I really loved the way this looked - beautifully crafted stop-motion environments and characters and the whole game had a very strong Wes Anderson-influence that I found very appealing and Harold is a very likeable and sweet protagonist.

However, as someone who enjoys slower-paced games, I found Harold Halibut to be too slow-paced even for me, and found myself really struggling with whether I wanted to continue. Gameplay boils down to slowly running between locations and watching cutscenes, which are nicely performed and animated, but I did not find the story engaging enough to keep me interested in completing this.

The dampest of squibs.

I can’t speak highly enough of the exceptional claymation graphics on display here. They are beautiful to behold and as a concept for better games they are proof positive of the unique impact of such a style. In almost every other aspect however Harold Halibut is unfortunately woeful.

It’s just not a videogame in any meaningful sense. This is an interactive animation, and even then I mean that in the most limited way. There isn’t a single puzzle or narrative choice of any significance in this game. At least walking simulators have deeply engaging worlds full of things to interact with. They also understand that when the pace is slow you have to (a) keep the game relatively short and (b) allow for passive narration that continues as you progress. Harold Halibut makes you engage in fixed place conversations with very few dialogue choices that go on forever and by all accounts this game is 12 hours long. I genuinely cannot describe how many absolutely empty exchanges you have with largely uninteresting characters throughout that time.

You can tell the developers think this story is incredibly witty and quirky, but it really isn’t. I watched more curious, risky, and engaging programmes as a child on national broadcasters than this. Perhaps there’s some incredible twist I will unfortunately miss out on but I simply could not go on any longer. I gave up after the 25th time of being asked to slowly jog back to the same area I had just come from to carry out a menial conversation with very little wit or interest. I just could not do it again. In one objective you must deliver some letters, and after each letter you must go back to your bedroom to get the next one. Why can I not simply carry them all at once? Why do I have to ‘go to bed’ every night to progress? Why must I use a water tube transportation system that often requires me to go through a central hub, so in effect I’m going through this process twice just to get to my destination? None of this is fun or interesting in any way. If you want to make people do busy work there has to be some sort of narrative or gameplay reward - at least some exposition that isn’t just the same deeply uninteresting dialogue.

I’m sorry Harold, you seem like a nice fellow, but could you occasionally say or do anything other than sound confused? A big problem with having a man who is essentially stupid as the main character is that everyone you meet strikes you as having the advantage over Harold, which in turn just makes you feel entirely passive. This would work better if the game was particularly funny but it simply isn’t and I say that as a Brit who enjoys understated jokes and awkwardness.

Having thrown the towel in means that Harold Halibut becomes the only adventure game I have simply refused to finish, and I have played a lot of bad adventure games.

I think that says it all.

Harold Halibut is a beautiful game that needs some serious investment from the player. Not because it's hard but because it's slow, extremely slow. The writing is almost clinical and that's not a bad thing. You get to live on this underwater station, talking with everyone about the smallest things, learning about everyone and the station in great detail. This makes for pacing that's incredibly slow. For a long time nothing seems to really happen. But when it hits you at the end, it hits hard because of all the time you invested, because you know so much about these characters.
Plus the look is just gorgeous. You can actually tell that all character models and environments are handcrafted and scanned in. You see all the little touches and even the small little, human mistakes when crafting all this from hand, which simply makes it charming. The presentation is even further improved by the atmospheric music. The game is often quiet but it knows exactly how and when to use one of its original and licensed songs, elevating great scenes to perfection.

Juegazo que descubrí hace un tiempo y tras haberlo jugado me he quedado prendido de él.

Historia sencillita de una persona común rodeada de personas extrovertidas y excéntricas. La trama no es tan interesante como sí el desarrollo de personajes, pero cumple a excepción de las últimas dos horas, que da más rodeos de los que debería.

No es para todos los públicos por aquello de ser una aventura narrativa muy calmada y con poca interacción, pero aún así muy recomendable.

Foi uma experiência diferente.

Harold Halibut é um walk simulator super bem feito, de arte em stop-motion até a história.

O jogo se passa numa nave que saiu da Terra após ela ser comprometida e agora se encontra no oceano de um planeta alienígena.

Harold é uma espécie de faz tudo nessa nave, o que aproxima ele de outros personagens, que é onde o jogo brilha. Ver Harold e a relação com esses personagens mudando é muito gratificante. MUITO boa todas as interações e desfechos.

Façam as missões do carteiro, é a melhor coisa do jogo.

