Hinterland (PC)

It takes a village to murder a bunch of giants
10/6/2008 7:29 PM | 1 Comments | Page 2 of 3

The only way to save yourself and your village is to evict the low-level characters that have fed and clothed you while you paved paradise on their behalf. You need better home defense, after all, and that may mean kicking out everyone who is at a lower level than the visitors offering their services at that moment. You have limited space for buildings, so you can toss out the low-level guard for a higher-level one.

Hinterland is in dire need of an interface overhaul. There are two zoom levels, only one of which can be used for movement and combat. Attack and defense power are described with symbols that become unclear once you are looking at your entire population: Does that guard have an attack of three swords or 12 (10 + 2)? The only surefire way to track the impact of special of items like magic oats or cookbooks is to check the rollover tooltip on food or gold income. Your party levels up very slowly and there should be a clearer indication of progress somewhere.

There are also some technical issues on the larger maps. Things start to lag after a while, making it difficult to target the monster you want to kill.

Hinterland's appeal relies on liberal use of the randomization options. If you have "all resources" activated, then there really isn't much challenge or variation between sessions. Once you randomize your world, though, things get interesting. If you have no herbs in your area, you can't get a doctor. That means healing potions will be few and far between. No iron means that you will have to rely on loot drops for better-than-average weapons. The environment becomes a major constraint on the number of tools at your disposal. There is always the possibility that the necessary resources are out there, but are guarded by major enemies. Onward to glory, and better luck next time.

And, with the large number of possible character profiles, from courtesan to goblin collaborator to knight, every game is slightly different. There is enough difference to force you to explore new strategies (archers, mages or fighters?) but enough similarity to keep the game light and engaging. It's neither as gripping nor demanding as the ASCII hit Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress, but it's a lot easier to understand.