Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is the primary recreation from newcomer studio River Finish Video games, but it surely carries the arrogance 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 partaking mechanics, every chapter appears like an hour-long play session in a phenomenal diorama puzzle field. The gameplay is backed by a brief and candy story about house and perseverance in opposition to all odds, and contains gorgeous 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; once I totally grasped what I used to be able to with all three protagonists concurrently underneath 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 stunning setting, with painterly visuals, jaw-dropping lighting, and a society that feels alive. After the town’s police kidnap her brother, protagonist Hanna units out on an journey to search out him. She’s rapidly pulled right into a enjoyable however simple conspiracy that leads her to deserted mines, rusty and dank sewer canals, and finally, nose to nose with essentially 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 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 the town and what it does to its much less lucky, much less prosperous residents; Hanna, a baby of the town simply attempting to outlive, Alva, a younger lady with a hearth 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 wonderful voice work, however I take pleasure in the best way these three harmonize mechanically much more.
Hanna can crawl via air flow shafts, escaping via 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 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 succeed in new (often 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 study this guard is a sentry, which means a dart alone received’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 manner, all three advance to a close-by hedge maze, the place I have to suppose even tougher about how their movesets will get me via this labyrinth stuffed with half a dozen guards whose sightlines crisscross in traumatic methods. When you’re noticed by a guard and don’t disguise earlier than their sightline fills up, you’re met with an immediate recreation over display screen.
Luckily, for essentially the most half, checkpoints are beneficiant. The sport’s trial-and-error stealth puzzles and frequent recreation overs not often stall the enjoyable. However there have been a number of 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 real looking animations and total motion pace are fairly sluggish. Nonetheless, I’m often only a few minutes away from one other nice head-scratching puzzle, bookended with a eureka second that doesn’t get outdated.
Eriksholm’s greatest 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 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 could be when Alva and Sebastian enter the image.
Chapters start and finish with cutscenes that function mystifyingly beautiful visuals that rival the business’s finest, 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 trend. My favourite moments, although, got here within the miniature tales informed by residents and guards as I stealthed ahead. One a few lady professing her affair to her husband, who lay unconscious at nighttime due to my actions, left me chuckling. It’s an virtually 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 superb puzzle recreation underneath the guise of a stealth journey, using the mechanics of the latter to create the items for the previous. With a targeted forged, 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 essentially the most half, avoids the important 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 ultimate handful of hours, good. I simply want the remainder of the sport matched its later heights.
