Dungeons of Hinterberg Review - Airbrushed Brochure

Let me preface this review by stating that it was a weird experience. It’s been a while since I’ve been a spectator of so many peaks, valleys, troughs to trawl through, and clarity to connect the dots. If anything, I’ve left the Dungeons of Hinterberg a changed individual, and whether that’s a good thing? Well, I guess we’ll see.

This is the debut title from Austrian-based developers Microbird, who’ve made Dungeons of Hinterberg as a love letter to their country of origin. You play as Luisa, a trainee for a law firm who is taking a hard-earned break to Hinterberg, based in the Austrian Alps. Not only is she using it as a chance to decompress, but to also master the new-found dungeons and magic that have cropped up in the area.

The game runs on a day-by-day basis. In the morning, you’ll get up, figure out where to go, and then decide whether it’s a day of dungeoneering, slaying beasts and looting up, or relaxing and taking in the sights. Both options have their benefits – the former more so than the latter – but once the evening clocks in, it’s time for a bit of shopping, socializing, and sleeping.

I will say that my first impressions weren’t great. When combat is introduced, you’ll quickly find how shallow it becomes, even in the later stages. You’re relegated to a light attack/heavy attack button layout, with a dodge roll and a rather meager stamina system added for good measure. There isn’t a combo system attached, so you’re largely just smacking your chosen attack until everything drops.

Dungeons of Hinterberg does try to make combat a bit more exciting and involving, in the form of “conduits”; massively powerful attacks that tend to devastate groups of enemies too easily. The game does know this and tries to limit how frequently you can use these conduits, but some might say not nearly enough, as energy for it drops all the time in battle.

Thankfully, the enemy variety is there, but visual design is not. All of the enemy designs are a murky brown with silver streaks running through them, and it makes readability a nightmare since a lot of enemy strategy boils down to clumping up together. Thankfully, there are the occasional bosses that break up the monotonous flow with some genuinely good combat design that makes the best out of Hinterberg’s gimmicks.

Of the 4 hub areas you’ll be looking for dungeons in, each one has a “skill shrine”. These offer you two magic spells exclusive to the area – one special attack, and a ranged attack – which not only can be used in combat but also in environmental puzzles Hinterberg offers inside and outside of the titular dungeons. This is where the game shows its hand a bit further.

They’re not complete brainbusters, but they’re a welcome break from just how dull Hinterberg’s combat can be, even in numbers. What does suck is that when I say the magic spells are exclusive to their specific hub areas, I mean it. The magical floating snowboard can only be used on the wintery peaks of Kolmstein, as the rest of the world cannot account for its special abilities.

Regardless, it makes for a better break than the rest of what the game has to offer, as the structure is largely obfuscated by its ludicrously fast pacing. The closest comparison one could make is with the eerily similar Boyfriend Dungeon, where the holiday appears to be on a time limit. Hinterberg offers several places where it treats the world as an actual spectacle, rightfully so but with rewards that are pitiful in comparison to what you can simply find and buy elsewhere.

There are also a lot of NPCs who are just downright unlikable. If you run into anybody who isn’t a local, they’re written with such a smug air of cynicism, that even the promise of a helpful character upgrade isn’t enough to spend a night with them. If you want to use the game's photo mode, you’ll have to spend a minimum of one night with a depressing and arrogant journalist who refuses to engage in even the smallest amount of whimsy, and that's before things turn sour.

Spend time with the locals however, and you’ll see Dungeons of Hinterberg switch from a middling dungeon crawler to an interesting and arresting commentary on privilege. I’m not even kidding, when you hear from the locals, the perspective changes, and suddenly it’s no longer a cutesy dungeon crawler with a charming cel-shaded aesthetic, but Pokémon by way of Alan Moore.

Suddenly, the energy is alive as you begin to realize just how much Microbird cares – not just about the game world they’ve created, but the world they inhabit outside of it. The amount of disdain it appears to host for “instagrammable” ideals, tourist traps, and theme parks built into decades of culture. Now I was playing to stop it, for the sake of a world that uses the town of Hinterberg as a perpetual name tag.

And then… I’m not going to say it drops the ball, but Hinterberg’s combat fails to make up for the spectacle the world starts to present. The final handful of bosses struggle with camera placement, legitimate strategy, and a narrative that doesn’t really know where to go from the conclusion it sets up. Without going into heavy spoilers, imagine if the goal of brushing your teeth was just cleaning the front set.

Sure, no one else can see the back row, but they're going to be thinking about it.

Still, there was an urge to return to the Dungeons of Hinterberg, even if it was for a short while. The game has a fantastic trick that nearly every player is going to gloss over on their first playthrough, so I was raring to go. However, trying to get through the combat a second time just wasn’t cutting it for me.

Dungeons of Hinterberg Review | Final Verdict

I love the world of Hinterberg, I love the people that inhabit it, and the soft characterizations Microbird applies to each and every one of them. It's just that the core combat can be so tedious, that it became an obstacle I had to contend with to get to the good stuff. Sure, I could use Hinterberg as a retreat, but I care about this world, and as the game goes on, it’s quite clear that a lack of action doesn't help anybody.

Dungeons of Hinterberg was reviewed on Xbox with a copy provided by the publisher - all screenshots were taken during the process of review