A little gem of stop motion animation, created entirely by hand by the German Slow Bros team, Harold Halibut is a real video game UFO. Almost 11 years passed between the start of its development and its release, scheduled for April 16. Between Wallace and Gromit and Grim Fandango, the game takes the player into an offbeat retrofuturistic universe, based on wacky humor, philosophical teenagers, absurd laws and alien fish!
Under the ocean
Advertisement
The Fedora is a spaceship that left Earth three generations ago, in search of a habitable planet. Unfortunately, the trip didn't go very well and he ended up sinking beneath the waters of an entirely aquatic planet, hit by solar storms that prevented the craft from taking off again.
Since then, time has passed. The members of the Fedora transformed it into a true underwater city and adapted to their new situation, creating a functional society which, generation after generation, nourishes the hope of being able to resume its space exploration one day. For Harold, the ship's handyman, life is a long, quiet river, vaguely boring. Harold is dreamy, clumsy, slightly apathetic, which never fails to get him into trouble.
Since the crash, the company Tous Eaux has taken control of the Fedora, notably providing the tubular transport system that allows everyone to move around. Tous Eaux is also responsible for security, justice, timekeeping and financial management of the micro-society formed by the residents. It all starts when Harold is fined for not having bought the correct transport ticket. When Professor Jeanne Moreaux, for whom he plays the laboratory assistant, comes to settle the ticket, Harold decides to do his best to bring some enthusiasm into his daily life. Then begins a series of quests and encounters, which will slowly move a sensitive and intimate story towards a great adventure.
Walking simulator
Advertisement
Harold Halibut presents itself as a narrative game, between point'n click and visual novel. It consists of exploring Fedora, listening to its different inhabitants and helping them solve (or not) their problems. If Harold is moving nonchalantly, it is possible to make him jog using the X button in order to move (slightly) faster. He can interact with objects and characters thanks to A and access his diary with Y. The latter allows him to receive messages, note the different tasks assigned to Harold and also offers him a notebook, in which he draws sketches in based on his encounters and discoveries.
Most tasks involve transmitting information, bringing an object back to someone (Fyodorants don't like to move around!) or repairing a mechanism that will have an influence elsewhere in the ship. If some give rise to enigmas, they above all allow us to meet Harold's companions. They have the particularity of being all very well written with their own experiences, personalities and aspirations. The different exchanges with these protagonists highlight Harold's own flaws: the hero does not feel at home on the Fedora, everything seems vain, tasteless to him… We also discover the societal and political organization of the ship, governed by absurd regulations, which give rise to often very funny dialogues.
A story between British humor and Orwellian story
The storyline is mainly light and amusing. The Fédorants are all nicely zany, like Chris, the body-built Latino teacher who walks around in a bathrobe, or Slippie, the cooling systems specialist who has decided to open a winter sports shop on board. The same goes for their rules of community life.
During a memorable sequence, the kind postman Buddy explains that he has a stock of undelivered letters, because their recipients were absent during their delivery. When Harold asks him why he did not leave a calling notice, the latter replies that the notice can only be given in person, instead of the letter, on the same day. He adds that it would have been impossible for him to notify the recipients after that, since the regulations stipulate that he cannot perform any act related to his work… outside of his working hours! A wacky world, reminiscent of the novels of Eugène Ionesco or the crazy bureaucracy of Asterix.
But behind the humor hide real sociological, ethical and philosophical reflections. When Harold asks himself, he sends us back to very personal questions: What is the purpose of our existence? Should our talents condition our future profession? How do you determine someone's worth? It's all the more interesting after the appearance of the character Weeoo, who acts as a mirror, not only towards the Fyodorants, but towards ourselves, the players. As a protagonist who is completely ignorant of everything related to civilization, his questions shake up our certainties. When, for example, she explains that she does not understand why the Fedorants use money instead of pooling everything together to make a fair share, this gives rise to a conversation on the economy and social castes that is both funny and instructive.
The big Blue
It is not for its basic gameplay nor its very accessible puzzles that we appreciate Harold Halibut, but for its story, its original universe and its very particular graphics. In a dozen hours, more for those looking for 1000G, the game manages to amaze, question and move with intelligence. It's impossible to deny the monumental work provided by the Slow Bros teams, when we know that all the animations, which are of impeccable quality and fluidity, were produced “the old-fashioned way”. All the settings and characters in the game were actually created physically, using clay, modeling clay and other materials, and then scanned digitally to be animated.
This is what gives the game this retrofuturistic atmosphere, close to Bioshock, and this little touch which recalls the years 1990-2000 and games such as The Neverhood, Amikrog or The Dream Machine. Visually impeccable, we will only regret an untimely clipping in a very particular place during the second half of the game (which I will not spoil here) and some rare omissions in translation among the dialogues. Finally, if the latter are sometimes multiple choices, you must keep in mind that the answer chosen will sometimes differ from that stated by Harold (completely voluntarily and justified by the scenario) and that none will have any impact on the end of the adventure.
Tested on Xbox Series