Dungeons of Hinterberg review: a breezy action RPG that’s as pretty as a postcard

Usually, it’s a bad sign if you want to stop playing and go outside. The Hinterberg Dungeon It is different. Action RPG I missed the outdoors and wanted to get away from all my responsibilities and just be for a little while. Every time I finished playing I was thinking about my next vacation. Dungeon crawling is not on my vacation itinerary, but Dungeons of Hinterberg is making me rethink.

Our protagonist, Luisa, is trapped in a place we’ve all been to: Burnout City. She’s a busy lawyer who seeks a break and decides to escape to picturesque Hinterberg, a quaint village in the Austrian Alps. Hinterberg is essentially a recreational destination where you can hike through the wilderness, drink beer with the locals, and slay monsters if you feel like it.

Outside of the game’s base, Hinterberg, there are four regions, each with its own dungeon. You decide which one to visit in the morning, slay the dungeons during the day, hang out with the locals in the evening, and then head back to your hotel room to end the day. Each region has its own unique charm, so you’ll quickly become accustomed to it. From the snowy peaks of Kolmstein, a white wonderland of majestic mountains and ice caves, to the lush meadows of Dobelkogel with its cows, cable cars and flowers, I was taking screenshots all the time, slowly putting together a vast book of vacation snapshots.

Each of these regions grants you two special magical abilities that can only be used in that area and that dungeon. Dobelkogel, for example, can summon a giant spherical bomb that blows away blockades, or a ball and chain that can be fired at and pulled to items. The dungeons test these abilities through a mix of combat and puzzle solving, but in very different ways. You might have to navigate an underwater castle, snowboard across a wintry obstacle course, or race a rickety minecart through a monster-filled cavern. Reaching the end of a dungeon earns you a satisfying travel stamp in your notebook.

The puzzles strike a nice balance of being minimally effortful and nothing particularly baffling, yet so light and intuitive that they feel satisfying to solve. The staples of environmental puzzle platforming are all here – button toggling, lever pulling, and platform moving – but the puzzle designs are constantly changing due to the regional magic of each area. The puzzles push players to use their powers in interesting ways, the dungeons are designed with puzzles in mind first and foremost, and the levels feel like they’re built around the core ideas.

Magic isn’t just for solving puzzles, it’s also part of the combat arsenal along with many other abilities. Louisa won’t be carrying around a big sword as she’ll be slicing her way through hordes of monsters. The way she moves is incredibly fluid and, when combined with the abilities she can equip, combat often becomes a frenzy of activity and action. I’ll dive in with a quick swing of my sword once, twice, three times, dodge, attack with an ice beam (thanks to Kormstein’s magical powers) and unleash a Blade Tornado, a spinning ability as deadly and destructive as its name suggests.

Enemies are hordes of ghouls and monsters, but with elements of alpine folklore thrown in, including various gnomes with pointy hats, giggling witches, creepy goats, and creepy wicker men. Players often encounter enemies in groups, dumped (sometimes awkwardly) in different parts of the dungeon. Fighting the same types of enemies over and over again can get a bit tedious, but the constant addition of new gear and abilities makes the combat more interesting. There are also some boss fights that are the highlight of the game. In one boss fight, I had to fight a savage basilisk with a huge beak and many eyes while grinding on a rail on my snowboard. There is also a fistfight with Krampus, so look forward to it.

Once you’ve cleared out the dungeon and the puzzles and monsters within, it’s time to head back to Hinterberg’s town center and relax. You can stop by the pharmacy to refill your potions, go to the corner store to buy new gear, and chat with the locals. You can choose who you want to spend each day with, and once your friendship with that person reaches a certain level, you’ll get new items and abilities, Persona-esque. Before you spend time with people, they’ll let you know in advance what rewards they’ll give you, but it doesn’t matter if you really click with the characters. I’d happily spend time with the cute blacksmith Hannah, even if I only got a handful of dust.

Each character has a mini-story that is connected to the overall story of the game. The appearance of the dungeon in Hinterberg has brought many visitors and tourism has boomed. As money flows into the town, conflicts arise between the impact of the influx of tourists on the local population and the interference of bureaucrats. Like my friend Hannah, her shop is in danger of closing due to competitive pressures, so I go around town encouraging people to sign a petition to keep the shop open. Engaging in conversations with locals and helping them solve their problems adds color to the town and its characters and keeps them from being seen as vending machines that spit out items.

While there may be a clear routine, I like that each day is different. Luisa wants to complete all 25 dungeons, so she will be traveling between the four regions. Spending time with different locals each day will lead to new storylines and mini-quests. The best part is that you don’t have to do dungeons if you don’t feel like it. Instead, you can sit and relax in different scenic spots for the day. This also gives you a permanent stat boost. As I hurried towards the lake with the dungeon portal in the middle, I came across a beautiful wooden pier overlooking the water. I sat on the edge of the pier and looked out at the lake. The wind blew softly through the trees, and Luisa wondered what her colleagues were doing in her busy office. She looked so cozy and laid back that I wanted to jump through the screen and sit with Luisa to share a schnitzel.

That’s what I like most about Dungeons of Hinterberg. You don’t have to be productive all the time, and that’s okay. When I got a bit bored of dungeon crawling, I would kick back at the various scenic spots during the day and hang out with the locals at night. I did this throughout an entire in-game week, until I felt like killing monsters again.

There’s a climactic climax towards the end of the game’s 20-hour runtime, but for the most part Dungeons of Hinterberg has a wonderfully laid-back atmosphere. Plenty of games romanticize leaving your busy life behind and escaping into the wilderness, but this one explores that theme in an authentic and sincere way. There’s a lesson here that rest is fundamental to health and happiness, and I love the way the game conveys it. It’s a gentle, thoughtful fantasy adventure that will make you want to put on your hiking boots.

This review is based on a review build of the game provided by the developer.