and the slower pacing isn’t a con, this may be worth picking up. Gameplay is smooth and nothing truly stops the player from making progress.
Harold Halibut is a unique game in its presentation. This alone makes players want to see more. Seeing Harold become excited about the world around him is heartwarming. It almost makes being beat over the head with monotony worth it. The narrative is enjoyable despite very few twists and with an ending that becomes clear long before the game ends. This is a game that’s worth at least one attempt for a whimsical, and at times surreal, experience.