Eu entendo q muitos vão odiar e dropar esse jogo pois quase não existe gameplay, Tu passa o jogo inteiro andando de um lado pro outro conversando com personagens então se não curte Walking Simulator passem longe
Dito isso eu tenho q parabenizar o estúdio pelo trabalho fantástico q fizeram com Stop Motion, Esse jogo é lindo de doer, A historia e os personagens são tão carismáticos, vc se sente imersivo em Fedora e sente q cada personagem tem sua personalidade e vida
O jogo cansa as vezes pois ficar andando de um lado pro outro cansa mesmo e por isso eu jogo com mais calma e esse talvez seja o segredo de eu gostar tanto desse gênero, Harold Halibut é uma obra q todos q curtem WS ira amar.

Una experiencia tan lentita en su gameplay (más walking sim que aventura gráfica) como absolutamente preciosa, empezando por su estilo artístico a lo claymation.

Es un poco lástima que [casi] todo el juego consista en ir de un sitio a otro de la nave de charla en charla en la que prácticamente no tienes interactividad (salvo alguna opción de diálogo aislada por ahí y por allá), porque toda la ambientación, la hipnótica música, el diseño de sonido, los gráficos... llaman desde el primer momento.

Y es que, al final, este moverse de un lado para otro charlando con los distintos habitantes de forma repetitiva para avanzar la historia tiene su recompensa: dentro de este microcosmos burocrático, cerrado hasta un punto casi claustrofóbico, y que de primeras pueda parecer depresivo, es muy fácil encontrar un punto emotivo y absolutamente luminoso. Si te hace clic (yo he llegado a mojar gafa un par de veces), encontrarás en los habitantes de Fedora unos personajes carismáticos, cada cual con sus pequeñas historias de las que quieres formar parte y a los cuáles quieres ayudar, quieres ver su evolución. Es en esos pequeños momentos donde realmente brilla el juego, esas interacciones entre personajes, esos descubrimientos inesperados, donde unos diálogos trabajadísimos (con grandes actuaciones de voz), los gráficos y la música se compaginan para meterte de lleno e imbuirte de esperanza y positivismo hasta en un lugar que uno pudiera pensar que no invita a ello.

Sí, no es el gameplay más agradable, tiene algún bug y se agradecería que, o bien fuera más corto, o tuviera algún puzle de aventura gráfica en lugar de ser un "ve del punto A al punto B" constante, pero desde luego es una obra con corazón, llena de filosofía, espiritualidad y humor. Cuando entras, es divertido y calentito.

includes almost no enjoyable gameplay to speak of, pads its excruciating run time with brain dead fetch quest after brain dead fetch quest, meanders in its narrative and execution, sports a cast of quirky, memorable, and truly original characters, contains a literal truck load of beautiful hand crafted art, is scored by a haunting soundtrack that continues to stick with you after you've finished playing, and boasts some of the most dizzying, effective, and downright moving sequences i've seen in a game in a very long time. it's ok. three stars.

Entre le projet et son aboutissement, il y a clairement quelque chose qui s'est perdu en chemin.
L'univers créé et les personnages qui y vivent ont du charme, mais le média qui les exploite n'est définitivement pas le bon. Les artistes derrière le jeu ont certainement voulu avant tout mettre en valeur leur savoir-faire en termes de création de décors et de matières, et sur ce point, c'est réussi car on ressent bien la matérialité de ce qu'on a sous les yeux. C'est un réel plaisir de découvrir les différentes pièces qui composent ce diorama numérique.
Mais au bout de la 35e visite, il faut avouer que c'est plutôt le système de jeu pénible qui occupe notre attention plutôt que le sens du détail accordé à tous les éléments affichés.
Comme pour mieux étirer le temps de jeu, on ne compte plus les allers-retours effectués entre les différentes parties de la station qui ne recèlent en plus aucun "bonbon" pour récompenser notre patience. Les moments de suspension, de poésie ou d'amusement sont très mal répartis au sein de l'aventure, principalement concentrés au début et à la fin.
Une aventure beaucoup plus courte, 4 ou 5 h contre 12 h dans les faits, aurait permis de ne conserver que les qualités narratives et visuelles du titre et de se débarrasser des déplacements pénibles.
Je retiens tout de même des personnages attachants - je pense à vous, Weeoo et Buddy - et un univers intrigant, et même si je suis déçu de mon expérience, je suis content d'avoir soutenu ce genre de projet.
Je ne sais pas si Slow Bros. a l'intention ou aura la possibilité de démarrer une nouvelle histoire, mais si c'est le cas, j'espère qu'ils sauront mieux définir le scope et qu'ils se focaliseront sur leurs forces.

