This is Harold Halibut, an incredible game that truly should be classified as genuine art, and it took over a decade of hard work to realise. The team at Slow Bros. painstakingly handcrafted every character, texture and surface you’ll see during your 12-15 hours of playtime aboard the generational ship, “The Fedora”.
The Fedora left Earth fearing the planet was doomed, taking to the stars in the hopes of a better life elsewhere. Alas, extreme gravitational forces pulled the ship down into the cold depths of an alien ocean world, and The Fedora has been trapped there ever since.
A Fishy Tale
Being a very narrative heavy game, I’m keen to avoid any spoilers of genuine significance, so I feel you can read this review without any real concern that I’m going to ruin the journey ahead. However, the marketing material for the game has already heavily hinted, if not outright spoiled one of the first genuine revelations, which centres around a question I initially asked when I first started to play – are the Fedorans alone in this deep, dark ocean?
To not answer it or acknowledge it at all feels pointless when the key-art of the game and the various trailers released thus far kind of give the game away, so all I’ll say is as the story unfolds, Harold will most assuredly encounter more than he bargains for in the very deep blue.
Harold is an interesting character, and definitely not your standard issue protagonist. He’s awkward and regularly overlooked, with other characters often interrupting him and talking over him. We first meet him in trouble with the local authorities for not having the right sort of ticket for the Fedora’s “All-Water” Tube system (run by the mysterious All-Water corporation, of course).
The Fedora
The Fedora is a gorgeous and labyrinthian place to get lost in, a system of tubes leading to all sorts of places of interest; the Lab district, where Harold resides, overseen by the curt and impatient Dr. Mareaux. Then there’s the Agora Arcades (the Fedora’s main activities district), with an array of shops; a bar, a winter sporting goods store, and a stage for some impromptu interpretive dance, featuring the game’s director dressed as a mime no less.
It’s a delightful place to explore, and running on my OLED, it’s often stunning to look at, albeit in an unconventional way. Harold Halibut doesn’t scream realism or the latest in graphics tech in the typical way, but I would challenge you to find a game that looks quite as real as this one. The effort the team at Slow Bros have put in to the game has truly paid off, and my god, the number of screen shots I’ve taken in my 15 hours with the game beggars belief.
The gameplay itself in Harold Halibut is simple, and unfortunately in some ways, it’s almost too simple. Playing as Harold, you’ll walk around completing various chores, fetching and carrying and importantly, engaging in conversation. Conversation is everything in Harold Halibut, and is carried by an excellent voice cast of wonderfully quirky characters, with all sorts of backstories and tales of their own. The biggest problem I had in my time on the Fedora was that it all just took too long to get going, and the repeated back and forth nature of Harold’s day to day meant that just like Harold himself, I began to question the purpose of it all, and for many, monotony may set in.
Harold tracks his messages, information and the all important “to-do” list in his PDA, which can be accessed at any time. Everyone on the Fedora seems to treat Harold as bit of a dogsbody, and he’ll be pushed from pillar to post on all sorts of tasks – cleaning graffiti, fetching samples, asking other people for help. That PDA will be filled with all sorts of messages and tasks, and in a spot of fun, Harold’s sketches of the various people he interacts with day to day.
Narrative Threads
Through the various conversations you’ll have with your fellow Fedorans, you’ll gradually peel away at the layers surrounding the game’s central plot – namely escaping the clutches of this deep ocean – but to give you more than that would be spoiling things. Regardless, conversation is the only real way to progress, with particular moments punctuated by simply going to bed, the All-Water system conveniently deactivated at just the right moment. There’s not much in the way of puzzles to solve, or any real variety in gameplay for the majority of the game.
There are occasional moments where the game gets really creative – at one point, you’re tasked with emptying a storage room, and I have to admit, as I walked packages down to Harold’s bedroom over and over, I started to get increasingly bored. Lo and behold – the game suddenly presented Harold’s room in portrait, with me dropping packages in to, almost Tetris style. Moments like this are playful and smart, and if there’s one thing I feel Harold Halibut needed, it was more of that (worth saying the Harold Halibut really does go all out in later chapters of the game in terms of variety – things get weird).
Harold Halibut is a game of two halves; the first is a staggering achievement in art and design, with some of the most sumptuous, unique and jaw dropping visuals in gaming since Cuphead. The second half is far harder to define – there’s a lot of repetition and a serious lack of pace. The game is deliberate and meandering, filled with conversations and busywork while you pull at the broader narrative threads, and there’s a big part of me that feels that several hours of the early game should have been left on the cutting room floor. Regardless, it’s a spectacularly singular vision and premise, and utterly unique, and I love it for that.
A Matter of Perspective
Whether you’ll enjoy your time with Harold Halibut and the various Fedorans you’ll meet really comes down to what kind of person and gamer you are – if you enjoy deeply narrative games where the focus in more on story and a sense of place, with a very simple gameplay loop, then you’ll fit right in -and I suspect come to adore your time aboard the Fedora.
If you’re expecting more action and puzzles, then boy, you might bounce right off this one once you’ve finished gawking at how pretty it all is. My advice? Take it slow, and enjoy every moment with this bizarre and eccentric cast of characters. Games like Harold Halibut don’t come around very often.
Harold Halibut
Played on
PC
PROS
- Incredible visuals and designs
- Absolutely bonkers story (in a good way)
- Voice cast is stellar
CONS
- Dull and repetitive gameplay loop
- Outstays it's welcome
