Henry Halfhead

Henry Halfhead is a game about how society’s attempts to grind you into the perfect student and worker erode away your sense of self and smother any joy in life. It’s also a game where you can turn into a whoopee cushion, make fart noises or drink paint. Both of these aspects help build upon the game’s themes of finding happiness and fulfilment in the little things, and it does a fantastic job at pulling the player into this mindset.

You play as Henry, a gender-neutral half-a-head with a handful of skin colour options, who is able to possess everyday objects and play with each one’s abilities to solve puzzles or to just have fun! I enjoyed how you can make your own flavour of Henry while still keeping them as their own consistently written character. This game has an adorable style, giving every object that Henry controls their big ol’ eyes, round ears, and lengthy nose. The music is extremely catchy, with my favourite song having actual lyrics that exemplify the love and care that went into creating this game and perfecting its atmosphere. The core gameplay is the simple but very engaging mechanic of possession. It gives you all the freedom you’d expect from a sandbox game, with a fun twist that introduces the themes accordingly.

As you move through the game, you live through Henry’s days. As a baby and toddler, Henry causes all sorts of mischief, like banging on a toy xylophone when they’re supposed to be sleeping and eating their birthday cake the night before their actual party. The game gives you freedom to create as much chaos as you want, and I know I’m not supposed to be allowed to set off my birthday fireworks at 2 am, but I can if I feel like it! You don’t get punished; you just get put back to bed, and then you can just hop right out and continue with whatever you were up to.

So naturally, as you continue through Henry’s adolescence, you’ll enjoy all the new toys the game gives you, which introduce new mechanics for you to master. There’s so much new stuff to play with, and you’ll want to explore what every new item can do. You probably wouldn’t make such a mess in real life, but you already follow the rules in your day-to-day; why should you in a video game? Well, it’s your game, but it’s Henry’s life. And that becomes clear as the narrative continues. 

Henry is contrasted to those around them; the game is straight up asking, ‘Why can’t you just behave like everybody else?’ On the surface, the game seems to be punishing you for your creativity and exploration, but in a more layered sense, the game is reflecting on how a lot of young kids get a pass on rambunctious behaviour that older kids don’t, especially in ’typical’ school environments. The echoes of this follow Henry into their adult life. 

As you play through Henry’s adulthood, it’s one that may seem very familiar: a dull and tedious routine of ‘what you have to do’ and ‘what a successful life looks like’, a life that has nothing to do with the personality, passions, and ambitions of youth. The cost of ‘behaving like everybody else’ has eroded away Henry’s sense of self that once made life feel… well, like a game!

At a certain point in the game, Henry’s routine is briefly interrupted. It’s hardly noticeable but forces the modern mindset of productivity and always being ‘on’ to slow down. The game invites both Henry and the player to welcome a shift in perspective, posing the question: What makes life liveable? Stopping to smell the roses is seen as a pointless diversion, a waste of time. Henry Halfhead not only says that this is important, but that this is exactly what life is about.

Another element that I really love about this game is the fact that there’s no romance whatsoever. Its absence is not commented on or affects anything in Henry’s life. The closest thing you’d get to romance is the fact that Henry has two parents that are together. It’s exceedingly rare and wonderful to see a game where you live through someone’s life, see them struggle, hurt and flourish, and become content, on their own, with a complete absence of pressure to form romantic attachment. 

On a more technical note: the game recommends playing with a controller. I tried both controller and keyboard/mouse, which both felt really responsive and smooth. My only gripe with the controls is that sometimes when objects are higher up, you have to really manipulate the camera while doing some vertical platforming to get to those items that are available to you. I also fiddled around a bit with the local co-op; I could play on keyboard/mouse and have a friend play with a plugged-in PS4 controller in classic split-screen style. I didn’t actually have anyone with me to play with, so I mostly wiggled the camera around, but it looked like it would be a blast!