Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is a title that truly surprised me when I previewed it earlier this year. It’s a pure stealth game for a start, even more so than something like Shadow Gambit, because where MiMiMi relied on either fantastical or elaborate skills to overcome obstacles, River End Games present a more grounded, level-headed world.
Perhaps the most important yet arguably subtle difference between Eriksholm and other isometric stealth games is the omission of vision cones. It never felt realistic in games, being invisible to a patrolling guard because you were 20 feet away or a few steps right or left of their eye-line. In Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream, if a guard has line of sight, they’ll see you, just get a little more time if you’re further away. It’s one noticeable way Eriksholm differs from what has come before.
Set in the titular city in the fictional realm of Rosmark, Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream follows Hanna, an urchin recently recovered from an often deadly disease called the Heart Pox. When her brother German is seized by the fascist police later that day, Hanna goes on the run, aiming to avoid the authorities while risking it all to find her brother and understand what he did to incur the ire of several prominent government figures. The setting is a mix of Victoriana and industrial era northern Europe, with an art style and atmosphere reminiscent of a less fantasy-centric Dishonored. Light is used to great effect, allowing you to cling to shadows to remain undetected, but also painting the world in glorious colour. Whether you’re navigating torchlit tunnels or sun-drenched city streets, Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream always looks impressive.
The story is told through intricate world design and world-class voice acting and cutscene animation. I’m not exaggerating when I say Eriksholm has some of the very best motion captured faces I’ve seen, making each dialogue scene feel hyper-real. It’s dazzling at times, and that doesn’t really change when gameplay takes over. Eriksholm is beautiful, the various environs of the city and its underbelly impeccably fashioned. Nothing feels copy-pasted in this handcrafted world, which makes navigating it feel like an absolute joy. Guards and NPCs have conversations that flesh out the world, and sometimes react to your hidden antics with surprise or even fear. There are moments when the same chucked stone will barely raise an eyebrow, but breaking a lightbulb with a thrown rock often elicits an amusing reaction from jobsworth guardsmen who’d rather be anywhere else.
You can’t fight in Eriksholm, so you’ll need to avoid enemies at all times. Being spotted or detected will trigger an instant return to the last checkpoint, but thankfully these are regular. You’ll fail a lot, given the puzzle-like nature of each area. Eventually you’ll have three characters to switch between, all with different abilities that you must combine to proceed. Hanna can crawl through vents and drop guards with her blowpipe, career thief Alva can scale drainpipes and thrust stones to distract guards, while the third character who will remain un-named for the sake of spoilers can choke out guards and swim.
This essentially means that while each has a unique method of traversal and dealing with threats, none of them can progress far alone. Stronger guards require two actions to defeat, while certain areas demand quick reflexes and perfect timing to knock out guards at the right moment. Flocks of birds or metal flooring can be manipulated to attract attention or deflect it, facilitating your sneaky antics.
Although each chapter scatters collectibles around that fill out lore entries, the path through each is fairly linear. There are rarely multiple solutions to get through an area, meaning it plays much more like a puzzle game than an adventure. Progress requires creative thinking, yet the correct path is often the most direct. Cleverly, Eriksholm splits the characters across areas, making the player feel smart and capable for coming up with solutions that combine their specialties. It’s the best kind of puzzle game, rewarding linear thinking as well as creativity. Some areas require you to solve actual environmental puzzles, too, such as deciphering Alva’s thieves’ cant markings in the mines below the city.
If I have a complaint, it’s that the central mystery began to wear thin the longer I went without answers. The world is too grounded to pull a Plague Tale rat swarm or introduce Dishonored’s magi-tech, so I began to worry that the answers when they came would be anticlimactic. But Eriksholm weaves a solid story throughout, with unexpected twists and more than one shock to keep you invested.
Taken as a whole, that complaint is incredibly minor. For some, Eriksholm’s dedication to its core mechanics might feel one-note, since it rarely becomes exciting or heart-pounding, and favours quiet tension over spectacle. Yet this laser focus on delivering an intricate, intelligent stealth challenge without veering into the realms of magic and the supernatural gives it a refreshingly grounded feel that becomes easier to invest in and relate to. Ultimately, Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is a wonderful adventure in a gorgeous world, and deserves to put River End Games well and truly on the map.
