Henry Halfhead was provided by popagenda for review. Thank you!
I love some good ol' sandbox games, and I could tell I would be in for a good one with Henry Halfhead. I only saw a little bit of a trailer for the game, but I could tell it would be something I could find myself enjoying. I love physics-based games, and it looked like the perfect match for me. However, what I found transcended that. It's a short game, a very short game, but the impact of the story revolving around our titular protagonist resonated with me in a way I would not have expected, making this a worthwhile experience.
In Henry Halfhead, you play as...well, Henry, a half-headed man that we watch grow up and live his life. We will start as a baby and work our way up through old age, seeing as he experiences the world. It's an extremely short story, and I finished the game in about two hours, but the tale was deep and meaningful. It mirrors what a majority of people may feel today, with the push to conform to societal expectations and be "normal." Henry is faced with this as a child, and grows up accordingly, but watching him regain the curiosity and excitement in his life was so sweet to behold.
It feels very familiar to what we have seen a lot. People put aside their passions and hobbies because they need to confirm and be accepted by society for financial, social, and relationship goals. In the end, we have a comfortable life, but not a fulfilling or happy one. So, watching Henry break from the norm to regain his childlike curiosity and creativity hit home. Before creating SteamDeckHQ, I was managing movie theatres and pharmacies, making ends meet to just be able to afford rent and food, but I got lucky and worked hard to break free and create a business where I am working with what I am most passionate about. Being able to work with what I truly love was so liberating, so seeing Henry's life be injected with bright colors and optimism brought back the memories of how I felt when I made the decision to go full-time here.
I also enjoyed the narrator. The way he spoke with such elegance, coupled with his humorous nature that acts as both someone looking outwards at Henry and as his inner voice, helped make this experience a memorable one.
It was enjoyable to experience his life using the unique power granted to him by being only half a head. As I mentioned, the game goes through different stages of Henry's life, during which we will be taking over and controlling objects to fulfill objectives. This can range from using a pen to draw everywhere and flying ourselves around as a paper airplane, to becoming a battery that can be slotted into a game console. Each objective feels unique as well, going from having to cook and make our own food to sorting packages at our dead-end job.
On top of just doing the objectives, there are other objects to interact with and use together. It feels like a sandbox, being able to select whatever objects you want to and use them as you wish. Want to become a seed and grow it? Want to use a conveyor belt to move packages around? Want to cut up some bread, put it in a toaster, and make toast? You can! The game has a good chunk of around 300 objects to interact with, hats to wear, and even little puzzles to complete.
There's a good chunk of puzzles to find and objects to take control of, but outside of those, it's mostly finding little ways for the world to interact with each other. We can move things around, stack them to get the highest possible tower, but there isn't much to do outside of that. I would look at this as a quality 2 hours filled with enjoyable sandbox gameplay, ridiculous narration to enjoy, and a deeply felt story. It definitely would have been nice to have more to do. I basically finished the game in one sitting, but I was so moved by the story that I still felt fulfilled in the end.
The only main issue I have with actual gameplay is jumping. Jumping was difficult to calculate, with some of the camera angles and jump heights just making it feel off. Paired with the objects being physics-based and movable, I regularly found myself having to adjust and readjust chairs to get up onto tables after consistently pushing them away. It wasn't completely debilitating, but it was frustrating if I needed to get a specific item, like a knife, up onto a table to cut into a cake.
Henry Halfhead is a great game to play on the Steam Deck, though it does require a compromise. The game has some trouble running at 90 FPS, with high battery drain and some drops when there are a lot of objects on the screen. To fix this, just bring down the framerate to 60 FPS limit, and it will help on all fronts. In general, it will bring battery drain down from an average of 15W to 10.5W, giving us an extra hour or more of battery life, but it will be completely stable.
There isn't much more to say about Henry Halfhead. It just works well, runs like a charm, and feels great to play on the go.
There are options to change language, camera speed, subtitles, inverted controls, automatic camera recentering, and audio sliders, but that's it.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and controllers. There are no HDR settings.
Henry Halfhead is a simple yet enjoyable sandbox game that has a short but impactful story. Watching Henry grow up and out of his monotonous life into the glorious one that he used to love as a child hit home with me, and I love the physics-based sandbox gameplay. It can be a little difficult to control from time to time, and I do wish there were a bit more to the game, like optional in-game objectives, since it is only around 2 hours long to complete, but it doesn't change how enjoyable the experience was.
There are almost no issues playing the game on the Steam Deck. I do recommend a 60 FPS lock due to some instability and higher battery drain, but it's very playable otherwise. It will be a perfect game to enjoy on the go.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
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Henry Halfhead is a great, albeit short, sandbox game with a meaningful story that moved me, and it runs wonderfully on the Steam Deck.
