Developer Tilted Mill tried something a little different when they brought out SimCity Societies. It tried to strip down the complications of the franchise’s gameplay, to simplify a formula that many worldwide had grown to love, and the resulting product was something many, at least across the reviewing community, weren’t all that thrilled with. The studio is trying something different with Hinterland, a fantasy-themed hybrid game that combines light city building elements with a basic action-RPG component. Though there are still plenty of rough edges and technical issues, the approach works pretty well with this budget-priced title.

A game of Hinterland doesn’t follow any kind of storyline or linear format. You set a number of parameters for your game map, such as length, difficulty, and starting character class, and dive in. The ultimate goal of each map is to wipe it clean of enemies, something you do through hack-and-slash gameplay and city building. Both components are closely linked, which serves as the game’s primary strength as it gives you the feeling that regardless of what you’re doing, you’re making progress.

Cities are built by paying money to NPC visitors to settle, at which point a house is set up around your town center. Each NPC has a specialty that ranges from producing food, to buying back items, to raising skeletons. To get the more powerful NPCs to settle in your town or to upgrade those already settled, you need more money, fame, special items obtained from the combat field surrounding the town, and access to specific resources.