‘Dungeons of Hinterberg’ Review: The Only Time The Geological Cure Has Worked

Welcome to Hinterberg, a new tourist hotspot in the idyllic Austrian Alps! In this delightful escape into the alpines, you play as Luisa, a burnt-out law trainee taking a break from her fast-paced corporate life to hack and slash her way through the Dungeons of Hinterberg.

Developed by: Microbird Games

Played on: Steam

Length: 20 hours (25 hours for completionists)


When Dungeons of Hinterberg released in July 2024, I was at the beginning of the busiest months of my life. From sleepless nights spent organising events, to drowning in endless to-do lists, it would take a whole six months before I could find the time to sit down and dust off my Steam library. But as I blindly launched Dungeons of Hinterberg for the first time, I didn’t know I had perfectly primed myself to step into the shoes of Luisa, a burnt-out law trainee escaping from her demanding corporate job. It felt like poetry leaping off my monitor.

I’m not generally a believer in the geological cure, the magical idea that we can leave our problems behind by escaping to a new location, but Microbird’s debut game may have convinced me otherwise. The entire game feels like giant exhale, right from its first minutes. Breathe out your job-induced stress, and breathe in a carefree vacation in the mountains. Then it spends the next twenty hours proving that it is more than meets the eye.

Dungeons of Hinterberg is many unlikely things combined into a package that just works. It is an action-packed hack-and-slash game with satisfying sword and magic combat, it is an outstanding puzzle game with a great sense of level design, it is a social sim with grounded and nuanced character writing, and it is a commentary on the positive and negative impact that tourism can have on small communities.

Microbird Games was heavily inspired by Persona 5 and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in its development, and this shines through in the game’s structure. In the day, spend your time clearing dungeons filled with unique creatures and puzzles. In the evenings, wind down by upgrading your gear and building social stats. You can min-max your experience if you’re that kind of player, or you can go with the flow and allow the game to gently nudge you in the right direction.

The game itself is fairly simple in design, but makes its mark through purposeful and polished execution. Its core gameplay takes place across four distinct areas and nine levels of difficulty. Variety’s the currency of choice as each area restricts you to a specific set of magical abilities, and there’s no way to complete all the dungeons in the area in one go. The result is an experience that constantly feels fresh, and a world that organically expands as you spend more time in it.

The level design of its dungeons is a particular highlight for me. Even with the plethora of puzzle games in the market right now, few games have made me feel this in sync with its design. Microbird Games absolutely nails the balance between intuitive gameplay and a level of challenge that’s just right, offering a smooth and satisfying gameplay experience from start to finish. My only major gripe in my playthrough was the choice to bind “jump” and “dodge” to the same button. All I can say is, there’s only so many times a person can accidentally dodge roll into the abyss before bringing it up.

Much like being on an actual vacation, the Hinterberg experience feels both small and big, all at once. One minute you’re waxing poetic about burnout to the village dog, the next you’re overcome with emotion from being surrounded by vast nature; one moment you’re laser focused on clearing the next wave of monsters, and another you’re uncovering the conspiracy behind this idyllic tourist destination. So maybe you don’t usually try to dismantle the system that allows you to enjoy your vacation in the first place, but in video game land, it only makes the town of Hinterberg and its inhabitants more loveable.

What differentiates this title from your average video game government coup is its commitment to your freedom of choice. There are stakes at hand, but not so urgent that you can’t take the afternoon off to meditate in the woods, or spend some extra time getting to know the townsfolk better. The character writing here is excellent, presenting seldom addressed issues with a strikingly realistic and nuanced tone. Some of my favourites were Marina, a young student and avid traveler who struggles with self-worth, and Jae, a pro slayer who is both driven and shackled by the weight of her own expectations.

Within the struggles of these characters contains a universal relatability that many players will appreciate, most of all with Luisa as our main character. Each time she takes a quiet moment to muse about corporate burnout, or toxic parental expectations, or conflating her self-worth with productivity, it feels like an arrow to the heart. While these are issues that video games have certainly addressed in the past, few have approached it with this much care and honest introspection.

Don’t get me wrong, Dungeons of Hinterberg is ultimately unrealistic. If we were in Luisa shoes, would we really abandon our stable jobs to chase after magic dungeons in the alps? Would we really have enough savings to stay in a hotel for thirty days without going flat broke? Probably not. But there’s something cathartic about being able to experience this in fiction, and Microbird understands that.

Most cozy games these days are wishful experiences, leaving us to dream of alternate universes where we can drop everything to start a farm in the countryside or slay monsters in magical dungeons. But Dungeons of Hinterberg veers a little closer to reality and leaves us asking: Is my job really the biggest thing in my life? Do I want my life to be defined by other people’s choices?

Whether or not you come away from this experience with a concrete answer, I think there is value in playing games that make you ask these questions. For that reason, I think Dungeons of Hinterberg is an experience that plenty of modern gamers will find enlightening.


Verdict: Booking My Next Holiday Right Now

Dungeons of Hinterberg is a game about dungeons and magic, but it’s also about corporate burnout and the impact of tourism on small communities. The game is an action-packed hack-and-slash with satisfying sword and magic combat, but it is also a social sim with grounded and nuanced character writing. It is everything you think it’s going to be, and a whole lot of what you don’t expect it to be. All we know is, we’re already booking our next trip to the alps.

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