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Back at Summer Game Fest 2023, I tried to get my hands on basically every possible game I could at the event. This meant plenty of smaller titles, and many have come and gone since then, but few have occupied the same amount of headspace in the years since as Henry Halfhead, a sandbox puzzle game from developer Lululu Entertainment about the life of half a head named Henry that can possess objects.
Yes, you heard that correctly; Henry Halfhead's protagonist is Henry, and he's half a head. Mechanically, this means he can't really… interact with much. He can hop on top of things or bump into them, but that's the extent of it. But with the push of a button, Henry can inhabit objects ranging from bushes to pots to batteries to paper – and these all have their own sort of rules.
For example, if you inhabit a tube of paint, you can shoot bits of paint out of it until it's squeezed empty. You can then jump out of the paint tube and inhabit the little squirts of paint itself to roll around and color. You can also, instead, choose to eat the nubs of paint. Or paint and then eat. There is also actual food like tomatoes and pasta and apples to be eaten, but Henry Halfhead isn't in the business of telling you what you can't do.
Critical path
Not to say there isn't some direction. The overall brief narrative – about two or three hours worth of it – follows Henry's life from the time he's a baby all the way to the end. There are certain tasks required to move on like tearing a page from a calendar or walking home or similar, but everything between is up to you, the player.
And that's where Henry Halfhead really shines. It's a bit reminiscent of the initial feeling that Scribblenauts gave me all those years ago, with constant experimentation leading to delightful surprises. When I eat an apple and a seed pops out, can I plant that seed? What happens if I water it? If I plug in the toaster and jump into a sink full of water, what happens? (You can guess what happens.)
In fact, this playful creativity is absolutely supported by the game's narrative despite the task-oriented nature. I won't spoil exactly what happens here given how brief the story is overall, but just know that the delightful absurdity of its premise – half a head possessing various inanimate objects – while still trying to live a life is a core struggle that resolves in a satisfying way.
Joy to create
At its best, Henry Halfhead is a series of scenarios beginning with "Can I do that?" and then doing that. Most of the narrative scenarios are fairly straightforward and simplistic, but a couple of them right in the middle absolutely cut loose and let you really play with a number of different objects in different ways for a lengthy period of time. I don't want to talk about how long I tried (and failed) to make spaghetti in a toilet, but it does seem worth mentioning that I did try.
And this was all while playing on my own. Henry Halfhead also features local co-op, letting two players cause twice as much chaos or solve puzzles twice as fast. Or both! More than once, it occurred to me that having a second half a head zooming about might add up to a single full head and make everything a bit more convenient. Maybe I'd have even sorted out my toilet spaghetti; a man can dream.
Henry Halfhead is out now on PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. To see what other indie gems we've been enjoying lately, be sure to check out our Indie Spotlight series.
