One of my favourite games from the past few years is Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, an amazing isometric stealth game featuring a motley group of pirates with powers. While the production values were in line with a small indie project, the gameplay was so mechanically rich that I fell in love with it. Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is almost the opposite despite also being an isometric stealth game: the production values are impressive, especially for such a small title. The cutscenes could give some triple-A games a run for their money. The levels are filled with details, too, and the voice acting is both plentiful and superb. But it isn’t as mechanically rich underneath the hood – this is a straightforward, linear stealth game. It’s well executed and still fun to play, but veterans of the shadows might find it too strict. The key to Eriskholm, then, is going in with the right expectations.
Available On: Xbox, PC, PlayStation
Reviewed On: PS5
Developed By: River End Games
Published By: NordcurrentReview code provided by the publisher.
Our young heroine Hanna awakens after managing to survive a case of Heartpox to find her little brother by her bedside, relieved that his sister has beaten the typically fatal illness. While she’s been dead to the world, he’s been working hard to provide for them, and almost as soon as she’s awake, he’s back off to the job. Just a day later, the cops bust down the door, demanding to know where Herman is. Hanna has about as much faith in the justice system as I have in the UK cops, so she immediately makes a break for it and escapes. But now she has a mystery on her hands: where has her little brother gone, and what has he done, because the Victorian-esque city of Eriksholm is now brimming with officers looking for both of them.
Thus we set the stage for our mystery and ultimate goal: rescue Herman, figure out what he did, and maybe get out of Eriksholm and chase the siblings’ dream of a new life in Apple Gardens, away from their past and the rough life they live in a city that seems to be going downhill.
The intro does a solid due of introducing us to the very likeable Hanna via a gorgeous cutscene. Hanna clearly has a good heart, but one that’s locked up behind solid walls that can make her come across as brash and unwilling to trust others when it comes to her and her brother. They’ve both led a hard life, including once being part of a thieving gang, though they have been trying to leave that behind. Hanna’s attitude might come across as bratty at times to some, but I liked her and her spunk.
But the intro does make a mistake by barely having poor Herman on-screen. He’s introduced, and just as quickly is dispatched to the magical Plot Point Realm to be rediscovered later. That’s an issue since the main crux of the story is Hanna’s desire to find him, while I, as the player, can barely remember what he even looks like based on the 5 seconds of screen time he’s had. This is then exacerbated by a point during the game when the plot focus shifts and we begin to unravel a deeper mystery that is interesting, yet doesn’t feel like it connects very well to the initial premise. The emotional heart of the narrative is tossed aside in favour of this grander conspiracy, but a little more work on transitioning those elements would have gone a long way.
Still, the story manages to keep up an enjoyable pace, and I can’t tell you how much the excellent visuals in the cutscenes help. The facial animations are particularly stunning, supporting the excellent voice acting. And I enjoyed the themes of learning to accept help, to realise you can’t do everything yourself.
Along the way, Hanna gets joined by a couple of other allies, opening up the ability to swap between them with a tap of the D-pad. Again, going back to Cursed Crew or Desperados 3, my mind jumped to being able to program movements and then watch the mayhem unfold, but Eriksholm keeps it simple – each one is controlled individually. A tandem takedown means quickly jumping from one character to the other.
Whereas Hanna has a handy blowpipe that sends cop’s for a quick nap, Alva’s skillset lets her throw a rock. Okay, I admit, it’s a bit weird that only 1 character is capable of tossing a pebble, but once you get past that piece of dissonance, she can use them to distract people or smash light sources. That’s extra useful because the game’s light and dark system means you are completely hidden in the shadows unless someone whips out a flashlight. She’s also the only character capable of clambering up drainpipes, whereas Hanna squeezes through vents.
Then we have Sebastian who has two skills that set him apart: swimming, and being able to choke fools out like a UFC champion encountering a Karen/Kevin in the wild.
Describing this as a stealth game feels wrong. Sure, you’re going to be sneaking around behind guards’ backs, timing your movements through patrols and occasionally lurking in shadows like Batman’s Temu cousin twice removed, but at its heart, this is a puzzle game. There is exactly one solution to every section with absolutely zero room to flex your creative muscles. Sometimes that rigidity can feel claustrophobic, especially compared to other isometric stealth games. It’s not an especially challenging stealth game, either – usually, a few seconds of spinning the camera around will reveal a solution in the level’s design, and many times each character will have a distinctive path they need to take, meeting back up at certain points so they can work together. But don’t let all this trick you into thinking it isn’t fun, because it is. The stealth is well executed, and there are some really fun sections. It’s satisfying to distract one guard with a pebble so that Hanna and Sebastian can work in tandem to take out a Sentry.
There is an upside to the stealth being so restrictive and single-minded, top, and that’s how the developers can introduce lots of fun scripted stuff into the mix. By knocking out one policeman, for example, will cause a couple of his pals to notice his absence, so they’ll call in some backup and start trying to hunt you down, but by doing that they open op a gap for you to slip through. I also appreciated some of the other fun ideas the game employs, like listening in to a couple of cops talking about how the third guy is lazy, so when he suddenly disappears, they pay it no heed. At one point, I was even able to knock out a goon on a deckchair because his compatriots were waiting for him to fall asleep so they could sneak off. One of the biggest gripes often levelled at stealth in videogames is a lack of reactivity – Eriksholme handles that by taking away some freedom but replacing it with scripted events.
Of course, it goes without saying that the scripted, linear style of sneaking around comes at the cost of replay value. While I played Shadow Gambit over and over again, there isn’t much reason to phone up Eriksholm for another tumble in the hay. You already know the solutions, and how each section will play out.
In Conclusion…
While perhaps not as rich in the sneaky-sneaky department as I had hoped, Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream manages to impress with its solid stealth and genuinely impressive visuals. Go into this one expecting strong vibes in a beautiful world and competent stealth action, and you’ll have a good time lurking in the shadows, knocking out cops and listening in on the myriad little conversations.
I can’t wait to see what else River End Games gets up to next.
