Harold Halibut Reviews
With a development that lasted twelve years, it is legitimate to wonder if Harold Halibut is a fully successful operation: what we can tell you is that the work of the German studio has convinced us, thanks to a mature and engaging narrative capable of dealing with themes that are anything but obvious.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Ultimately, Harold Halibut’s abundance of charm doesn’t translate to the game being charming, and in the end, while there’s plenty to see here, there’s just nothing to do.
Transcending the line between video game and interactive art piece, Harold Halibut explores the meaning of home on an isolated alien water world. While some pacing issues exist within the larger story, the handcrafted visuals that consistently charm alongside an extravagant cast make this a treat for fans of narrative adventures.
Harold Halibut's handmade world has bags of charm, but its sedentary pace and largely uneventful narrative might not be to everyone's tastes. Great stories stay with you, but, sadly, I'm not sure Harold's will.
Harold Halibut's narrative, setting and visuals are so wonderful and creative from a sci-fi perspective, it's an enormous shame it's housed within such a one-note and heartbreakingly boring video game.
Harold Halibut's amazingly hand-crafted stop-motion visuals buckle under the weight of the game's repetitive and shallow gameplay and drawn out runtime.
Harold Halibut is an interesting adventure that, despite some flaws, shines for its uniqueness.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Harold Halibut overstays its welcome like a free diver that descends too far. Its painfully boring gameplay consists of walking back and forth as the story unhurriedly transpires. Still, the oddball characters and sublime stop-motion aesthetics may hook a few gamers who are happy to wade in the shallows.
It's a shame that a game as high quality and unique as Harold Halibut is plagued by technical problems and bugs that can make the gameplay really unpleasant at times. It's a rich and deep experience that will grab you by the heart and make you fall in love with its characters over the course of more than 10 hours of gameplay.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Harold Halibut may not be the most innovative game in terms of intervention mechanics in the world, apart from making some slips in the rhythm of the narrative, but it is undeniable that the sum of its powerful story and its spectacular art style make this one of the most irresistible games of recent times.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
A wonderful claymation adventure with an exciting plot that's not supposed to be played if you are in a hurry. It's slow and a bit lengthy, but every minute spent in it is worth it in the end.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Harold Halibut is a heartfelt and handcrafted tale of human existence, delivering charming, profound, and deeply funny writing guaranteed to put a smile on your face. What Slow Bros has managed to achieve with its visual style is masterful and, for our money, it's now one of the best looking games on Xbox. The gameplay can feel repetitive at times, and the writing can drag in places, but ultimately we had a great experience seeing it through to the end. If you've got a Game Pass subscription, it's worth checking the game out for its aesthetic alone. Harold Halibut won't be for everybody, but for those that resonate with its story, it's sure to stick with you for a long time.
Harold Halibut is an adventure game that, although reminiscent of a walking simulator due to its rather skimpy and simplistic gameplay (without any really engaging mechanics), thanks to its unique and distinctive atmosphere and visual style manages to become a memorable title to say the least. It is certainly a strange and peculiar adventure that prioritizes storytelling and presents it through engaging dialogue and well-characterized characters. Despite the compassed pace, it is an intense and almost poetic experience that offers more than one food for thought on the meaning of life both in terms of the individual and as a collective, all enhanced by the wonderful aesthetics fully realized in stop-motion and justifying the ten years it took to conclude development.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Harold Halibut feels like a warm batch of cookies that grandma made on a nice, Sunday afternoon. There's a labor of love that radiates within that made my 10+ hour playthrough more enjoyable than it should've been. Adventure games have fallen out of popularity, but the highs of Halibut are so high at times, that it's almost forgiven how dull the game can feel in most moments.
Harold Halibut is a bit of a mixed bag; its unique Stop Motion technique makes it a must-see, but its limited gameplay and pacing issues make it feel more like an animated film than a game, though it’s a standout if you enjoy narrative-driven experiences.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
For most of its runtime, Harold Halibut is an exciting and captivating game. You can tell how much the authors loved the videogame medium. There's some minor issues, but nevertheless, if you like adventure games, it's simply a must play.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Overall, I enjoyed diving feet-first into this quirky and interesting narrative-driven mystery. While some may be deterred due to short attention spans or needing that quirk and fast-paced content this game will reward you for your time spent fishing for clues and unspooling the mystery. I'd encourage anyone looking to venture into this sub-aquatic adventure to devote some time to it allowing the game to grow. There's nothing out there at the moment to rival its quirky setting, it's out of the ordinary story and unique characters.
"Harold Halibut" is an atmospheric adventure game with a lot of heart and a unique style. It just needs to be shortened in the right places, then the pacing would also be right. But even so, I'm glad I stuck with it to the end and I can recommend it to you too.
Review in German | Read full review
In the end, the spectacular presentation, fantastical world, and charming characters were enough to carry me through the game’s overly long and slow start, as well as look past the very limited aspects of its gameplay.
Despite some occasional bugs, problems with the plot's rhythm and lack of more engaging gameplay, Harold Halibut does not lose its shine as a work that uses its form well to bring visual charm, without forgetting to work on its content a story with strong text, interesting characters and issues so prominent in human nature.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review