Harold Halibut Reviews
Harold Halibut gives shape to an attractive story led by a protagonist who manages to surprise the player. The magnificent handcrafted art section accompanies this good script, but at times its approach becomes somewhat heavy in terms of gameplay. Here's a good narrative adventure that could have aspired to be so much more.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
In the end, I think Harold Halibut ought to be experienced for its amazing technical achievement, if nothing else. While its gameplay doesn’t always engage, its narrative, characters, and themes are coherent in the manner of good speculative fiction. Both Harold the character and Harold Halibut the game are weird, wonderful, and quite unlike anything we’ve seen this year.
With engaging puzzles in the mix, I truly believe Harold Halibut could have joined the pantheon of great classic-style adventure games. As is, it’s a title that consistently kept me hooked over the course of its 7-to-8-hour story but didn’t fully reel me in like the very best of the genre.
A VERY special adventure, both in aesthetic and narrative terms. The story starts slowly and with very few explanations, but as the game progresses it becomes more and more interesting and does not disdain to touch important chords. The mechanics are the classic ones of a graphic adventure but the gameplay has a few too many angularities due to a bit of "dirt" in the code. Finally, the total lack of localization in Italian could be a significant obstacle given that the tone of the dialogues is well above the classic school English.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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
Overall, Harold Halibut offers a visually stunning and distinct experience, though it falls short of reaching its full potential as a comprehensive adventure game due to shortcomings in its story and gameplay. In my opinion, despite these flaws, it's definitely worth experiencing at least once.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Harold Halibut is a triumph in its characters and visuals but struggles to stay afloat under its own scope and ambitions.
There are some great moments in Harold of Halibut, even if it takes a while to get going, and the art style is stunning in every way.
Harold Halibut is an interesting adventure that, despite some flaws, shines for its uniqueness.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Harold Halibut offers a captivating journey into a retro-futuristic world brimming with charm and intrigue. While its gameplay mechanics may not appeal to all tastes, those who appreciate rich storytelling and immersive atmospheres will find much to love in this heartfelt exploration of friendship and the quest for meaning.
Harold Halibut is stunning with its stop motion-style graphics. It tells a wholesome story with hilarious moments and loveable characters. That being said, its pacing and gameplay issues did tarnish my ten hour playtime experience.
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.
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.
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.
A visually arresting, warm-hearted tale of a gofer searching for his purpose, Harold Halibut flounders amongst endless fetch-quests and waffle.
A great artstyle and flashes of brilliance never truly make up for a meandering, risk-averse plot.
It would probably make a better movie than a game, but there's still a unique charm about Harold Halibut and his slow-paced journey to discover his place in life.
Though Harold Halibut leaves me with a lot to pick at, it’s a fitting debut for what’s sure to become one of gaming’s most exciting new studios. Like Harold himself, Slow Bros. finds itself pushing gaming’s mundane comfort zone into the stratosphere with an approach that few will dare to replicate. It’s a bold risk; I’m sure the studio could have made a lot of commercially viable games in the 14 years it took to put this together. But why settle for stagnation?
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 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.