Hinterland (video game)
Encyclopedia
Hinterland is a high fantasy
role-playing video game
with city-building
elements by Tilted Mill Entertainment
. It was released on September 30, 2008 on the Steam content delivery system, and has since been made available at other digital distribution
websites. Hinterland: Orc Lords, a cumulative expansion, was released to digital distribution and retail in March 2009. As the title suggests, the primary addition to the game was the ability to play as orc characters.
and the Celts, the game features characters and creatures of fantasy which inhabit the lands surrounding the village.
The player controls an adventurer acting as the leader of the settlement, required both to defend it from attacks and to provide funding for its expansion. While the player's profession is chosen from among a number that specializes in combat, city management, or resource gathering, other non-player characters with more menial professions also periodically visit the village. These peasants and tradesmen can be persuaded to settle in the village if their requirements are met and a home is constructed for them (at the player's expense). Once resident, they can either perform their designated job function (e.g., growing food or smithing weapons), or be conscripted to join the player on expeditions into the unknown.
From an adventuring perspective, the player (and up to three followers drafted from the village) must clear out small zones of enemy resistance in order to claim these for the kingdom. Each zone is populated by less than a dozen enemies, and is denoted with an icon indicating how difficult the zone is expected to be to conquer. Once a zone is cleared, the player gains access to any resources located within, and may also be rewarded with bonus treasure. The number of zones depends on the game length (size) selected when starting the game.
The primary challenge of the game is keeping the village safe while adventuring to find much needed resources for its expansion. Choices must also be made into how to spend funds, in terms of upgrading existing dwellings or adding new ones.
and Roguelike
s, as well as numerous building and simulation games. According to the developers, the title attempts to address a missed opportunity within the role-playing genre where the player's actions have consequences for the other inhabitants of the game world. They note, "Hinterland gives depth and context to the RPG experience, by allowing you to do something more meaningful with the spoils from your RPG adventures. Rather than just re-invest in yourself, you build something much bigger than yourself, that 'other character' - your village and its people."
, while Metacritic
gave it a score of 66 out of 100, based on 8 reviews. GameSpy
rated Hinterland 3.5 out of 5 ("Good"), citing positives such as the low price, low time investment, and random map generation while deriding it for low-quality animation, simplistic city-building, and low amount of feedback from various in-game events. The IGN
review praised the successful interweaving of the city management and adventuring aspects, while pointing out negatives including a clumsy interface and some minor technical problems. IGN concluded, "For $20 USD, it's a lot of game for your dollar", earning it a score of 7.2 out of 10 (Decent).
High fantasy
High fantasy or epic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is set in invented or parallel worlds. High fantasy was brought to fruition through the work of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, whose major fantasy works were published in the 1950s...
role-playing video game
Role-playing video game
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
with city-building
City-building game
City-building games are a genre of strategy computer game where players act as the overall planner and leader of a city, looking down on it from above, and being responsible for its growth and management...
elements by Tilted Mill Entertainment
Tilted Mill Entertainment
Tilted Mill Entertainment is a video game developer located in Framingham, Massachusetts. It was founded in 2001 by former Impressions Games lead designer and general manager Chris Beatrice, business manager Peter Haffenreffer, and designer Jeff Fiske....
. It was released on September 30, 2008 on the Steam content delivery system, and has since been made available at other digital distribution
Digital distribution
Online distribution, digital distribution, or electronic software distribution is the practice of delivering content without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet directly to a consumer's device. Online distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media,...
websites. Hinterland: Orc Lords, a cumulative expansion, was released to digital distribution and retail in March 2009. As the title suggests, the primary addition to the game was the ability to play as orc characters.
Overview
During play, the goal is to establish and grow a village successfully in the wilderness of a fantasy kingdom, clearing out all nearby threats. Set in a world roughly based on the lore of both the NorseNorsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
and the Celts, the game features characters and creatures of fantasy which inhabit the lands surrounding the village.
The player controls an adventurer acting as the leader of the settlement, required both to defend it from attacks and to provide funding for its expansion. While the player's profession is chosen from among a number that specializes in combat, city management, or resource gathering, other non-player characters with more menial professions also periodically visit the village. These peasants and tradesmen can be persuaded to settle in the village if their requirements are met and a home is constructed for them (at the player's expense). Once resident, they can either perform their designated job function (e.g., growing food or smithing weapons), or be conscripted to join the player on expeditions into the unknown.
From an adventuring perspective, the player (and up to three followers drafted from the village) must clear out small zones of enemy resistance in order to claim these for the kingdom. Each zone is populated by less than a dozen enemies, and is denoted with an icon indicating how difficult the zone is expected to be to conquer. Once a zone is cleared, the player gains access to any resources located within, and may also be rewarded with bonus treasure. The number of zones depends on the game length (size) selected when starting the game.
The primary challenge of the game is keeping the village safe while adventuring to find much needed resources for its expansion. Choices must also be made into how to spend funds, in terms of upgrading existing dwellings or adding new ones.
Development
Hinterland draws inspiration from a variety of fantasy titles, including RogueRogue (computer game)
Rogue is a dungeon crawling video game first developed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman around 1980. It was a favorite on college Unix systems in the early to mid-1980s, in part due to the procedural generation of game content. Rogue popularized dungeon crawling as a video game trope, leading...
and Roguelike
Roguelike
The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
s, as well as numerous building and simulation games. According to the developers, the title attempts to address a missed opportunity within the role-playing genre where the player's actions have consequences for the other inhabitants of the game world. They note, "Hinterland gives depth and context to the RPG experience, by allowing you to do something more meaningful with the spoils from your RPG adventures. Rather than just re-invest in yourself, you build something much bigger than yourself, that 'other character' - your village and its people."
Reception
Hinterland received an average of 69% out of 7 reviews at Game RankingsGame Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
, while Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave it a score of 66 out of 100, based on 8 reviews. GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
rated Hinterland 3.5 out of 5 ("Good"), citing positives such as the low price, low time investment, and random map generation while deriding it for low-quality animation, simplistic city-building, and low amount of feedback from various in-game events. The IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
review praised the successful interweaving of the city management and adventuring aspects, while pointing out negatives including a clumsy interface and some minor technical problems. IGN concluded, "For $20 USD, it's a lot of game for your dollar", earning it a score of 7.2 out of 10 (Decent).