Harold Halibut review
What if a game was intentionallyquite boring?
This feels like the premise withHarold Halibut, and at first it’s kind of brilliant.
It’s a wonderful setup, enabling debut developer Slow Bros to do some of its best work.
Animations, decorations and nice little buttons, even in deeply rudimentary puzzles, are completely enchanting.
Take the early discovery that the Fedora is facing an energy crisis.
Fetch-quest after fetch-quest, gradually you will be worn down.
And then, on returning to the message-giver, I was told bythemthat it didn’t even matter anyway.
Even this wasn’t on one occasion, but in fact several.
But even taken as an intentional rig it just doesn’t land.
Skim-reading the dialogue as it flew by, it’s rare that anything significant was missed.
Even the game’s big, climactic visual moments go on for too long.
It makes for a huge shame, and also something of a waste.
And the idea, at least in theory, is somewhat genius.
A genuine anti-hero, Harold Halibut is effectively a passenger on a story acted out by the actual experts.
Harold Halibut accessibility options
Subtitle toggle and size options.
Separate audio volume for dialogue, music and effects.
Advises you play with controller on PC.
I’m deadly serious when I say that’s kind of brilliant.
A copy of Harold Halibut was provided for review by Slow Bros.
