Dungeons of Hinterberg

The story idea is so much fun. The art style is very unique but also immersive. The characters are quirky and I loved to learn more about them. There are so many game mechanics to discover and always something new. I loved a lot of the little details and had a lot of fun playing the game.

Dungeons, friends, vacation. Magnificent.

Really enjoyed this game. The premise is simple, you're taking a vacation from your normal life to go to slay creatures in dungeons. As the game goes on the dungeons get harder, you level your skills and you make new friends. The story also deepens. I enjoyed the story and atmosphere of this game and because it is somewhat episodic (each day has a morning, afternoon, evening and night) it means that you can play it a bit like a casual game by stopping after completing each day or each dungeon. The fighting did get a little repetitive towards the end, with some of the larger enemies requiring you to find their weaknesses which were not too difficult. I also found myself generally sticking with the same powers (in this game, attack conduits) to win fights so it could have been improved by forcing me to vary tactics. However, on the whole I enjoyed it a lot.

SCORE: ★★★★ THE BREAKDOWN +Charming and creative setting that the game takes full advantage of +A large cast of endearing and memorable characters, including the protagonist +A well-balanced blend of puzzle-solving and combat that stays fresh +Simplistic but enjoyable combat -The graphics can be inconsistent, with the heavy linework sometimes clashing with the pastel color palette -Combat can err on the side of overly simplistic, especially later in the game -Controls and optimization feel a little shy of polished I'm not really the cynical gamer type. While I fully acknowledge that the industry is in a rough place right now (with particular sympathy to the developers affected by job insecurity), I play so many great games each year that it's hard to not be impressed by the creativity and ingenuity of the talent behind them. That said, for those who are feeling a little low about the hobby these days, I'd immediately prescribe an extra-strength dose of Dungeons of Hinterberg to cure what ails them. The debut title of Austrian studio Microbird Games, Dungeons of Hinterberg is packed full of so much sincerity and love for what it means to be a video game that it's hard to not be swept up in its enthusiasm despite some occasional hiccups. Even the premise is immediately charming. Burnt out from working as a new lawyer, protagonist Luisa sets out on vacation to Hinterberg, a small Austrian village with a remarkable story: a few years back - only in this area and a few others scattered in equally remote places around the world - magic suddenly became real. Dungeons of varying difficulty opened up all over the mountain, and adventurers who set out to conquer them can gain temporary powers that allow them to tackle their challenges. Hinterberg, under its hawkish and opportunistic mayor, has immediately leaned into the presence of these dungeons to become a hotspot tourist attraction for adventurers, with a new culture forming from novices chatting about strategy over coffee to celebrity adventurers promoting their own brands of weapons and armor. Intrigued by the prospect of putting aside her law books and picking up a sword, Luisa dives right into danger, and she's one of my favorite protagonists in recent memory. Much of her inner conflict about what she's doing with her life and her sense of self-worth being tied to her work feels pretty deeply millennial-coded (though I'm sure others will relate), and I never stopped being impressed with how interesting her journey was. The narrative doesn't shock with layers of twists and turns - Luisa is quickly revealed to be an unusually talented dungeon delver, something starts going wrong with the magic, and you can probably guess how much of it goes from there - but it's well-told with an emphasis on the many charming characters. Just hacking their way through dungeons won't get the player very far; Luisa's a social person, and the game is built around an almost Persona-like link system. Each day, on top of choosing to either rest for a stat boost or take on one of Hinterberg's dungeons, Luisa also has the chance to interact with the game's twenty-odd major characters, who each have their own reputation system, friendship perks, and often quests. Helping the local blacksmith negotiate with the massive chain store encroaching on her market might unlock new moves for Luisa's sword, while indulging a famous warrior's surprisingly nerdy interests can result in a huge boost to attack power based on her amusement stat from relaxing around town. It's a fun system that encourages getting invested in the town and its inhabitants, which in turn gives