Category: Video Games

The protagonist of Dungeons of Hinterberg is at a crossroads in her life. Feeling burnt out by her big city job, Luisa travels to the easygoing town of Hinterberg, Austria, to check out the sights, cut loose in the social scene, and try her hand at monster slaying to score some sweet loot. Dungeons of Hinterberg is what you get when you combine the cozy vibes of a Persona-style social-sim RPG with the sprawling adventure of The Legend of Zelda – and all wrapped in a charming package that strikes a chord for those longing for a break.

In my extended preview of developer Microbird Games’ action- RPG, I got to play the early hours of this oddball yet delightfully charming dungeon crawler that tasks you with making the most of your monster-filled vacation in the Austrian Alps.

When a mysterious magical force has turned the town of Hinterberg and the surrounding mountains into an actual high-fantasy realm filled with mythical monsters and dungeons, the small community becomes a tourist hot spot for thrill seekers and social media influencers. WhenFollowing Luisa’s first crack at a dungeon run leads to an unexpected boss battle with the mythical Krampus, she resolves to stick with her vacation and learn the ropes of being an adventurer and citizen of Hinterberg.

As Luisa, you spend your “slaycation” in Hinterberg getting to know the quirky residents and exploring the surrounding magical zones outside of town. Within a daily schedule, you have to manage Luisa’s time while out and about across Hinterberg – which includes getting some quality “me-time” by checking out points of interest while deciding on which dungeons or overworld activities to dive into. Along the way, you’ll upgrade Luisa’s skills in combat and exploration to make her a more capable adventurer and uncover what led to magic forces seeping into the real world.

What immediately jumped out to me was Dungeons of Hinterberg’s gorgeous visual style. The vibrant colors and stylized characters all come together to give off a warm and exciting vibe to the adventure. It’s very much giving a comic book-style aesthetic, and coupled with the cozy vibes and generally exciting exploration, it’s a unique take on a dungeon crawler that’s all about making the most of your time and enjoying yourself while doing it.

An average day for Luisa starts with catching up with friends to learn about current events in town before spending her afternoon exploring the magical wilderness of Hinterberg, which includes mountainside plains, dense forests, and other bizarre locales infused with magic. To cap off her day of adventuring, Luisa spends her evening bonding with one of the many characters in town, such as the owner of a spell shop or an aloof pop-culture journalist not impressed by the magical city, to earn an upgrade or stat bonus. You can turn in for the night or stay up late to watch TV or read a book, but at the cost of lower health for the following day.

On the surface, this seems like a strict structure that can put some pressure on your activities, but in practice, it works as an engaging game loop that keeps me focused on what sort of threads I want to follow. Dungeons of Hinterberg keeps a mellow pace even when you can only do a limited number of daily activities. Moreover, you can revisit social threads and check out areas you may have missed in the following days.

And even though it’s a dungeon crawler RPG – which carries some expectation of tension and challenge – Hinterberg maintains that “vacation” vibe throughout, especially when taking on the meat of the experience with the exploration and combat. The starting zone of Doberkogel is an excellent onboarding that shows off the scope on offer, and the inherent quirkiness of seeing a modern community trying to embrace magic.

As you explore the zones, you’ll be able to fight monsters in engagements that feel inspired by both Nier Automata and The Legend of Zelda, with Luisa being able to dodge attacks, counter with follows, and whip out some powerful spells or combat moves to take out her foes. However, it can be easy to wander into some fights that you’re completely outmatched for. While I sometimes felt the slowed pace and somewhat dodgy camera in action added some unintended challenges, I was impressed by how varied the battle mechanics were, and seeing Luisa dish out some truly stunning moves was particularly satisfying.

Luisa’s versatility also comes into play during the titular dungeons. With 25 bespoke dungeons to explore, each presents unique puzzles and combat encounters that lean into the zone-specific magical spells you’ll need to master. Some of these encounters involve some Legend of Zelda-style thinking to resolve, such as using magical bombs to blow up groups of enemies or open passages. It was super fun to see how each dungeon and set piece event felt unique, leaning into particular skill sets to make it to the end.

Dungeons of Hinterberg leans into its quirky setting, especially the cast of characters — many are either annoyed by the increased attention the town has received or welcome the opportunities the notoriety brings. One of my favorite moments saw the Mayor of Hinterberg tout the community’s popularity by announcing the filming of a new streaming series in town and unveiling a monster slayer-themed statue, which the residents quickly dunk on for looking ridiculous.

What makes Dungeons of Hinterberg such a neat take on a dungeon crawler is that it not only shows a self-awareness of the type of game it is, but it uses that conceit to focus on building up Luisa and her friends within Hinterberg. Exploring the town is an enjoyable and intriguing activity, as the community has so much personality. I often walked around just to hear some of the quirky dialog and see the sights.

It’s such a fresh take on a dungeon crawler, and the experience of embracing new horizons in an unfamiliar yet still inviting setting and the friends you make along the way make this such a novel take on a familiar conceit. From my early hours, Dungeons of Hinterberg and its laid-back approach to an action RPG show some great promise, and it could end up being a pleasant surprise for those looking for a decidedly new type of dungeon crawler to dive into.

Newly appointed PlayStation CEOs Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst have discussed the company’s perspective on live service games, PC releases, lay offs, and much more in their first presentation as co-leaders.