There are two angles for me to go about in trying to sum up my time with Harold Halibut.

On one side, this is a walking simulator at its core with glacial pacing and frequent bugs. It’s a chore to play and not always an enjoyable experience. At any moment you can go from sitting through overly long conversations to literally just holding a direction as you slowly crawl through a vent for five minutes.

On the other side, this game has a beautiful world, a fantastic narrative, and wears its heart on its sleeve at all times. You can tell the love and passion put behind this game.

Unlike many of the other reviews I’ve read on this site, I found the story to absolutely resonate with me and every time I felt bored out of my mind wandering the same halls listening to the same over the loudspeaker dialogue as I entered a tube system for the hundredth time, some beautifully shot cutscene would pull me back in. It brilliantly uses lighting, camera angles, and music to create some uniquely directed scenes. Not every scene hits, but the ones that do make up for any rough ones. It’s unfortunate that this game really shines in its final act that most players will not make it far enough to see.

If you can get past its many shortcomings, I think this game is totally worth playing through to its conclusion for what is likely to be one of the most unique games of 2024.

Harold Halibut is an outstanding technical achievement. It's not, however, a compelling game.

Harold Halibut is an adventure game that looks just like a stop motion movie. And my god do they ever do a great job at that. The game is downright gorgeous and the stop motion continuously impressed me. I really wish this tech was used in service of a better narrative.

I found it very difficult to care about the characters and plot in this world. The voice acting is excellent but the dialogue is so dull. Very rarely do characters have anything remotely interesting to say. And although some personalities shine through (namely Harold and his surrogate mother Mareaux), most of it is forgettable. This is especially true in the first 10 hours of the game which is very slice of life. The plot gets a bit more interesting by the end, but it's too late by then.

I appreciate the themes they're going for. I really like how they approached an autistic coded main character with Harold for instance. There's something so pure about how he deals with problems. I'm sure this game is for someone. Just not for me.

I wanted to love this so much. The world is beautifully realized, the characters are fun with their own quirks, and the hand-crafted claymation art style is one of the most breathtaking I've seen in a video game. But it's such a slog to actually play that all the good elements fade away to time marching on, you getting older and then realizing it's only been 15 minutes. There's just so little gameplay here and it all moves so purposely slow that it sucks any sense of joy or wonder the rest of the game may have filled you with. This is essentially a walking simulator which is fine, those games have their place but the best ones move, Harold Halibut crawls. You slowly walk from one area to the next, press the interact button on things and that's it. And the game is 10 hours. Once I start checking the time while I'm playing a game it means it's lost me and Harold Halibut lost me fairly quickly but it felt much longer.

Harold Halibut è un gioco iconico, unico nel suo genere. Uscito dopo quasi un decennio di lavorazione presso un piccolo team indipendente (anche se non si direbbe), questa bizzarra avventura sci-fi, realizzata in uno stile che ricorda la tecnica della stop-motion, vola talmente in alto da sfiorare l'appellativo di "Capolavoro".
Capolavoro, però, non è, poiché Harold Halibut tradisce proprio laddove il videogiocatore ripone maggior fiducia: l'esperienza interattiva.

Se questa fosse una recensione professionale spenderei paragrafi interi di elogi verso quasi ogni aspetto del gioco, ma in questa sede meglio sintetizzare; la storia è appassionante, i personaggi sono delineati con una cura ed un amore immensi, il doppiaggio è sbalorditivo, il reparto artistico è unico e curato nei minimi dettagli, la colonna sonora è evocativa e i dialoghi sono brillanti.
Se fosse un film, potrebbe anche superare i lavori di Wes Anderson, grande ispirazione per il gioco.

Probabilmente chi non ha mai giocato Harold Halibut ora si chiederà: di che genere videoludico fa parte? Platform, Puzzle game, Horror, Avventura Grafica...
Nessuno di questi. O meglio, nessuno in generale. In senso negativo.
Harold Halibut non crea un nuovo genere, ma li distrugge tutti quanti. Non è un avventura grafica perché non ci sono enigmi, non è un walking simulator perché c'è ben poco da camminare, non è una visual novel perché è pieno di cutscene. Non è niente, gli unici momenti interattivi prevedono di spostare (pure lentamente e con diversi caricamenti) il protagonista da una parte all'altra della mappa di gioco. That's it.
Ci sono piccole variabili sporadiche, ma sono estremamente guidate e lineari. Ogni tanto si ha l'impressione che se abbandonassimo il controller o la tastiera sul tavolo il gioco si finirebbe da solo.
L'unica vera libertà che ci viene concessa è l'esplorazione delle location "Raptureiane", in cui sarà possibile scambiare qualche nuovo dialogo con gli npc per conoscerli meglio (senza però che ci sia alcuna influenza sulla trama) e sbloccare delle immagini disegnate dal nostro Harold in persona. Sebbene questa parte sia carina e rilassante, è troppo poco per un gioco che dura sulle 15 ore, in cui più della metà sono dedicate a filmati o conversazioni.
Questa penuria di interazione lo rende più un film interattivo che un videogioco vero e proprio, con la conseguenza di un sensibile abbassamento della valutazione.

