Dungeons of Hinterberg Review – Enjoy Your Slay

Dungeons of Hinterberg, developed by independent studio Microbird Games, is an Action-RPG with Social Sim elements based in a fictionalized version of the Austrian Alps. In Dungeons of Hinterberg, we play as Luisa Dorfer, a junior lawyer, looking for an adventure away from the mundane. She travels to the town of Hinterberg to experience the thrill of using magic. 

Three years prior, the first of 25 dungeons appeared and the ability of magic was unlocked for all those willing to explore and defeat the creatures and puzzles in the dungeons. The Mayor of Hinterberg, Mayor Wagner, capitalized on this situation, working to turn Hinterberg’s dungeons into a billion-euro tourist destination. This leads Luisa into the main narrative, which kept me engrossed and consistently coming back to Hinterberg to unravel the mystery that unfolded throughout the weeks of my slaycation. 

Developer & Publisher // Microbird Games, Microbird GmbH
Platforms // PC, Xbox Series X|S
MSRP & Release Date // $29.99, July 18, 2024
Reviewed On // Xbox Series X

Enjoy Your Slaycation

The story involves Luisa contending with Mayor Wagner. Luisa teams up with citizens of the town to shine a light on why magic is lashing out more violently as the game progresses. As Luisa begins to grasp a better understanding of magic she begins to uncover the role the Mayor is playing behind the scenes to make the situation worse. The narrative was well written and the pacing felt natural.

With each passing day in the game, I wondered how the developers tied progression into how I was choosing to play. I finished the game in around 31 days, but definitely could have stretched it longer. I focused on spending time with characters that catered to my character build and less on side content (such as unlocking photo mode or more in-game currency).

Dungeons of Hinterberg – 2 Games in 1

Dungeons of Hinterberg is split into two different types of games. First up is the Action RPG portion that kicks in every day at midday. During this time, players explore the four regions surrounding Hinterberg and enter dungeons of varying difficulty to secure stamps in their logbook, enabling progression through the game. There is also a social sim portion of the game. Every evening after dungeon crawling, players can interact with visitors or locals around town to increase their social stats. 

The combat in Dungeons of Hinterberg is fast-paced, extremely fun, and kept me engaged from the beginning. The combat is very basic in the beginning, with a light and heavy attack. The main bosses in the game did not pose much more of a difficulty curve than some of the tougher regular battles in the game. But the mechanics of each boss encounter were unique and fun to figure out.

Armor and Magic Ahoy!

As I progressed further in the game, spells, and attack conduits were added to my arsenal. Magic adds a deeper dimension to the combat adding visual flair and helping to make quick work of enemies. While enemies do not scale with your level, you will face enemies that are higher level than you, and there is a notable difference in combat.

There are four levels of armor in the game, which allowed me to feel my sense of progression as I grew more powerful after each dungeon. Aside from armor progression, there are multiple types of swords in the game, which allowed me to focus my build between a physical damage base or magic damage base. Armor and weapons also have slot-able items that add to their overall defense and attack numbers.

Networking in Dungeons of Hinterberg

Each evening after dungeon crawling I head back to town to upgrade my gear, buy items for the next day, and find a social activity to do. As much as I enjoyed completing dungeons – and the dungeons do carry this game – discovering more of the story of Hinterberg through socialization was just as rewarding. 

The social simulation aspects of this game tie into both the narrative and the RPG mechanics. The ability to hang out with one character a night becomes strategic in the fact that we can gain rewards based on our reputation levels. Additions to health and magic bars, rare attack conduits, or the ability to add items to our gear are examples of the rewards received.

Character stories also add depth to the overall narrative in Dungeons of Hinterberg, especially those that call the town their home. One character in particular, Alex, greets us every morning, provides news on what’s happening in town, and will also spend time with us in the evenings during main events in the story. My personal favorite character, naturally, was the dog. Give him all the pets, choose a name for him, and he will be the goodest of good boys!

Simple Yet Stylish

While the graphics in Dungeons of Hinterberg are simple, the visual style lends to the feeling of being in a classic European village that is becoming more modern. The town of Hinterberg may be tucked away in the mountains of Austria, but the four regions of the game all feel distinct and the themes of the dungeons within those areas match the aesthetic of their respective overworlds perfectly. Despite being surrounded by magic, the regions around Hinterberg feel like they could be crafted from real-world locations.

Audio Design of Dungeons of Hinterberg

Just as the graphics and the combat are simple, the audio is pretty basic as well. There did not appear to be much in the way of differences between the music played in combat and the music played in each dungeon. That repetition made some areas of the game feel a tad repetitive by the end of my playtime.

Where the audio does shine, however, is in the ambient sounds. The serenity you feel while taking in views at rest spots to the dank humidity of caves can be felt through the incredible use of ambient sounds within each area of the game world. I felt a bit of a loss playing the game without headphones as I was drawn so much to the sound design. 

Smooth Slaying

The technical performance for the game was overall very solid on my Xbox Series X. The game does have some screen shake that can be pretty jarring to get used to. There is also some graphical pop-in in certain areas. I encountered two bugs in my playthrough, with one of them requiring me to restart the game. The auto-save feature prevented me from losing any progress, so the restart was not a headache at all, fortunately.

The fast travel system is one of the best I have encountered in a game. It was instantaneous in the sense that I found myself waiting to load before realizing I was already at my destination. 

Accessibility Options

Dungeons of Hinterberg has a limited amount of accessibility options, but I do feel the developers took care in realizing what aspects of the game may be difficult for some players while implementing them. The accessibility options we have available to us at launch give the ability to turn off screen shake, add a static picture frame overlay to reduce motion sickness and disable player death. 

With limited time to play games, disabling player death is always a welcome sight for me, and I feel like games like this and Tunic definitely benefit from that option. As I mentioned earlier in the review, the screen shake can be a bit jarring and difficult to get used to. So the addition of the static overlay and the ability to disable screen shake entirely could definitely be beneficial for a lot of players. 

Treat Yourself

Dungeons of Hinterberg, while being Action RPG oriented, reminds us that we should take time to enjoy the world around us. Whether we are on our daily grind, or relaxing on holiday halfway around the world; make new experiences, embrace your surroundings, and take in the culture. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game. In fact, it is some of the most fun I have had in gaming this year. Whether or not you find yourself downloading this on Steam, or booting it up on Xbox Game Pass, remember to enjoy your slay.

Dungeons of Hinterberg is now available on Xbox Series consoles, PC, and Xbox Gamepass.

Note – Xbox provided this game for review, but the opinions are my own.

Final Score: 8.5 / 10