This is weird, really, because Renaud looks like hard work.
He dresses like Blade and he speaks entirely in maxims.
He’s the best of the slayers and he can’t wait to tell you about it.
Dungeons of Hinterberg
But Renaud has a gift for me.
He’ll unlock a combo meter if I spend an evening hanging out with him.
And I just love combo meters.
Dungeons of Hinterberg’s is particularly good.
Slice slice slice and the numbers go up, as does your attack and your defence.
It’s a nice way to do more damage while feeling more competent.
It’s worth an evening lost to awkward chat to get that.
This is Dungeons of Hinterberg in microcosm.
The game is set in an Alpine spa town where the local economy turns on the presence of magic.
You play as a former lawyer who’s turned up in town because of career burnout.
That’s half of the game, though.
We will get to that.
For now let’s look at the two parts of the game, dealing with the dungeons first.
And it clicked not just because of the combo system I got from Renaud.
Beyond that there’s special moves, which you equip and can swap in and out.
All of this cludges together with interesting enemies and a few surprisingly good bosses.
But, you know: combos, a spin attack, the ability to trap people in jelly.
And - not talking about goo anymore - this stuff spills out in interesting ways too.
There’s a confidence in the belief that players will muddle through in their own way.
I would do anything for judiciously used halftone.
But it’s not the whole the game, and this is what I was getting at earlier.
It’s gripping stuff.
All very tidy and bureaucratic.
And then you leave, through a shifting purple portal that burns like flame.
A Dungeons of Hinterberg review code was provided by Curve Games.
