Hinterland
Review
Loot, Level and... slash!
by Sergio Brinkhuis
reviewed on PC
Trying again! (cntd.)
Getting started, you will have little to no resources and you would be lucky to hire even your first follower. The reason why I got stuck with the “you can go no further” message was because I was running North and East. Your starting town is located right at the North-East corner of the map so there just isn’t anywhere to go. Adventure lies in the other two directions where Bandits, Goblins and all sorts of other sword-fodder reside.
The map is roughly divided into regions and your task is to clear each of these regions of its hostile inhabitants. In turn, they will try to clear your town but luckily you will get more time to campaign against them than you will need for defending your own turf. The Souls I referred to earlier come from crypts that are guarded by enemies. Clear them from the region around a crypt and you will have access to souls, will have pleased the king and gained a nice bit of fame to boot.
Growing, levelling
Defeated enemies increase your experience and drop gold and items that will help you or your followers in various ways. Apart from the standard items that increase your armor and attack stats, food bags, fertilizer and pliers are also dropped. These can be given to your production facilities in town to increase their productivity. Many of them are used up over time so depending on them for a permanent result would be a bad move. They can give you a nice temporary boost though.
As you clear more regions, you gain access to other resources in addition to Souls. As mentioned before, some of these resources are required to attract certain followers into your service. Some resources can be built inside your town which is especially helpful on games that you play on ‘long’ setting. Pretty much all resources are available on these maps, but they may be so far away and so heavily guarded that your early character won’t be able to deal with them. Building a well or importing stone in exchange for cash can solve a lot of problems early on.
Slowly clearing the map, you will notice enemies getting stronger and stronger. There will be many points when it will be nigh impossible to beat even a single creature. Asking some of your followers to join you is key to the later levels. You may not want to leave your food production facilities unattended but pretty much every other townsman can be missed from the duty roster. But beware, though, that while you will re-spawn when you kick the bucket, they may very well die.
A new day indeed
Hinterland doesn’t do well in the graphics department. The game looks outdated but this somehow adds to the experience of playing this strangely charming game. Playing it made me feel like I was playing a game from the good old days when developers were still experimenting with odd gameplay mechanics and graphics left much to be desired for but also much to be imagined. Objectively speaking, I would have to say that Hinterland lacks depth, is oversimplified and cannot hold its own in today’s market. Yet the fun I had with it tells a different story, one of engaging gameplay that is best enjoyed during a short game after a long, busy day at work. In the light of the many high-production-value titles that will be gracing the shelves this winter season, it would be unreasonable to score Hinterland anything higher than a seven, but that seven is well earned. Gamers on a budget will not be disappointed putting their $19.99 towards this one.
7.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
