There was a moment while playing through the preview build of Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream from River End Games that I had to stop and look up the development team, just to try to understand the pedigree of the people behind it. It has come out of the clear blue sky, by all accounts, developed by undoubted industry veterans but with almost no pomp or circumstance. After playing it for just a few hours, these facts make little sense to me.
For a start, Eriksholm is stunning. And I mean that with a capital STUNNING. Set in the titular city, located in the fictional Victorian-era country of Rosmark, it’s a top-down stealth game with elements of MiMiMi’s DNA within its make-up. The environments are insanely detailed, with intricate routes and hidden secrets to find as you guide protagonist Hannah through the streets, avoiding the police.
It’s a world that feels like a more grown-up Dunwall, sharing some visual elements and political themes with Dishonored throughout. The police are oppressive and terrifying, while the down-and-outs on the street all know one another and band together with an unspoken synergy when the filth are about. They’re looking for your brother Herman, but you don’t know why; you only know that it’s serious. They want you to go in for questioning, but it’s strongly implied that people who do that don’t come out again.
The cutscene acting and animation are insanely good. Early this year Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 blew me away, and Eriksholm might be a cut slightly above that calibre in terms of lip-syncing and facial work. A conversation between Hannah and Alva, a local thieves’ guild boss, has to be seen to be believed, frankly.
Initially you can only sneak around guards, distracting them by scaring pigeons or activating machinery that breaks their patrol routes. They don’t stand staring at walls for no reason, and so you’ll often need to find ways to make them move. If they see you it’s an instant reload, without any messing around.
After you meet Alva you’ll receive a blowpipe with sleep darts, but this too has to be used carefully. You have infinite ammo but it’s on a cooldown, and it will take a moment to work on a guard. In those few seconds they can still spot you, or may be seen collapsing by another guard. If they do, it’s a reload. Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream doesn’t bother with vision cones, either; if an enemy has line of sight, they’ll spot you after a few seconds, which is faster the closer you are.
The final section of the preview changes things up further as you control both Alva and Hannah. The former can throw stones to distract guards and scale drainpipes, allowing her to take different routes to Hannah, so you’ll need to split them up and move them in tandem to get around. For example, to avoid chatting guards and a roving searchlight, you’ll need to time moving Hannah with Alva’s thrown stone. It’s not particularly intricate, though I expect there’ll be deeper mechanics later, but it still made me think, and ramped up the tension.
Characters will automatically crouch-walk when enemies are around, and you’ll be highlighted behind obstructions – though you can rotate the camera if you want a better view. You’ll need it to locate all the collectibles dotted around. Arguably this is where Eriksholm might need a little more pizazz: the collectibles offer a greater understanding of the lore and world, but don’t have any effect beyond that. It’s fun to find them, but doesn’t feel essential for the risk.
Regardless of this tiny complaint, everything about Eriksholm has my attention. I can’t wait to learn more about the world, about the characters. I want to know what Herman did, and what the mysterious Heart Pox disease is. There’s an air that this could veer into the fantastical, though there’s no real evidence of that yet – ultimately though, I’m deeply interested in Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream and can’t wait to play more. And really, that’s all a preview build needs to do.
Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is due to release on PC in 2025.
