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Dungeons of Hinterberg instantly caught my eye when it was introduced a couple of months in the past. Its vivid cel-shaded artwork fashion complemented the beautiful, relaxed environments of the Austrian Alps splendidly. I used to be desirous to be taught extra about this motion RPG, so I met up with a consultant from Curve Video games, the title’s writer, to see and play it for myself.

First off, I used to be curious to listen to extra about Dungeons of Hinterberg’s developer, Microbird Video games. It fascinated me that this is able to be the studio’s debut title. Microbird Video games was based in 2020 and presently consists of 10 folks; they’re primarily based out of Vienna, Austria which is why Dungeons of Hinterberg is about within the Austrian Alps.

To set the stage, the premise of Dungeons of Hinterberg revolves round 25 magical dungeons that appeared someday across the city of Hinterberg. Their presence grew to become a focal point to adventurers from everywhere in the world. Gamers take management of Luisa, an adventurer who has determined to take a trip in Hinterberg and take a look at these magical dungeons for herself.

The sport’s construction focuses on how gamers spend their in-game days. At the beginning of the day, they’ll select to both discover one in every of 4 maps to seek out one in every of these dungeons, or just hang around with a NPC on the town to advance Luisa’s bond stage with them – which does present gameplay enhancements.

My hands-on demo with Dungeons of Hinterberg showcased a distinct space than what was beforehand proven on the Xbox Gamescom 2023 showcase a number of days in the past. Every of the 4 explorable maps have two distinctive skills that Luisa can make the most of, although these are strictly tied to every of them individually.

As an illustration, the Xbox Gamescom 2023 footage allowed Luisa to conjure a small twister that she may journey to cross areas with thorny vines safely. In the meantime, Luisa may type a big wrecking ball that she may detonate to blow open cracked partitions within the construct that I performed. She additionally had one other spell that allowed her to fling a ball on a series at a goal and retract it.

Because the recreation leaves it as much as gamers to resolve on what explorable map they wish to spend their day at, I requested the Curve Video games consultant if gamers had completely different entry factors primarily based on their progress on a map, or would they need to retread some floor to get again to the place they had been beforehand. They assured me that regardless that Luisa would at all times have the identical entry level into the 4 explorable maps, there can be quick journey checkpoints to shortly resume her journey in them.

As I made my option to the magical dungeon within the demo, I did some gentle environmental puzzle fixing on my means there. Generally there can be physics-based interactions during which I needed to place my detonating ball onto a platform, increase it with another mechanism triggered by the ball-and-chain capability, and set off the explosion of the detonating ball proper on the apex of the platform’s ascension which reaches a cracked wall up above. It’s nothing too sophisticated and the distinctive zone-unique spells permit for extra assorted puzzle varieties in every area.

Initiating enemy encounters in Dungeons of Hinterberg jogged my memory a tiny little bit of Okami, because it spawns a round boundary instantly as quickly as Luisa makes contact with a foe on the sphere. She’s outfitted with a sword that may do gentle and heavy assault chains; gamers possess a dodge roll as effectively, although Luisa can solely do it a specific amount of occasions consecutively earlier than her dodge stamina gauge has to refill itself. A well-timed dodge at an incoming assault briefly slows down time.

There have been a number of fight expertise at my disposal on this construct of the sport, together with a ahead leap that causes a shockwave upon touchdown and with the ability to spin round with the sword like a prime for a couple of seconds. Craftier gamers can weave of their zone-unique spells into the battle. Battles had been simplistic, but responsive; they might not provide a lot by way of visible spectacle and flashiness, however I appreciated how punchy every influence felt.

I observed that the creatures I used to be preventing wore peculiar masks and inquired about it. The enemies that Luisa fights are impressed by Austrian mythology. There’s a practice each December in Austria that has folks costume up as horrifying creatures; then, they roam round city with their masks and costumes – it’s not too far off from Halloween.

After some time, I lastly reached the magical dungeon. I used to be instructed that not the entire dungeons can be as simple or easy to seek out within the full recreation. Some dungeons could also be trickier to seek out they usually may have gamers to perform some form of problem earlier than folks can enter them.

Moving into the dungeon portal landed me right into a cave atmosphere; it seemed like an deserted mine of some type. As soon as once more, traversing via the dungeon principally consisted of puzzles. The preliminary room you begin in comprises three switches that want to stay pressed concurrently. An empty minecart in entrance of Luisa reveals gamers that it could possibly be pushed onto a button and the tough a part of this puzzle was merely wanting as much as discover one other empty minecart that was caught to the ceiling that Luisa may free together with her skills.

Another dungeon mechanics on this dungeon had been utilizing levers, buttons, and different interactable belongings to reroute minecart tracks, with a view to discover the right route via sure segments within the cave. There have been different sections when Luisa may journey a minecart and gamers must lean left or proper to get onto the correct observe to proceed ahead whereas avoiding obstacles.

On the finish of the dungeon, I used to be greeted with a boss encounter. It was barely greater than the enemies I fought to this point and its headpiece had a definite design completely different from the others I’ve seen. The boss was able to summoning a handful of mini tornados and inflicting particles to fall at marked factors all through the fight enviornment. A number of minor enemies would spawn in all through the showdown too.

Earlier than ending my time with Dungeons of Hinterberg, I used to be warped again to city after ending the dungeon. Like I discussed earlier, Luisa can select to both spend her day discovering a dungeon to complete, or spend time stress-free on her personal or with a NPC. Hinterberg felt full of life because it had NPCs continually strolling round with folks going about their cozy day.

I made a decision that Luisa ought to spend time with the close by ice cream girl, Marisa. There have been a bunch of ice cream flavors posted behind her with flavors in one other language; I requested the Curve Video games consultant if these had been actual flavors they usually didn’t know both. As I frolicked chatting with Marisa, there have been a couple of selectable dialogue choices. I don’t consider there was a “appropriate” response in any of their character interactions, so I don’t assume gamers should fear in the event that they need to act a sure option to maximize gameplay advantages.

On the finish of my nice dialog with Marisa, a bond stage up occurred to point that I used to be now nearer to Marisa and that rewarded me with a everlasting further dodge stamina bar. There was an odd NPC that handed by us as we had been chatting; he wore a black coat with a depraved wanting sword on his again. Marisa famous that he was this shady character was staying at a close-by resort, so maybe this character will likely be somebody that Luisa can meet within the full recreation.

The Curve Video games consultant knowledgeable me that new abilites and upgrades to my present skills could possibly be obtained by leveling up Luisa’s bond with sure NPCs. Some NPCs might give her requests too, during which she has to discover a sure merchandise in a dungeon. Gamers could also be rewarded with a brand new sword for Luisa by exploring these relationships and the quests that come together with them as you be taught an increasing number of concerning the NPCs you resolve to spend time with.

After spending the day hanging out with Marisa, Luisa returned to her room and slept – thus ending my time with Dungeons of Hinterberg for now. Apparently, there’s a “25 dungeons in 25 days” problem murmured all through the narrative that gamers can undertake in the event that they wish to, and there may be a shift within the narrative in the event that they’re profitable in doing it.

Dungeons of Hinterberg looks like a nice and promising motion RPG wiith social sim parts and I’m nonetheless very impressed that that is how Microbird Video games’s first recreation is shaping up. It seems to be stunning and it performs nice. The title is slated to launch a while in 2024. I can’t wait to see how the ultimate recreation shapes up!