Claymation-me-do Harold Halibut is one of those puzzle-y adventure games that instantly catches your eye when you see it in screenshots and trailers. I mean, who wouldn't be intrigued by its beautiful handmade models and sets? They all have such a lovely texture to them, and the slightly ramshackle way they fit together gives the game a firm sense of place. But after playing an early preview build of Harold Halibut this week, I've been disappointed by just how frustrating it is to actually play. It's not that it's difficult. In fact, the tasks Harold's assigned in the opening few hours of the game are almost insultingly easy, extending to little more than 'feed the fish' and 'talk to so and so', all of which can usually be accomplished by interacting with a single button prompt to move the story along.
Rather, it's Harold himself that makes everything feel like such a chore. He's a bit of a dolt, you see, and everyone around him knows it, treating him with such weary and open disdain like he's some kind of village idiot that I, too, quickly came to dislike him. Harold doesn't help himself much either on this front, weathering everyone's underlying frustration with him like it's all water off a duck's back. It doesn't seem to faze him in the slightest, perhaps because he's too oblivious to even notice. But while this doziness might wash in a book or TV show, taking control of such a character in a game isn't nearly as pleasant. After all, it's not just Harold that's being treated like an ignoramus. By extension, you, the player, are as well, which isn't just immersion-breaking and frustrating, but it's also insulting to your own intelligence. And that, my friends, does not equal happy adventure game fun times.
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