Nishino and Hulst opened Sony’s Game and Network Services Business Segment presentation by boasting “each PlayStation 5 sold generates over $700 U.S. of additional spend, which is significantly higher than the previous generation.”

Controlling Scope and Scale Without ‘Compromising on Quality’

To keep up a high level of game development Hulst said PlayStation is “increasing [its] use of external development teams, outsourcing partners, and co-development agreements with teams in lower-cost regions”. He then insisted this allows PlayStation to control the “scope and scale” of its games “without compromising on quality”.

AI is seemingly another way PlayStation is looking to achieve this. “We also see opportunities in AI to level up our own productivity and to enhance player experiences enabling us to better serve players and creators, create new experiences, and drive organization-wide efficiencies,” Nishino said.

“Research and experimentation in AI and machine learning is a focus for us,” Hulst added. “With work being done across a wide variety of our development tools and processes, we have a wealth of knowledge and experience forged from decades of gaming industry experience that will enable us to implement AI tools efficiently and impactfully.

“We have been realizing the benefits of AI in several areas, from assets creation to efficiency to accelerating coding to optimizing translation and localization processes, all while ensuring a responsible and ethical approach across the organization. We believe that AI holds great promise for the future of gaming, and we want to lead the industry in the adoption and implementation of this new technology.”

Helldivers 2 Paving the Way Forward for Sony’s Live Service

PlayStation is prioritizing a mix of tentpole single-player games alongside live service games, going forward, but will pull from the success of Helldivers 2 and launch all upcoming live service games on PC and PS5 simultaneously.

“We are bringing our titles to the PC platform and we have a dual approach here on the live service side,” Hulst said. “We are releasing our titles simultaneously, so day-and-date on PlayStation 5 and PC, but with our tentpole titles, our single-player narrative-driven titles that are, as you saw on the presentation, the backbone of what PlayStation Studios has delivered in recent years and in our history, we take a more strategic approach.

“We introduce our great franchises to new audiences, and we’re finding new audiences that are potentially going to be very interested in playing, for example, sequels on the PlayStation platform. We have high hopes that we’re actually able to bring new players into PlayStation at large and into PlayStation platforms specifically. Actually, the same goes for the work that we do with extending our great properties onto other media such as television series and film.”

Speaking of that focus on delivering games outside of just PlayStation consoles, Nishino believes, “rather than cannibalization,” this is an “opportunity for growth.” Hulst chimed in too: “We are looking to extend the reach of our franchises by our focus on multi-platform delivery. That enables us to continue to invest these substantial amounts into creating world-class franchises.”

Helldivers 2 is a prime example of this strategy, and, according to Hulst, it “highlights the strength of our live services efforts as well as the increased returns and reach we can realize by bringing our games to new formats and audiences beyond the PlayStation console.”

This strategy won’t be the same on all different platforms, however, as the team is taking a more “measured approach” when it comes to mobile instead of the more aggressive one on PC.

“PC is obviously more adjacent to the core of our development than mobile is,” Hulst said. “Nevertheless, we’re taking a strategic approach also in the sense of working with some of the leading companies in this space. We’re working with various partners such as NCSoft and we’re learning a lot from these collaborations, and let me conclude by saying that we’re very excited about upcoming title releases that we can communicate in the future.”

Industry Is in a ‘Very Good Place’ Despite Thousands of Job Losses

In response to a question about the layoffs that have impacted the whole video game industry, including PlayStation itself when it let go of 900 people in February 2024, Hulst insisted the industry is actually “in a very good place”.

“We’re always looking to optimize the resource allocation on an ongoing basis, but I think specifically what you’re referring to in recent months and quarters is probably a slight adjustment on the back of the windfall that the industry saw during the pandemic,” Hulst said.

“So, that might be reflective of that rather than impacting the long-term growth of the industry, which I believe in general is in a very good place, but I see this as an adjustment of the pandemic years.”

Alongside PlayStation job losses, Microsoft closed a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda earlier in May 2024.

Bungie

Elsewhere in the discussion, Hulst and Nishino discussed how Halo and Destiny developer Bungie is improving its business, despite several of its employees also being laid off by PlayStation in late 2023.

“Bungie’s network operations expertise has allowed us to optimize the performance of our upcoming live service titles, which is really great,” Hulst said.

“We expect to see the full integration of Bungie’s capabilities into our business operations by the end of this current fiscal year. We can’t disclose financials for individual studios in our portfolio that includes Bungie, but whilst we don’t expect a profit contribution from Bungie in Fiscal Year 24 on a standalone basis, that is obviously to do with the fact that they are working on a new IP that is yet to be released.

“It’s really important to state that we are already seeing returns on our investment in the form of process optimization and capability growth across SIE, particularly in live services. And that was always the goal behind the acquisition, that it has helped us to progress faster. It’s helped us with cost optimization, and then obviously with the upcoming releases of Destiny: The Final Shape and later with Marathon, we are going to see significant revenues coming in to SIE.”

The meeting also revealed the PS5 generation is PlayStation’s most profitable console to date and that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 sales have swung all the way up to 11 million units since launch.

PlayStation’s big week continues today, May 30, as its gearing up to present its latest State of Play that will feature “14 PS5 and PS VR2 titles, including a look at PlayStation Studios titles arriving later this year.”

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Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.