The album was praised by critics for the incorporation of new elements such as clean vocals on the part of Paolo and Tim Goergen (both a first for Within the Ruins) in addition to screaming/death growls.

[4][5] It is the final album featuring long-time vocalist Tim Goergen, who would leave the band in February 2018 citing ongoing health issues.

Within the Ruins noted that they would then be returning to Zing studios in Westfield, Massachusetts to engineer vocals with Jim Fogarty, who had worked with renowned metal acts such as Killswitch Engage and The Devil Wears Prada.

"[13]On December 3, to promote Halfway Human, it was announced that Within the Ruins would join Born of Osiris in support on their "The New Reign Tour" along with Volumes, Oceans Ate Alaska, and Fire from the Gods.

[14] On January 11, 2017, exclusively through popular blog Metal Injection, Within the Ruins released a music video to accompany the album's second promotional single, "Beautiful Agony".

"[15]Starting on February 2, the band released three "making of" videos via their YouTube channel to share with fans the experience of recording Halfway Human from Zing studio.

The videos chronicled the band's consumption of vast quantities of Miller Lite beer, and (new to Within the Ruins' established sound) the engineering of new bassist Paolo Galang's clean vocals, which were met with anticipation and praise by commenters.

Sputnikmusic reviewer Sebastian gave the album 4.5/5 starts, praising Galang's cleans and the introduction of guitar solos while maintaining Within the Ruins' signature "guitar-wankery".

Having spent years mastering their craft, they have released what may be their best yet, with more explosive guitar layers, powerful vocals, and an ever-present spine of drums and bass.

Ulrey gave the album a 7.5/10 praising Cocchi's guitar work and McGuill's drumming, and even drawing parallels to the sound of bands like Gojira, Fear Factory, and Cynic on "Ivory Tower" and "Objective Reality" respectively.

The songs that deviate the most from their tried-and-true format are the ones that work the least, yet the ones that update their tech-melodic deathcore style with clean choruses – otherwise declining to get too fancy – see the band pulling things off nicely.