City builder developer Tilted Mill just released their city builder meets action RPG, Hinterlands (the title is singular –ed.). And while I can't really say I've played it enough to give it a full review, I can say that it needs more work. I like what they're trying, but I'm not sure they've pulled it off yet.

Firstly, for such a featherweight game, it's surprisingly punishing to new players, leaving them to flail around until they lose to starvation or disgrace. This isn't a game that pops up a dialogue box when you lose. Instead, it's happy to let you play for another hour or so. Be sure to read the manual for Hinterlands (how hard is it to remember that there's only one Hinterland? –ed.) before jumping in.

But more to the point, I get the sense that there's not much meaningful choice in this game. I can't tell if Hinterlands (maybe if there were different stages, it would be plural. It's not. You go out to one hinterland and that's it. –ed.) is simple or just simplistic. Either way, it's too vague. If a game wants me to make the choice between equipping a farmer with a hoe, a plow, a bag of fertilizer, or a magic farming book, I'm all for it. That's great stuff! But please give me some way to weigh their relative merits, or I'm probably going to screw myself out of the plow bonus every time by going for the magic book. Interesting choices are usually interesting because you have information about the choices. Hinterlands (now you're just doing it on purpose to aggravate me –ed.) needs to give its choices more meaning. Or at least a better interface.

I wish there was some sort of longer term sense of achievement. One- and two-hour nuggets of gameplay are good and well for some genres, but I think it misses the point of what makes a compelling action RPGs. In many ways, Depths of Peril is a rougher and more amateurish game than Hinterlands (I quit –ed.). But for all its messy graphics and interface peccadilloes, I'd rather level up my character in Depths of Peril than get yet another dude to level 6 only to abandon him in the Hinterlands (you're like my mom, who keeps talking about The Star Wars –ed.). Maybe I'm just not a casual enough gamer for Hinterlands (no one likes you –ed.). But having only lost twice and won once, I'll keep trying.

Finally, for the love of all that is holy, someone please put in an option for V-sync. I haven't seen this much screen tearing since the last time I played an Xbox 360 game.