the narrative more weight. Still, as fun as it is to explore the idyllic town, the primary meat of the game is the eponymous dungeons, and I'm happy to say that they're by and large a great time. By setting out into Hinterberg's surroundings, Luisa has to discover each of the entrances herself across four distinct biomes, though due to the fact they're the heart of the town's tourism, there's plenty of signage that at least points her in the right direction. This, combined with their rising difficulty being diegetically explained as the source of magic itself enjoying challenging newcomers, makes it easy to approach them with Luisa's eyes; it's most practical to knock them off the list in ascending order, but there's nothing stopping her from skipping a few ahead as long as she's got the required gear. Before entering each region's dungeons, she has to collect that zone's special powers - two each, with one focused on traversal and the other dealing with local obstacles. Their primary use, however, is in puzzle-solving. Once inside the dungeons, the game shifts to a distinctly Zelda-inspired affair, and the region-specific powers are a large part of what makes Dungeons of Hinterberg such a brilliant experience. In between generally well-balanced combat encounters, Luisa has to use basic platforming and the two abilities she's currently got to solve puzzles and make it to the end of each dungeon, earning her progress stamp. For example, in the icy Kolmstein - my personal favorite region - her skills are Hover, which summons a hoverboard, and Light Ray, which allows her to fire a channeled laser. As a result, all of Kolmstein's dungeons are generally built around snowboarding around clearing ramps, blasting targets at high speed, and refracting her beam to form specific shapes. This emphasis on just two powers at a time keeps the game's complexity pretty low, so those who are craving a nail-biting puzzle experience might be disappointed, but I found it fantastic - if I got bored of snowboarding and laser beams (how could I?) I could travel instead to Brünnelsumpf, where I had to use a jelly cube and a plasma orb to approach more thoughtfully paced challenges, or clean up a few missed dungeons in Hinterwald, where carrying myself around in a whirlwind and flinging bursts of air tested my accuracy and timing. That said, as much of a riot as Dungeons of Hinterberg is, it's definitely not perfect. The art style has some charming elements, but I'm not entirely sure it translates well into the videogame medium; while character models were usually okay (if a bit simplistic), I struggled with the design of some environments, where the hard, bold lines clashed aggressively with the low-poly, but extremely colorful pastels. Sometimes seeming painterly, sometimes more cel-shaded, the game swaps between gorgeous and frankly kind of painful to look at. I also didn't feel particularly enamored with the boss fights; while they're mostly fine, the combat system isn't really built for them, and they generally just felt like an overly extended standard battle without much excitement. Finally, I had some technical hiccups; while I didn't experience any major crashes or the like, optimization in particular felt a little rough, with my framerate struggling at times a bit more than it felt like a game that looked like this should on a GTX 4070. These issues are all minor in the face of just how fun and joyous the game ultimately is, though. Charmingly written and cheerfully adventurous, packed to the brim with amusing encounters and intriguing local mystery, Dungeons of Hinterberg wears its influences from Zelda, Persona, and more proudly on its sleeve, but the thing that impresses me most? With shocking aplomb for the first release from a new game studio, it stands perfectly well even compared to those genre giants.

Quel jeu incroyable !

the puzzle parts are confusing sometimes, those make my brain work, it's good

What if you make 25 better dungeons than most modern Zelda games can

El escapismo que talvez todos necesitamos, en verdad se siente como unas vacaciones, conocer gente nueva y lugares increíbles Gran variedad de entornos y el cambio de habilidades por zonas hace que no se sienta como lo mismo todo el tiempo, algunos dungeons con mecánicas muy especificas que le dan una refrescada al juego Una sensación de libertad al poder hacer todos los dungeons seguidos o el poder quedarte todo el tiempo que gustes solo disfrutando los paisajes y socializando *4k nativo a 120hz con mi equipo

das spiel ist klobig und der hauptpart ist nicht das kämpfen. es ist eigentlich ein rätselspiel und abends verbringt man zeit mit den dorfbewohnern, wobei auf gesellschaftliche probleme wie umweltschutz, selbstzweifel etc. behandelt werden es ist kein aaa titel, jedoch, wenn man das genre mag ist man hier genau richtig.