Dungeons of Hinterberg Review

I’ll be honest; when I first saw the trailer for Dungeons of Hinterberg I was not sold, at all. I usually like to try a variety of things out, but it just didn’t spark my interest for reasons I can’t really put my finger on. But, in the interest of keeping an open mind I decided to tackle reviewing it, and, well, I have had my expectations far exceeded, and then some. 

It’s been an absolute blast playing Dungeons of Hinterberg these past few weeks, so much so I didn’t really want to do much else at all (real life be damned). I very much enjoyed the cleverly designed dungeons, and the gradual improvement of combat abilities were nicely paced – even if I’m still not 100% sold on the base combat. It’s not perfect, but considering the aforementioned apathy I felt towards it, that I’ve been won over so much should hopefully indicate just how highly this recommendation comes.

Let’s get into it then. We play as Luisa, a recent law graduate from Vienna who is experiencing a sudden realisation that perhaps she’s not cut out for the mundanity of 9-5 and arguing in courts. Turns out, there’s just the potential break from it all in the small Austrian town of Hinterberg – real magic has appeared here, bringing with it 25 dungeons that offer up all manner of creatures to fight and skills to be learnt. Over the years, this has become a huge tourist spot, with people looking for a different sort of holiday booking stays (or slaycations) to attempt the dungeons and experience the allure of magic. There’s certainly a relatable element to the premise, albeit a bit more fantastical than the traditional year of travelling a recent university graduate might embark upon. 

There are three main components to Dungeons of Hinterberg; slaying and puzzle solving in dungeons, mingling with other slayers, and building your stats across a variety of meters. 

Each afternoon, we have the option to hang out with one person once all of our shopping is done. This comes with benefits in skills and upgrades, but means we’ll have to miss out temporarily on others

By far my favourite aspect of the game were the dungeons themselves. Each are graded on a difficulty from 1-9, and while we can tackle them in any order we also need to consider our own levels of attack and defence when approaching one. No matter the challenge, each feels unique, utilising some fun puzzle mechanics in between the combat scenarios. 

There are four main areas to Hinterberg, and within each resides a portion of the dungeons. When we first enter an area, we must gather that place’s specific set of powers. For example, the opening Doberkogel area grants us a ball and chain that can attack as well as drag objects towards us, as well as a giant metal ball, perfect for weighing down switches or – with another press of the button – exploding in enemies faces. My personal favourite was the final area, Brunnelsumpf, as the gelatin cube was great for trapping enemies while also using our other power of electricity to attack them. 

All of the dungeons in an area are based around the two powers granted, and they can only be used here as well. Initially I was a bit disappointed I couldn’t take them from zone to zone, but having completed all the dungeons now it’s clear that this was a smart choice. It limits the dungeons becoming too complex, but also means we don’t need to constantly worry about switching out powers. Microbird still makes varied and excellent use of the powers with the areas, and it wasn’t too tricky to go back and forth between areas as a result.

We also get powers, called Attack Conduits, that can come with us. These are equippable items that can be swapped out at any time outside of combat, and range from giving us an explosive leaping attack, to a hail of meteors, flame breath, or the super powerful explosive, homing butterflies. These are governed by a cooldown, but this can be buffed with certain other abilities and stats. 

Fights range from a few small foes to pretty boss battles – and once we get some decent powers the feel of them improves greatly

Outside of these, the basic melee combat is fine, feeling like a pretty standard action game for the most part. Heavy and light attacks are all we get, though bolstered by the aforementioned powers that’s all we need really. Heavy attacks recharge our magic power, and both recharge our conduits a bit faster too. Early on, without the better abilities, the combat can feel underwhelming. But, a few dungeons in, we started to gain more Conduits and Charms (passive buffs that are equipped in a limited 12 space pool, each taking up various amounts of slots) and the fighting improves immensely. Even by the end of the game, I still found myself tinkering with new set-ups and conduits. 

Dungeons of Hinterberg flow is broken up into days, each broken into four parts; morning, noon, evening, and night. Noon is prime dungeon time, where we can explore one of the four areas and either tackle a new dungeon or simply explore the zone and find one of the relaxation spots. These increase a particular stat but mean we can’t then go into a dungeon on this day. 

