By Kieron Gillen on September 1st, 2008 at 9:49 am.
PCG:US have reprinted the preview of Hinterland I wrote for PCG:UK. I start like this…
As excited as everyone is by Diablo III, you find yourself wondering: what else could an RPG be? Is collecting loot, side-questing, selling to shopkeepers (and repeat) the only way to do it? Hinterland is built off the same fantasy ingredients we’re used to seeing in RPGs, and you can spot the inspiration – Diablo, Rogue-games, Dwarf Fortress, city-builders – but we’ve never seen the ideas mashed up like this. “In making it, we kind of had this ‘why didn’t someone make this before?’ feeling,” says Jeff Fiske, co-designer.
01/09/2008 at 11:15 runab0ut says:
Never knew about the game or developer… sounds good.
01/09/2008 at 12:08 Schadenfreude says:
Liking the looks of this one. Hopefully it turns out okay.
01/09/2008 at 13:56 Lucas says:
I really want this to be good. Tilted Mill has made great strides in the past year to go indie and really support their games (notably Children of the Nile and SimCity Societies) with huge patches (4 years after release for CotN!). Hinterland looks like it could be a lot of fun. Go TM!
01/09/2008 at 14:57 ScubaV says:
I’m keeping my eye on this, but the whole “we’re not giving you any structure, you have to make your own sandbox fun” vibe has me pretty worried. I like story-based RPG’s a la Gothic and Baldur’s Gate. I can’t say the same for sandbox RPG’s a la Morrowind and Oblivion.
01/09/2008 at 15:31 hydra9 says:
You just put David Bowie’s “Red Sails” in my head – ‘The hinterland, the hinterland, we’re gonna sail to the hinterland!” Excellent.
Anyway, this does sound intriguing. I’m always looking for games that give you a real sense of familiarity with a place or its people. So I like the idea of managing a small town, recruiting a farmer, then going adventuring with him/her.
01/09/2008 at 15:38 Zeno says:
Thank god some dev is starting to question the mold. RPGs have the potential to be some of the most open games ever, but all-too-often what we’re really given is just a different sort of action game.
01/09/2008 at 16:01 Gotem says:
the concept reminds me a little of Majesty. there’s a band of orcs around? put a reward on their heads
03/09/2008 at 01:16 sinister agent says:
Sounds promising. It’d be nice to play an RPG without bloody elves and swords in, too, but one thing at a time, I suppose.
03/09/2008 at 14:28 whomever says:
I hope it’s modable, because while it looks really great, I will want to see post-apocalyptic zombie and Falloutish editions.