Harold Halibut has taken his time to arrive, he was announced at E3 2021 and development has taken more than ten years in total, but at last the game will launch on April 16th 2024 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X. It will also be part of Xbox and PC Game Pass and the same day.
In case you had forgotten about the title, it’s a stop-motion-like narrative adventure with more than a touch of Wes Anderson. Harold Halibut jumps hundreds of years into the future, where Halibut lives on an ark-like spaceship that was meant to find a habitable planet, but instead ends up sunk in an alien ocean. Where the ship’s denizens are resigned to their life here, Harold and his boss, the ship’s lead scientist Jeanne Mareaux, are working to leave the planet and find a dryer home. Harold finds himself plunged into a whole new world that holds the key to the ship’s future.
“Having a release date is incredible and surreal to us! It represents the end of an era: The marathon of bringing this dream of ours to light. Now we can’t wait to see how it stirs players, what it makes them feel, reminds them of in their lives and maybe inspires them to do. Everyone finally gets to puppeteer Harold through this miniature world that shows our literal fingerprints which we built for them,” say developers Slow Bros., who certainly live up to their name.
Here are those key features!
- Unique stop-Motion look through 3D scanned physical models. Yes, everything you see in the game is created in the real world using classic sculpting and modelmaking techniques
- Full Voice Acting: All of the Fedoras’ wonderful inhabitants come to life with full English voiceover, elevating the game’s narrative to cinematic proportions.
- An expansive Character Ensemble: Meet a variety of unique characters and get to know their personalities, quirks and stories through meaningful conversations.
- A riveting cinematic storyline: Journey through a captivating narrative, underscored by a carefully orchestrated script that blends drama, humor, and suspense.
The game will take around 12 hours to complete, but completionists who want to explore every nook and cranny of the submarine and talk to all it’s inhabitants will find that time extended to up to 18 hours.
Source: YouTube / Press release