Dungeons of Hinterberg is an odd one. But just like that new kind of cereal you’ve never tried or that new candy flavour, the unknown is part of the magic. The best way to paint a picture of what Dungeons of Hinterberg is to take you on a trip through your imagination.
I want you to imagine that you’re sitting behind your desk, day in and day out, just working, getting ever closer to that impending breakdown and feeling lost and unsatisfied with your life. Now imagine that there is a place, a place where magic really exists and where you can go not only to get away from your life but also to reinvent yourself as a Slayer.
Trading admin and meetings for exploring dungeons for treasure and glory… that is Dungeons of Hinterberg – or at least a part of it. The game is set in the town of Hinterberg, where the whole economy revolves around them being the only place on earth with the presence of magic.
Portals to dungeons appear all around, and tourists flock to this town to puzzle and battle their way through them. You take on the role of a former lawyer who’s turned up in town because of career burnout. Now, every day, you pick a new area, grab a sword, and head out to slay some magical beasts in the name of relaxation.
But that’s not all because when the sun goes down. The dungeon fun is over, and it’s up to you to choose how to spend your time in a way that has nothing to do with slaying or working but makes you better in ways you couldn’t even imagine.
This is where you meet people and form relationships, boosting your skills and leading to improved options with those same people in the future. It’s all about min-maxing, and there is no wrong way to socialise, take time for yourself or vacation.
When you get right down to the nitty-gritty, Dungeons of Hinterberg’s gameplay loop can be broken down into three distinct parts: exploring an area, puzzling your way through a dungeon, and relaxing, relationship-building, and readying yourself in town.
But what’s great about the game is that it doesn’t really care much how you approach any of these sections of time. Sure, you can explore every nook and cranny of an area, slaying magical beasts left, right, and centre, but you could also just chill at a picnic spot. The choice is yours, and no matter what you decide, it will still be rewarding.
Dungeons are no different. Yes, you can push yourself to finish it all in one run, or you can choose to peace out early with the option to resume where you stopped.
In town, you can upgrade your kit, shop or talk to the locals, build relationships, or just go to the movies alone. There is no right or wrong way to play Dungeons of Hinterberg, and the experience is there for you to mould into your own.
While Dungeons of Hinterberg shines as a whole, the game’s titular dungeons are one area where everything truly comes together in a glorious crescendo. I love the Zelda-esque approach to dungeons, and I always have. Still, these puzzle-solving areas can get old quickly because they rely on the same tricks repeatedly.
Dungeons of Hinterberg bypasses this by ensuring that players never get too comfortable with their arsenal. The skills players will have to manipulate the various dungeon puzzles will change from area to area. Added to this is that no two dungeons ever feel the same; each stands on its own as a uniquely exciting puzzle that needs solving.
Of course, there is also the ever-present combat mixed into the fray. Much like the other parts of the game, combat is ever-changing and ever-evolving. Yes, it all comes down to your run-of-the-mill stamina and dodge fun, but as you progress, you can unlock special moves, attacks, and even a combo system.
There’s a lot of fun to be had playing around, finding synergies between defensive and offensive magic, and tweaking everything with multipliers and upgrades. Still, perhaps the most enjoyable of all is that the magic powers you use to navigate the dungeon can also be used in combat.
That means the block of jelly you’ve been using to help you reach ledges and hold down buttons can now be used to encase your foes and so on – it’s hard to put into words just how much fun this system is.
The town section of the game is hardly an afterthought. Instead, it’s here that players will get to rest, unwind, up their skills, make friends, buy new gear, upgrade swords, and do just about anything else you could imagine.
What was quickly apparent and surprising for me was how deep the town system is and yet how utterly chilled it all still felt. The game has the same type of inventory management and stat boosting we’ve seen time and time again but handles it in a way that never allows anything to feel burdensome or overwhelming.
I also deeply appreciated how much faith the game had in me, as the player, being able to figure it all out for myself. While the actual gameplay loop never changes, how you choose to spend your time in each section of the day is completely in your hands. That autonomy was nothing short of refreshing and really lent itself to the game’s overarching vacation theme.
Dungeons of Hinterberg is also a surprisingly deep and engaging experience. While the actual gameplay is addicting, and the dungeons, biomes, and enemies are great to explore and slay, the real magic lies in the stories told throughout the gameplay experience.
As fantasy-themed as the game is, the stories it tells are all very much grounded in genuine issues and struggles and leave gamers with a story of their own to explore:
How should you spend your time, and what do you value in your own life? The game also touches on the often swept-under-the-rug cost of tourism and how quickly authenticity can become anything but.
And yet, even though Dungeons of Hinterberg never shies away from the heavy and serious parts of the story it aims to tell, the game never feels bogged down by it. Instead, the game juggles all these aspects in a way that’s just as smooth and fluid as its combat.
Why Handheld? After playing Dungeons of Hinterberg first on my PC and then switching to the Legion Go, I couldn’t help but feel that the cel-shaded art, simple UI, and short gameplay loop with natural stopping points felt made for a handheld device. Dungeons of Hinterberg runs buttery smooth on the Legion Go and feels like a game best played in bed or on a couch, surrounded by pets, and while talking with your loved ones. It’s how the game would want you to play it. Trust me.
