Harold Halibut review: take it slow in this stop-motion sci-fi adventure

Harold Halibut moves at its own pace. A point-and-click adventure built with real-world materials and then animated with stop-motion, Harold Halibut tells a story that’s at times slow and ponderous and, at others, cozy and heartwarming. It’s sort of like what would happen if Wes Anderson teamed up with Aardman Animations to make a sci-fi game. Which is to say that it’s charming and built with an incredible amount of care and detail. As a game, it’s standard stuff — but as a place to experience, there’s nothing quite like it.

The developers at German studio Slow Bros. say that every element in Harold Halibut was “meticulously hand-crafted using traditional sculpting and model-making techniques.” And much of the joy of the game comes from luxuriating in those details.

The game takes place in the ocean of an alien planet. With the Earth becoming uninhabitable, a ship called the Fedora sets off to find a new world to populate, and 250 years later, the vessel has become a sort of city in the depths of the oceanic world it ultimately crashed on. You play as Harold, a bumbling handyman. Harold Halibut plays out like a simplified adventure game — think Monkey Island or Myst — where you’re mostly running around performing a series of chores, like delivering items or scrubbing graffiti off a wall. You stay on track with a pleasantly chunky PDA that has a to-do list, a messaging app, and a built-in notebook where Harold sketches his thoughts.

The story eventually introduces a pair of competing mysteries in the form of what actually happened on Earth over the last two centuries and the discovery of life on the unnamed alien planet. The twists and turns of the narrative are gentle and mostly provide an excuse to hang out in some fascinating places.

Much of the game takes place in the Fedora, which has a quirky, lived-in feel to it. You can walk through a commercial district complete with a pub where a robot arm serves drinks and a sporting goods shop that has a skiing simulator (despite the fact that no one on board really knows what snow is). There are quaint apartments with comfy chairs, stuffed bookshelves, and tea rooms. A literal tube system transports residents from place to place. Later on, you’ll head to an alien settlement that truly feels alien, with perhaps the strangest library I’ve ever seen. My favorite feature is a zoom button that lets you stop and take it all in. There’s one particular reading nook that I must’ve passed a dozen times, but I would always pause for a closer inspection just because it was so chill.

While I enjoyed the texture of the world, at times, it did feel like the game was forcing me to soak it all in because everything was so dang slow. Even when you use the sprint button, Harold never seems to be in a rush, and you regularly have to sit and wait for animations — like a door closing or elevator arriving — to complete before you can continue. Harold even talks slowly. At first, I found it frustrating, but I eventually found myself becoming accustomed to the particular rhythm. There are moments when it can add to the charm, helping you spot a particular detail, like a slithering tentacle on a porthole window you might’ve otherwise missed.

Of course, your mileage may vary. Even when I slowed myself down to appreciate the game, there were still some frustrating moments; at one point, I was lost in a small alien settlement, and it took forever for Harold to slog his way back. Also, everyone on the Fedora talks a lot. Some optional story paths involve simply sitting back and listening to long diatribes, many of which don’t go anywhere interesting.

While Harold Halibut offers up a warm and cozy vision of the future to explore, you have to put up with some plodding moments to really enjoy it. If you’re just here for a thrilling story or brainteasing puzzles, you’ll be disappointed. Instead, playing Harold Halibut is a bit like peering into an exquisitely crafted dollhouse, one that offers up a refreshingly retrofuturistic vision that you just want to reach out and play with.

Harold Halibut is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S (including Game Pass).