The Indie Informer

I’ve mined for monsters. I’ve taken a moment for some tea after a day of slaying. And now, my GDC 2024 hands-on experience of Dungeons Of Hinterberg will have me facing my toughest challenge: The cold.

New day, new dungeon should be Microbird Games’ tagline for its monster-slaying vacation simulator. This day’s quest takes me to a glittering world of frost and gravity defiance called Kolmstein. 

The first delight here is a magical snowboard/hoverboard I can summon on command. It feels so smooth and cool. I speed around slopes, up rails, and over ramps before finding myself cornered by danger. The first combat introduces me to this area’s powers, as every separate biome in Dungeons of Hinterberg confers special abilities on visiting would-be heroes. My moves include digging underground and damaging foes above me, a vicious hail storm, and causing all opponents to stall in place with my voice. Of course, as always, the more mythical abilities stack on top of fast and heavy sword attacks.

Melee feels hefty, and, being a real human who is playing the adventurer on my off-time, my sword takes time to swing. It’s not the combat many players will be used to, though I find the concept intriguing. Luckily, I have an agile dash at my disposal that gets me around the battlefield. But the long-necked goat monsters are still stuck and don’t respect anything on this Earth. They stick their head in the sand to home in on my exact location and always seem to land a hit. I spend my deadly hail storm ability specifically to destroy one particularly insistent goat. That’ll teach it.

After smiting my enemy and leaving its ruined body on the mountainside, I turn toward a shimmering wall of light. Entering the portal into the dungeon proper is like walking into another world. Dazzling blue mountains of ice, large balls of snow that act like their own planets and abide by their own laws of gravity, and rails that weave in and out of the stunning vistas all begin vying with each other for my attention. The main puzzle of this area consists of magic electrical fences and targets that move one section of the level up and down. Triggering these in the correct order — which is no mean feat — allows me to weave between the deadly obstacles.

Back in town I meet Henning the artist. This sculptor and I hit it off discussing his work and musing on the nature of the town. After spending the afternoon like this, my slightly increased friendship with Henning prompts him to give a new attack conduit – though I don’t know what that means. I’m not quite good enough friends with him to give him the flowers I picked up while perusing the shops, sadly.

The disappointment is short-lived and mostly forgotten after I receive an enigmatic note instructing me to head to a meeting spot in the wee hours of the morning. I’m about to get the first glimpse at the game’s broader storyline and mystery. The note’s sender invites me onto a rowboat and paddles out into Hinterberg’s bay. Turning a corner, I see a river of dark ooze sludging its way into the bay, something that certainly isn’t happening when the tourists get up hours later.

What is going on under the surface of the lovely destination town in Dungeons of Hinterberg?