Hinterland - Early Next Week
 

A short announcement on Tilted Mill's Hinterland site informs the game will arrive via Steam early next week:
More information.

Maybe I'm expecting a little too much from a game that downloads for $20 but I was a little disappointed in the sample videos they are showing on the main site. Every combat animation shown was literally like chopping wood in fast forward accompanied by an extremely annoying 'grunt' sound. I guess I was expecting something at least up to par with Stronghold visually.

I know nothing about nothing and should keep my mouth shut, but just in general, there are an awful lot of sub-sub-par games (in terms of polish (that's polish, not Polish)), continuing, there are an awful lot of su-sub-par games that get released and still debut at the $40-$50 range, by small publishers and big alike. So while the cheapscate in me (who pretty much runs the show) thrills at a $20 game, I too am pretty wary of a game's quality if the people pricing it decided even they don't think it's worth the same $40-$50 as all those other games.

But looks nifty, and I hope the reviews set me straight.

If I remember right, this game was developed very quickly.

Available by download only. I just got a whole lot less interested.

Can't win, can they? Too cheap, not cheap enough, download only. I see plenty of commentators around the web saying the future of the PC is smaller, more innovative games, rather than monolithic AAA developments. I'm not convinced the public is buying into the same arguments.

Me neither.
I´m not convinced it was a good idea to start at 20$. Maybe they should have collected 40 bucks from a few thousand people and lower the price to 25$ before Christmas. A 20$ game from an established studio sounds either cheap or desparate.

Well, it's like the old engineering adage: "Cheap, Fast, Good … Pick Two" (or something like that). And I think that's the buying public's mentality as well. If it's cheap and was developed quickly, it can't possibly good.

I'm still looking forward to Hinterland.

I'm a collector. If I don't get a disc I'm a lot less likely to buy a game.

Videos don't look very promising, the gameplay seems pretty Hack & Slash with few strategic element. But I will wait and see.

I also don't like download-only.

Wait wait, how can it 'go gold' if there are no disks? :)

Sure. Contrast against the number of times you hear game are too expensive - or if the were only $20 (or $10 or whatever), people would buy a lot more - or if they were cheaper, they wouldn't get pirated.

Good points all, Dhruin.

Having said that (er … typed it) I just downloaded Hinterland and have to say — even at $20 — I'm disappointed. I fully understand and appreciate what TM has set out to do, and I'm probably not their target for this title. But my initial impression is the oh-so-cliched "meh".