It is not every day that you see an indie game creating buzz around the gaming community. Dungeons of Hinterberg from Austrian developer Microbird is one such title. Its demo release during the Steam Next Fest caught a lot of eyes and reminded many of Zelda-like adventures. I was also excited to try out the game after watching its trailer and finally got to try it ahead of the release. Dungeons of Hinterberg is an action RPG game mixed with […]
It is not every day that you see an indie game creating buzz around the gaming community. Dungeons of Hinterberg from Austrian developer Microbird is one such title. Its demo release during the Steam Next Fest caught a lot of eyes and reminded many of Zelda-like adventures. I was also excited to try out the game after watching its trailer and finally got to try it ahead of the release.
Dungeons of Hinterberg is an action RPG game mixed with social sim aspects. The game puts you in the shoes of a law student and sends you on a magical vacation (literally) in an Austrian village. Your goal is to explore the village, make new friends, visit dungeons, solve puzzles, and kill monsters — sounds intriguing, right? Let’s find out if it is so only on paper or also when you take your valuable time out to play the game.Dungeons of Hinterberg Review: Story
Dungeons of Hinterberg features Luisa, a young law student as the main protagonist. She is bored with her mundane daily life and arrives in Hinterberg, an alpine Austrian village for a vacation. The village has become a centre of attraction since the appearance of 25 magical dungeons. It is why you will find all sorts of people flocking to the village, including tourists, adventurers, slayers, and social media influencers.
Luisa is in Hinterberg to explore the village and the aforementioned magical dungeons featuring various monsters. She hopes to get a break from her routine life and find a new version of herself by the end of the vacation. While the shift from normal life to that of dungeon explorer and monster slayer is a bit odd for her initially, she gets the hang of it after spending a few days.Dungeons of Hinterberg Review: Gameplay
The first thing you will notice right away after booting Dungeons of Hinterberg is its comic art style, similar to Bethesda’s Hi-Fi Rush. I love this art style in video games as it offers something different and pleasing to look at apart from the usual 3D rendering.
Character designs are good but the team could have done a slightly better job with the faces. I found some of them weird to look at as they gave me unsettling vibes, especially the guest house owner Theresa and the dog. I would prefer them to look a bit normal like other characters in the game.
The game does not have voiceovers. It uses text bubbles to show Luisa’s thoughts and communication with other characters. This goes with the comic art style theme of the game. There is a bubbling sound that you hear as dialogue appears on screen. It’s something you are likely to enjoy in the beginning but becomes annoying with time. I have the same feelings about the game’s background music. I played most of the game with the sound turned off but you may feel differently about it.
Dungeons of Hinterberg is a mix of action RPG and social simulation. The good thing is the team has given sufficient attention to both aspects. It does not feel like they are there just for the sake of it, especially the social sim part. The game gives equal weightage to exploring/completing dungeons and connecting with locals and other people in Hinterberg.
As Luisa is on vacation, the game progresses in the form of in-game days like Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and so on. Each day is divided into four parts:
Morning: Plan where you want to visit and what you want to do for the day.
