Dungeons of Hinterberg review: A light-hearted action RPG that looks as pretty as a postcard

Usually it’s a bad sign when I want to stop playing after a game and go outside, but Dungeons of Hinterberg is different. It’s an action RPG that made me long for the outdoors, and made me long to get away from all my responsibilities and just exist. Every time I finished playing, I thought about my next outing, and while dungeon diving wouldn’t be on my vacation agenda, Dungeons of Hinterberg makes me think twice.

Main character Luisa is stuck in a place we’ve all been to before: Burnout City. She’s a busy lawyer who longs for some downtime, so she’s decided to escape to the picturesque Hinterberg, a rugged Austrian mountain town. Hinterberg is essentially a recreational vacation destination where you can hike through the wilderness, drink a few beers with the locals, and slay monsters if you feel like it.

Outside of the game’s home base of Hinterberg, there are four regions, each with their own handful of dungeons. You decide which region to visit in the morning, hack and slash your way through a dungeon during the day, hang out with the locals in the evening, and end the day by heading back to your hotel room. It’s a routine you quickly fall into thanks to each area’s unique charm. From the snow-capped Kolmstein, with its white wonderland of majestic mountains and ice caves, to the lush meadows of Doberkogel, complete with cows, cable cars and flowers, I found myself snapping screenshots the entire time, slowly compiling a book of holiday snaps.

Each of these regions grants you two special magical abilities that can only be used in that area and its associated dungeons. In Doberkogel, for example, you can summon a giant spherical bomb that can blast through blockades, and a ball and chain that can shoot items and pull them toward you. Dungeons test these abilities through a mix of combat and puzzles, all presented in very different ways. You might have to navigate an underwater castle, snowboard through a wintery obstacle course, or survive a rickety mine cart through a monster-infested cave. Reaching the end of a dungeon will earn you a satisfying travel stamp in your notebook.

Puzzles hit that sweet spot of minimal effort, where nothing really confuses you, but their lightness and intuitiveness still make them satisfying to solve. All the regular environmental puzzle-platformers are here – switching buttons, pulling levers, moving platforms and the like – but because of the regional magic of each area, the puzzle design is constantly being changed up. They push you to use your powers in interesting ways, and dungeons feel like they were designed with the puzzles in mind first and foremost, with the level built around the core idea.

Magic isn’t just for puzzle solving, it’s also a part of your combat arsenal, along with a myriad of other abilities. Luisa doesn’t carry a big sword around for the drop either, since you’ll also be slashing and slashing through hordes of monsters. The way she moves feels incredibly fluid, and along with a bunch of equippable abilities, battles are often a frenzy of activity and action. I could jump in with 1, 2, 3 quick sword swipes, duck, hit them with an ice beam (thanks to the magic power in Kolmstein), and then activate my Blade Tornado, a devastating spinning ability that’s every bit as deadly as it sounds.

Enemies are a bunch of ghouls and monsters, but with an alpine folklore twist, including various pointy-hatted gnomes, cackling witches, grumpy goats, and creepy wicker men. You’ll encounter them in groups, often (sometimes awkwardly) placed in different parts of a dungeon. You’ll be fighting the same kind of enemies over and over again, which can get a little tiresome, but a nice steady stream of new gear and abilities keeps things interesting. There are also a handful of boss fights, which are a highlight of the game. One of them involved me fighting a crazed basilisk with a giant beak and too many eyes while grinding a rail on my snowboard. Krampus fisticuffs is also a thing, so I’m looking forward to that.

Once you’ve dusted off a dungeon and all its puzzles and monsters, head back to the center of Hinterberg for some R&R. You can stop by the pharmacy to restock your potions, visit the corner store for new supplies, and chat with the locals. You get to choose which person you want to hang out with each day, and when you reach a certain friendship level with them, you’ll earn new items and Persona-style abilities. Before you spend time with people, you’ll be warned about what rewards they’ll give you, not that it matters whether you actually click with a character. I’d happily hang out with Hannah, the adorable blacksmith, even if I only got a fistful of dust.

Each character has a mini story that ties into the wider narrative of the game. The appearance of dungeons in Hinterberg has attracted many visitors, meaning tourism is booming. With money flooding into the town, there is a conflict between how the influx of visitors affects the locals and the bureaucracy that has its sticky fingers on everything. Like my girl Hannah, her shop is in danger of closing due to the pressure of competitive business, so I am now booking him all over the town to get people to sign a petition to keep him open. Talking to the locals and helping them with their problems gives colour to the town and its characters rather than seeing them as vending machines spitting out items.

You may have a set routine, but I love how different the days are. Luisa wants to complete all 25 dungeons, which means you’ll be jumping between all four regions, and interacting with different locals each day brings new storylines and mini-quests. The best part is that you don’t even have to do a dungeon if you don’t feel like it. Instead, you can sit in different beautiful spots and relax all day, which also gives you permanent stat boosts. I was rushing towards a lake with a dungeon portal in the middle when I came across a nice wooden pier overlooking the water. I sat down on the edge of the pier and stared out over the lake. The wind was gently rustling through the trees as Luisa contemplated what her colleagues would be doing in her busy office. It looked too cozy and relaxing, I wanted to jump through my screen, sit down with Luisa and share a schnitzel with her.

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 little tired of dungeon-digging, I would relax in different nice places during the day and work on hanging out with the locals in the evening. I did this for a whole week in-game until I felt like bashing monsters again.

There’s a climax towards the end of the game’s 20-hour runtime, but for the most part, Dungeons of Hinterberg is delightfully relaxing. So many games romanticize leaving your busy life behind and escaping into the wilderness, but here it explores the subject in an authentic and sincere way. There’s a lesson here about how rest is fundamental to health and happiness, but I also love how the game communicates that. It’s a gentle, reflective fantasy adventure that will have you reaching for your hiking boots.

This review is based on a review of the game, written by the developer.