Harold Halibut review: beauty beneath the surface

Have you ever really disliked a game at the beginning, but loved it by the end?

This was my experience with Harold Halibut last month. I first became aware of this game seven years ago when I was a backer for Slow Bros.’ Kickstarter campaign in July 2017. Along with unique visuals, the promise of a ‘modern adventure with a strong focus on storytelling and exploration’ captured me.

Unfortunately, the campaign was unsuccessful after managing to raise only a third of its £128,691 target. That wasn’t the end for Harold though. I remember seeing a stand for the project at the Rezzed event in April 2018, and then a demo appeared in February’s Steam Next Fest. The latter made me reconsider the title because its pace felt very slow and there was an awful lot of backtracking.

Still, Pete and I decided to give it a try when Harold Halibut was added to the Xbox Game Pass a few weeks ago. Four hours later however and he’d had enough, deciding that falling asleep on the sofa was a better use of his free time. Although I was starting to become very bored with the repetitive gameplay, I chose to be stubborn and persevere just to get another entry off my to-play list.

I’m not going to lie to you though: the first several hours were a slog. As maintenance worker Harold, you run errands for lead scientist Jeanne Mareaux and other inhabitants of the Fedora I spaceship. This involves a lot of travelling between the same locations while completing mundane tasks such as feeding the fish, delivering messages and wondering when it’s all going to end. I can completely understand why a lot of players don’t make it past this point, and it explains why the release has a ‘Mostly Positive’ review score on Steam.

It eventually becomes apparent that something fishy is going on (I just had to get that pun in there somewhere). All Water, the suspicious corporation that controls the Fedora, isn’t being entirely honest with its people about how they’re spending their time. The ship is facing a severe energy crisis, which is particularly concerning considering that it’s stuck underwater on an alien planet. And a once-in-a-lifetime chance to repair the vessel and leave without getting destroyed by a solar flare is due to arrive imminently.

With all this implied upcoming drama, you’d think I’d have been sucked into the narrative. But unfortunately, the beginning part of the game is really rather monotonous. I was under the mistaken assumption that Harold Halibut is a point-and-click but it’s more like an interactive novel; the player is mostly a passive observer, with their only interactions being movement and dialogue option choices. Although several puzzles are featured in the gameplay, they’re far too easy and won’t have you thinking for more than a minute.

So, what turned this release around for me? It all started with scene which occurs shortly after Mareaux asks Harold to clean the filter station again. The protagonist begins questioning whether there’s more to life than cleaning, fixing and fetching, before quietly singing to himself and then launching into a full-blown solo worthy of any West End musical. It feels very out of place compared to the game’s prior content and caught me completely by surprise, but it was just what I needed to see the magic underneath.

This was the point that Harold grew on me. Before the scene, I wanted to give him a good shake because his lack of agency and total willingness to let everyone boss him around was frustrating. But seeing him in the filter station then, dancing with his mop while singing about other things he could be doing with his time, felt like a crack in his exterior. I could now start to see his real personality coming through and realised that he may not be as content as he liked to tell others he was.

Unexpected scenes like this then started occasionally popping up throughout Harold Halibut and leaving me with a smile on my face. For example, reading undelivered letters with Buddy, the postman, had the feeling of a radio show hosted by an agony aunt complete with a melancholic piano introduction. And steering a submarine while listening to an old cassette one of my companions had found in the back transported me to what felt like a trippy night out at an underground club in the 1970s.

Although they were completely random and even out of place sometimes, they allowed me to form a bond with the residents of the Fedora. Instead of them simply giving Harold odd-jobs and ordering him around, they started to talk and open up to him, sharing more about their backstories and motivations. It made me care about these people. I wanted to find out whether they’d discover All Water’s shady dealings, and if they’d manage to formulate a plan to escape the alien planet before the solar flare.

I also began to notice another side to Harold. Very gradually, so slowly that it’s almost unnoticeable at first, he starts pushing back and asking questions. When he begins to make small decisions for himself and take control of certain situations, it’s really satisfying to see him growing as a person. The others around him notice this change too and start to trust his judgement, coming to him for advice about their fears rather than simply asking him to mop the floor or pick up an item from a store because they’re too lazy to do it themselves.

I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who may play Harold Halibut in the future, but it’s impossible to discuss the protagonist’s development without mentioning a certain character who appears around a third into the game and shakes things up. They help him see that there’s always a different path in life and that sometimes, you just have to trust the tide and see where it takes you. They give him more confidence and make him feel comfortable to simply be himself.

Harold’s personal progression culminates in another random scene towards the end of the title which, in my opinion, is one of the most perfect ever created for a video game. The way the movement turns into slow-motion, the hazy lighting changes the atmosphere, the song playing in the background highlights what’s happening on screen and the fact that you’re only able to move in one direction… I haven’t been able to get this section out of my mind since completing the release and the song is now on my favourites list.

I went from enduring the slog of the first several hours to loving the game by its finale. As noted by Westen in their review on Big Nerd Gaming: “I became lost in thought, reflecting about what happened. As the credits rolled on Harold Halibut, I found myself thinking about the powerful ending and the journey that Harold went on to get there.” I’d love to see the protagonist return in a sequel, although one isn’t necessary based on the ending and I understand how labour-intensive it would be to produce.

Thank you, Slow Bros., for persevering for over a decade to finally bring us this release. Its very slow pace, limited interaction and 11-hour length will mean that it won’t appeal to everyone. But, to quote Westen again: “Part of me wants to sit the developers down the way the affable postman Buddy would, and tell them that while this game hasn’t hit with every single person who has played it, they put their hearts out there in a unique way, and those that they touched will remember playing this for a long time to come. And that is something worth celebrating.”

While Harold Halibut might not be the point-and-click I expected, it turned out to be the adventure I needed.