Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is the primary sport from newcomer studio River Finish Video games, but it surely carries the boldness and concepts of a workforce that’s been working within the stealth style for for much longer. With its top-down view, splendidly designed setting, and easy however participating mechanics, every chapter seems like an hour-long play session in a wonderful diorama puzzle field. The gameplay is backed by a brief and candy story about house and perseverance in opposition to all odds, and contains beautiful cinematics to match. When Eriksholm lastly lays out all of its puzzle items on the board two-thirds by means of the sport, the complete expertise sings, inviting playful and good experimentation. I simply want I had entry to its instruments sooner; after I totally grasped what I used to be able to with all three protagonists concurrently below my command, the credit quickly started to roll.
The sport begins within the Nordic-inspired metropolis of Eriksholm, which brushes up in opposition to a whalepunk aesthetic with steam engines, hanging trolley carts, and verticality paying homage to Arkane’s Dishonored sequence. It’s a stunning setting, with painterly visuals, jaw-dropping lighting, and a society that feels alive. After town’s police kidnap her brother, protagonist Hanna units out on an journey to search out him. She’s shortly pulled right into a enjoyable however easy conspiracy that leads her to deserted mines, rusty and dank sewer canals, and in the end, head to head with probably the most highly effective individuals within the metropolis. However she’s not with out assist, as she encounters a neighborhood resistance chief within the type of Alva, and the hardened however shy Sebastian, who be a part of Hanna’s journey to avoid wasting her brother and Eriksholm, too.
I just like the dynamic between these three, as every represents a unique side of town and what it does to its much less lucky, much less prosperous residents; Hanna, a toddler of town simply attempting to outlive, Alva, a younger girl with a fireplace for revolution, and Sebastian, a solitary employee who retains to himself. The way in which they play off one another narratively is nice, backed by glorious voice work, however I take pleasure in the best way these three harmonize mechanically much more.
Hanna can crawl by means of air flow shafts, escaping by means of secluded buildings to succeed in new locations and discover hidden collectibles, and shoot sleep darts with a blowpipe. Alva can climb drainpipes, bringing her to the rooftops of Eriksholm, the place she will be able to use her slingshot to shoot pebbles that create diversions or mild sources to darken an space. And at last, Sebastian can choke guards out along with his brute energy and swim within the surrounding water to succeed in new (normally decrease) places. The actual deal with of Eriksholm is scouting out the threats forward, be it illuminating mild or an abundance of guards or one thing else, and determining what every of those playable characters must do to permit the others to succeed ahead.
Maybe Alva must climb to a rooftop to shoot a pebble on the road mild above, permitting Hanna to maneuver nearer to a close-by guard and take them out with a sleep dart obscured by the darkness Alva’s shot offered. I study this guard is a sentry, which means a dart alone gained’t take them out, however fortunately, Sebastian is close by and might end the job by choking the sleepy guard out. With the sentry out of their method, all three advance to a close-by hedge maze, the place I must assume even more durable about how their movesets will get me by means of this labyrinth stuffed with half a dozen guards whose sightlines crisscross in worrying methods. If you happen to’re noticed by a guard and don’t conceal earlier than their sightline fills up, you’re met with an immediate sport over display.
Thankfully, for probably the most half, checkpoints are beneficiant. The sport’s trial-and-error stealth puzzles and frequent sport overs hardly ever stall the enjoyable. However there have been just a few instances I felt betrayed by a poor checkpoint that set me again a bit too far, and it doesn’t assist that the sport’s reasonable animations and total motion velocity are fairly sluggish. Nonetheless, I’m normally only a few minutes away from one other nice head-scratching puzzle, bookended with a eureka second that doesn’t get outdated.
Eriksholm’s largest folly, although, is that you simply spend nearly half the sport with simply Hanna earlier than Alva joins the fray, and by the point Sebastian rounds the trio out, there are only a few hours left to take pleasure in. I see why River Finish Video games did this – the primary few chapters with simply Hanna function an prolonged tutorial and alternative to find how Eriksholm’s world reacts to your stealthy strikes – but it surely holds again too lengthy how nice the sport will be when Alva and Sebastian enter the image.
Chapters start and finish with cutscenes that characteristic mystifyingly attractive visuals that rival the trade’s greatest, and the story Eriksholm tells is straightforward however stuffed with coronary heart, even when I noticed its twists from a mile away. By the point I wrapped up the sport, some 15 hours into it, I used to be left wanting extra of this crew and world. However Eriksholm additionally ends with a neat bow, wrapping up most unfastened ends in satisfying style. My favourite moments, although, got here within the miniature tales instructed by residents and guards as I stealthed ahead. One a couple of girl professing her affair to her husband, who lay unconscious in the dead of night because of my actions, left me chuckling. It’s an nearly bodily sort of comedy afforded by the sport’s diorama-esque participant viewpoint, and it supplies moments of sharp writing and wit all through.
Eriksholm is a good puzzle sport below the guise of a stealth journey, using the mechanics of the latter to create the items for the previous. With a targeted solid, three playable characters that synergize harmoniously, and a world whose nooks and crannies beg to be seen (with collectibles to reward your efforts), I’m left wanting extra. Eriksholm, for probably the most half, avoids the essential error of stealth puzzles that develop past advanced into irritating, and turns in a sequence of challenges which are nearly all the time enjoyable and, within the closing handful of hours, sensible. I simply want the remainder of the sport matched its later heights.