Detto questo, Harold Halibut rimane un gran bel gioco, un'esperienza unica, profonda ed emozionante. E' la storia di chi vaga sconsolato alla ricerca di un ambiente che rispecchi la propria essenza, una casa per la propria anima, rifiutando così le classiche convenzioni a cui l'uomo sembra destinato a prendere parte dalla nascita, oltretutto non per una propria decisione, che invece altri, sconosciuti e defunti, prima di lui si sono permessi di compiere.
Molte testate giornalistiche hanno affossato questo indie con voti oltremodo bassi. Diversi giocatori hanno criticato questo indie per la sua prolissità, noiosità e insensatezza. In questo caso voglio prendermi una grossa libertà... la libertà di dire che non hanno capito proprio niente. Comprendo le critiche, HH non è esente da difetti, ma dare un voto appena sufficiente o addirittura insufficiente ad un gioiello del genere significa non comprendere il medium videoludico nella sua interezza e/o non amarlo seriamente. Non esistono solo i giochi competitivi, non esistono solo Spiderman, God of War, The last of Us, Horizon, ci sono tante piccole produzioni che vanno salvaguardate e apprezzate per il loro coraggio nel proporre qualcosa di nuovo e rischioso in un mercato che sta iniziando a stagnarsi dietro alle solite produzioni AAA, ormai tutte simili tra loro.

Perciò fatevi un favore e giocate ad Harold Halibut, fino alla fine.

So... true bluglglgl is being happy within uncertainty!

After seeing the reveal of Harold Halibut a couple of years back at a showcase, I was absolutely floored by how phenomenal the art style was -- and all these years later, now that the game's finally in my hands, I'm still just as wowed. Some of the visuals in this game were masterful, especially as the game ramps up and you get a chance to see more than just the same 7 floors in the Fedora.

Art & visuals aside, though, the characters are where this story shines. So many of them are quirky (and a little off-putting), but it works so well with the setting -- I mean, most of them were raised on a ship in the middle of an alien ocean, so their weirdness checks out. The writing got more than a few good chuckles out of me, too, as the comparison to old British TV shows are accurate. The titular character Harold is a lovable, strange maintenance man with a big heart and a serious lack of self-purpose, and getting to see his journey all the way through was a real treat.

I do have issues with the game though, as the gameplay could sometimes get a little slow & boring since running around the Fedora wasn't always seamless. There also seemed to be this unnecessary desire for the developers to force sections where you need to control Harold's hands to complete a task -- like "fixing" a 3D printer or plugging in electrical cords -- and none of it added to the experience and, instead, just made it feel more tedious. I also have some gripes with the story's direction at-large, but given I wanna make this a spoiler-free review, I won't mention those here.

All-in-all, I loved my time spent with Harold, Weeoo, and the rest of the crew and I'm happy I finally got to experience the Fedora I in all its glory after such a long wait.

Esse jogo é lindo, claramente o maior destaque dele pra mim é o seu visual, quando eu vi o trailer de um jogo em stop motion eu pirei muito forte, e nisso o jogo NUNCA decepciona, cenários lindos e muito detalhados.

É um game gostosinho de jogar, mas o problema é o quanto ele é lento, talvez se ele fosse mais curto essa sensação seria menos presente, mas ainda sim eu gostei muito porque me sentia cativado pelos personagens e pelo objetivo principal da história. Mais pro final vem uns questionamentos filosóficos do protagonista que eu curti bastante, mas de resto o jogo é só um vai pra lá e pra cá e conversa com personagem, os personagens são legais mas não tem nenhum exatamente memorável, foi uma historia gostosinha de viver.

I adore Harold Halibut for its thoughtful story and earnest characters, but holy moly was I ready for it to be done by the 10-hour mark. And the thing is, I don't really know how you compress the semi-puzzler, mostly-walking-around gameplay without compromising the story. I'm not a game designer, after all. But still, just a lot of traveling to places, doing a conversation/menial task, going to other places, and repeating ad nausem until it's time to go to sleep. Much like real life, I suppose.