Dungeons of Hinterberg makes dungeon crawling a resort destination

So many nerdy fantasy stories ask the fantastical question of, what if magic was real? What if you could leave your mundane, real-world existence behind to go slay some dragons, unearth treasure and do other video gamey things instead of clocking in for work? Most of the time that question gets answered when a hero finds themselves in another world, or uncovering some hidden society, or otherwise exiting what they knew and discovering the fantasy externally. In Dungeons of Hinterberg, the revelation is much more realistic. Magic is discovered in the world, and is immediately set upon by commerce. It’s horrible, but kind of awesome at the same time. Just like Disney World!

Long story short, magic was discovered in Europe, in the form of strange creatures, region-specific superpowers, and elaborate dungeons. This drew the attention of dreamers and thrill-seekers, and the area was turned into a travel destination. It’s as if climbing Everest had a whole theme park built around it. But since this is a whole bundle of RPG elements in one space, there’s a lot more to it than simply risking your life. As one traveler looking to escape the mundane and embrace their childhood longings, your visit to the Hinterberg village is full of adventure, danger, upgrades, social trees, and of course some kind of self-discovery.

I played the earlier alpha testing period this year, which involved the game’s introduction and table-setting. A new demo was released for Steam Next Fest, which is more of a random slice of the game, spitting you out in front of a dungeon about a week into the story. This dungeon is fascinating, giving players a taste of how creative the region-specific powers can get. The introductory period in the alpha test included a magical boulder that predictably weighed down switches and similar things. Here you get a laser beam and a magical snowboard, letting you hit switches and burn pieces of cave into usable platforms, and grinding on magical rails and hitting sick jumps respectively.

The dungeon was rather straightforward due to all the Sonic Adventure-style urban snowboarding, but it sure was a visual treat. The area around the dungeon was even spread across multiple small, floating orbs, giving you an almost Mario Galaxy-like area to run around. The snowboarding felt good and was a fun surprise though, and the light puzzle-solving and combat were a solid introductory course for getting a feel of the simple (but improved since the alpha) gameplay. After the dungeon, you get another taste, this time of the game’s social element.

At the end of the day, you can wander around the village and spend time with various named characters. Each one had their own reason for being there and storyline you can engage in, which comes with new ways to interact with the world. For example, I spoke with the local weapon enchanter, who is interested in using the local magic in a way that pushes back against the corporatization of swords and sorcery. The demo was over after the initial conversation, but I’m stoked to dive in and see how these colorful individuals feel about their unique situation.

Dungeons of Hinterberg is set to arrive on July 18, 2024 for PC and Xbox Series X|S. A code for the PC demo was provided by the publisher for this preview.

Lucas White

Contributing Editor

Lucas plays a lot of videogames. Sometimes he enjoys one. His favorites include Dragon Quest, SaGa, and Mystery Dungeon. He's far too rattled with ADHD to care about world-building lore but will get lost for days in essays about themes and characters. Holds a journalism degree, which makes conversations about Oxford Commas awkward to say the least. Not a trophy hunter but platinumed Sifu out of sheer spite and got 100 percent in Rondo of Blood because it rules. You can find him on Twitter @HokutoNoLucas being curmudgeonly about Square Enix discourse and occasionally saying positive things about Konami.