Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is the primary sport from newcomer studio River Finish Video games, however it carries the arrogance and concepts of a crew that’s been working within the stealth style for for much longer. With its top-down view, splendidly designed setting, and easy however partaking mechanics, every chapter seems like an hour-long play session in a ravishing diorama puzzle field. The gameplay is backed by a brief and candy story about house and perseverance in opposition to all odds, and consists of beautiful cinematics to match. When Eriksholm lastly lays out all of its puzzle items on the board two-thirds via the sport, your entire expertise sings, inviting playful and sensible experimentation. I simply want I had entry to its instruments sooner; after I absolutely grasped what I used to be able to with all three protagonists concurrently beneath 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 harking back to Arkane’s Dishonored sequence. It’s a beautiful 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 seek 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 finally, nose to nose with probably the most highly effective folks within the metropolis. However she’s not with out assist, as she encounters an area 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 facet of town and what it does to its much less lucky, much less prosperous residents; Hanna, a baby of town simply making an attempt to outlive, Alva, a younger girl with a fireplace for revolution, and Sebastian, a solitary employee who retains to himself. The best way they play off one another narratively is nice, backed by wonderful voice work, however I get pleasure from the best way these three harmonize mechanically much more.
Hanna can crawl via air flow shafts, escaping via secluded buildings to achieve 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 use her slingshot to shoot pebbles that create diversions or gentle sources to darken an space. And at last, Sebastian can choke guards out together with his brute power and swim within the surrounding water to achieve new (normally decrease) areas. The true deal with of Eriksholm is scouting out the threats forward, be it illuminating gentle 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 avenue gentle 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 supplied. I be taught this guard is a sentry, which means a dart alone received’t take them out, however fortunately, Sebastian is close by and may 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 suppose even tougher about how their movesets will get me via this labyrinth stuffed with half a dozen guards whose sightlines crisscross in disturbing methods. When you’re noticed by a guard and don’t conceal earlier than their sightline fills up, you’re met with an on the spot sport over display screen.
Luckily, for probably the most half, checkpoints are beneficiant. The sport’s trial-and-error stealth puzzles and frequent sport overs not often stall the enjoyable. However there have been a number of occasions I felt betrayed by a poor checkpoint that set me again a bit too far, and it doesn’t assist that the sport’s life like animations and general motion pace are fairly sluggish. Nonetheless, I’m normally just some 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 just spend virtually 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 get pleasure from. 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 – however it holds again too lengthy how nice the sport may be when Alva and Sebastian enter the image.
Chapters start and finish with cutscenes that characteristic mystifyingly beautiful visuals that rival the business’s greatest, and the story Eriksholm tells is easy however filled 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 vogue. My favourite moments, although, got here within the miniature tales advised by residents and guards as I stealthed ahead. One a couple of girl professing her affair to her husband, who lay unconscious at the hours of darkness because of my actions, left me chuckling. It’s an virtually bodily kind 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 beneath 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 complicated into irritating, and turns in a sequence of challenges which are virtually all the time enjoyable and, within the remaining handful of hours, sensible. I simply want the remainder of the sport matched its later heights.