The Evening is where the social side of things comes into play. Luisa, and us by extension, gets to meet around 16 other main people in Hinterberg, all with their own reasons for being here, from simply looking to better themselves to hoping to secure more social media followers, or escape their seemingly pre-planned destiny to follow in their parents footsteps. 

This social aspect is a big part of Dungeons of Hinterberg, with each of these characters not only offering advice and someone to chat with, but they also act as a skill tree of sorts. Much like the Noon, we can only partake in one activity here, so we need to choose who we spend time with wisely. We can ignore them all and go for a spa or to the cinema, but not once did I do this – I didn’t want to miss out on hearing their stories and, more cynically, working towards their perks that are on offer. 

These revolve around spending time with one person, as well as four social stats; renown, amusement, familiarity and relaxation. Some people won’t even entertain us unless we have a set level of one or another, and increasing them means potentially missing out on other avenues, at least temporarily. Dungeons of Hinterberg is a pretty chill game in terms of restrictions, so not hanging out with, for example, Hannah one night doesn’t mean we miss out. We can just find her tomorrow, or indeed whenever we’re ready and she’ll be there waiting. It’s more about what order we want to go in really, and how many in game days we’re happy to put something off.

Much like Dungeons of Hinterberg in general, I wasn’t sold on this idea at first. It felt a bit too restrictive in the early going, with the need to level up the social stats feeling like a bigger ask than it was worth. And that we can only do one thing a day meant it felt slow to actually get into the swing of things. However, as the days rolled on, I grew more appreciative of the idea behind it. Rather than just dolling out 10XP and having to increase a number for damage, Microbird have made it a more thoughtful, and personable, action to take. Sure, eventually I had to talk to some people I wasn’t all that keen on just to get some stats, but that made hanging out with Jae, Gertrude or Marina all the more pleasant. 

This opening boss is simple but offers a good insight into how each areas powers are uniquely used

The character interactions in general were all nicely handled, each offering up their own take on Hinterburg and the use of magic. While there’s nothing here that will necessarily last in the mind now the credits have rolled, I enjoyed the tale while it lasted. 

We can also use the evening to buy, sell, and upgrade items before we choose to hang out with someone. Initially everything is rather pricey, but by the end of the game I had well over 150,000 Hinterbucks left with not much useful to spend it on. There are a lot of things to collect and sell, be it monster parts, trash, old loot, charms, conduits… all of this adds up to meaning we’re never really short of cash, and again, it’s more about what order we want to do things than having to sacrifice one upgrade over another.

Morning and Night are simplest, being either just an opening cutscene (and eventually a way to slightly buff ourselves for the Noon ahead), or a way to buff a social stat at the cost of a few chunks of health the following day. 

I realise that’s a lot to take in, but in the act of playing Dungeons of Hinterberg it all feels pretty easy going and simple enough to follow. Again, early days can feel a bit of a slog, but once I got into the mindset of the gradual unlocks it became an experience I didn’t really want to put down. Each new dungeon elicited a genuine sense of excitement to see what was inside, and each new day a plan of action that far more often than I’d intended involved not actually playing a dungeon, instead using a relaxation spot or getting back to the evening to hang out with someone.

Conclusion

Dungeons of Hinterberg proves that it’s always good to step outside of your comfort zone; it went from being not on my radar at all to winning me over almost completely. With brilliantly crafted dungeons, a surprisingly effective social-upgrade mechanic, and some genuinely fun powers to use, there’s a lot to like here once you get past the slower opening sections.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.

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Good
  • Brilliantly varied dungeons
  • Effective social upgrades and skills
  • Charming and chill atmosphere
Bad
  • Opening few days are slower than we'd like
  • Basic combat iis not all that inspiring until we get some decent powers
9.1
Excellent
Written by
I've been gaming since Spy vs Spy on the Master System, growing up as a Sega kid before realising the joy of multi-platform gaming. These days I can mostly be found on smaller indie titles, the occasional big RPG and doing poorly at Rainbow Six: Siege. Gamertag: Enaksan

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