In 2007, the “would you kindly?” of Bioshock generated a long debate on the relationship between designer, avatar and player (here is the special on video games that tell lies). Often the titles we face are structured in such a way as to give us the illusion that we are having a significant influence on their world and the characters who inhabit it; see the Bethesda works, whose philosophy that forms the basis of game design revolves around the concept of total freedom within pre-established boundaries.
Expressions such as “do what you want” or “go where you want” have become part of the communicative register of companies, so much so that over time they have become assertions without real meaning; a series of advertising slogans whose effectiveness has gradually worn out. Harold Halibut is the attempt to put together a discussion starting from these very themesand how the characters we control can become much more than simple avatars.
Where is home?
About two hundred years before the events of the game, a multinational company known by the name of All Water Corp. he gathered a handful of human beings in order to lead them into the depths of space. The goal was simple: find a new home. The conditions facing planet Earth were disastrous and geopolitical instability only made the situation worse, which is why a solution had to be found among the stars.
After years of waiting, the ship FEDORA I identified a potentially habitable planet, realizing only during landing that the celestial body was composed exclusively of water. The ship ended up at the bottom of the ocean, and so she remained there for a long time. Entire generations were born and raised within the metal walls of FEDORA, in the hope of one day being able to set foot on land again. Harold Halibut is not the video game hero we are used to, nor does he possess any particular skills; he is an assistant, a not at all charismatic handyman capable only of obeying orders.
He is also a dreamer, an individual who lives in the hope that tomorrow will be different from today and that everything will change. His awkwardness is reflected in his relationships with others, but above all in the inability to state what we order him to say during multiple choice dialogues. An inadequacy weighed by his good-natured and friendly spirit, qualities that are recognized in him by friends and acquaintances.
Despite a few small stumbles, Harold Halibut’s narrative plot works throughout its duration – about thirteen hours – reducing the number of playable side quests to the bare minimum. This choice allowed the developers to give priority to the main story, preventing the user from getting lost in labyrinthine subplots which would have added little or nothing to the experience.
A classic graphic adventure
Harold Halibut does not differ much from his genre: during the adventure, we will be able to explore the various sections that make up FEDORA and interact with its inhabitants, who will give us tasks to carry out. Quests and messages will be noted on a small handhelda useful tool on which we will find all the information we need.
Occasionally, we will be asked to interact with machinery or provide assistance during an experiment, interactive phases which, although present in a limited number, are always well contextualized within the narrative frame. It must be said, however, that their greater presence would certainly have benefited the overall experience. Those who are familiar with the genre will find themselves faced with a title with a classic structure, where What makes the difference is not the quantity of interactions, but their quality. The vast majority of quests involve making trips from point A to point B, with Harold called a deliver messages or deliver objects. It is the protagonist himself who is reduced to an object of consumption, an aspect of which he himself is aware and which will form the basis for his psychological evolution. “Everyone says I’m useful, but will I ever make a difference?“, asks Harold sadly, almost as if to create a parallel between the avatar and the player, both subject to the will of the developers, a “would you kindly?” like Bioshock, in fact, where we are reduced to simple puppets.
It will be Harold’s awareness that will allow him to transcend his status as a controllable avatar, transforming him into a character as complex as he is fascinating. The supporting cast stands out for its more than good characterization, and perhaps this is precisely one of the reasons why Harold Halibut never bored us: the crew members they always have something interesting to tell and the interactions with the latter never seem forced, confirming the painstaking writing work carried out by Slow Bros.
A feast for the eyes
Harold Halibut isn’t the first game to mimic the stop motion technique, but it is certainly one of the most successful: the characters and scenarios were first made by hand, then scanned with a technique called photogrammetry and then digitized.
This allowed Slow Bros. to obtain extremely detailed textures, then going to work on the modeling of the protagonists and the backdrops. The work carried out by the German studio is commendable, and who knows, it may inspire alternative production models to the classic ones in the future.
The audio sector also shines: the songs specifically created for the game stand out for the originality of the sounds and have no difficulty in being remembered, while the licensed ones they are always used at the right time, and we don’t hide that some sound choices particularly surprised us. The quality of the dubbing is excellent and the over-the-top acting adds character to a cast that already stands out for its psychological and aesthetic representation.
In this regard, we would like to point out that Harold Halibut does not have an adaptation in Italian, and that the English texts could cause difficulties for those who know the language less (fortunately, the Italian translation, according to what the team reported, is currently in processing). As for PC optimization, we have nothing special to report: we played at a fixed 60fps in 1080p at high details with a 3060 Ti. We recommend, however, that try locking the frame rate to 30so as to have the illusion of actually watching a stop motion sequence.
Tags: goodness special games exist
