Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream

My first read on Eriksholm was that River End Games had built a spiritual successor to Shadow Tactics: a multi-character isometric stealth game set in a rain-slicked Nordic city circa the early 1900s, where you coordinate three operatives with complementary kits to dismantle guard patrols. That read is only half right, and the distinction matters enormously if you're deciding whether to pull the trigger right now. The three playable characters are the mechanical spine of the whole experience. Hanna carries a blowpipe loaded with sleep darts and can squeeze through ventilation shafts, Alva climbs drainpipes to reach rooftops and fires a slingshot to shatter light sources or ping pebbles as distractions, and Sebastian wades through waterways and chokes guards bare-handed. On paper that sounds like the setup for a sandbox of interlocking solutions. In practice, the game operates much closer to a puzzle box than a tactics sim. Each encounter has a specific sequence the developers intended, and the instafail detection system, where a single guard spotting any character fades the screen to black and resets the scene, enforces that rigidity with an iron fist. Generous checkpointing softens the frustration considerably, and the quasi-real-time flow lets you open the tool wheel to slow things to a crawl while you queue up your next move, but sandbox thinkers who expect the latitude of a Desperados 3 will hit a wall. The game's creative director has openly described it as a stealth puzzle game with a strong story emphasis, and that framing is honest: treat each room as a logic puzzle with a discoverable solution rather than a system to exploit, and the frustration melts into something genuinely satisfying. The pacing is where Eriksholm earns its sharpest criticism. The opening chapters are an extended solo run with just Hanna, functioning as a slow-burn tutorial before Alva joins around the midpoint and Sebastian arrives frustratingly late in the eight-chapter structure. The trio only operates in full concert for the final third, which is also where the encounter design finally opens up and demands real coordination across all three ability sets. That final gauntlet, where every tool you have been handed across the campaign gets stress-tested in sequence, is the game at its best. The problem is spending the first half of your playthrough waiting to reach it. A skilled player can clear the campaign in under ten hours, completionist collectible hunters might stretch it to twelve, and because the linearity largely removes emergent replayability, the one-and-done nature of that runtime is a genuine value question worth sitting with. What is unambiguously excellent here is the presentation. The Unreal Engine 5 paintwork is extraordinary for a debut studio, with the isometric camera revealing a city of abandoned mines, grimy sewer canals, factory districts, and ritzy upper-class neighbourhoods that all feel like a meticulously crafted scale model rather than a game level. Voice performance across the full cast is British-accented and genuinely strong, particularly the trio of Hanna, Alva, and Sebastian, who each represent a distinct social stratum of Eriksholm's working-class city. The story is a straightforward Dickensian conspiracy, predictable in its twists but warmly told, and the notes and documents scattered as collectibles reward thorough players with proper environmental lore rather than throwaway flavour text. Accessibility is handled thoughtfully: noise manipulation, which is central to stealth, includes clear visual indicators for hard-of-hearing players. There are also reported instances of crashes and black screens from some players, so keeping an eye on the patch cadence is advisable. For anyone who gravitates toward narrative-first experiences and is comfortable with the idea that this is closer to an interactive puzzle film than a freeform tactics game, Eriksholm delivers on almost everything it promises. For players who want the multi-solution freedom of Shadow Tactics or Commandos, adjust expectations sharply before buying. River End Games has built the bones of something with a lot of sequel potential here. This first entry is a tightly curated, visually arresting debut that just needs more room to breathe.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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