The beauty of stealth games to me is that they are inherently puzzle games with another level of intensity attached to them. Stealth games often involve problem solving on the fly and using all of your tools to get through each level. Unlike most puzzle games, stealth games also tend to have multiple solutions to each “puzzle.” However, if you fail to solve the puzzle, you might end up in a big fight or get a game over. As much as I love games like Portal, it’s kind of fun to have a puzzle that punishes you for losing.
Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream takes this concept to its extreme. Rather than being an action type of game with puzzle elements like most stealth games, Eriksholm is a straight-up puzzle game within a stealth framework. This leads to a very enjoyable experience that makes puzzle solving interesting in ways that feel familiar and yet totally unique. Eriksholm executes so well on everything that it does, that it might be the only insta-fail stealth game that I think people who dislike insta-fail stealth could actually enjoy. Once again, that’s because Eriksholm isn’t really a stealth game.
As much as the “stealth” gameplay surprised me, I ended up equally surprised by how strong the storytelling, voice acting, and production values are all from a small indie team. Eriksholm is a delight in one way after another, and it’s something that anyone who enjoys stealth or puzzle solving should have their eyes on.
One Character Can Take Out Enemies With Darts. One Character Can Take Out Enemies With Their Hands… And One… Can Shoot Lights With A Slingshot? Tough Look For Them.
Eriksholm takes place in a setting reminiscent of the early 1900s (a time we all remember fondly, I’m sure). You mostly play as Hanna. Hanna is someone who used to work outside the confines of the law but has left that life behind. Unfortunately, her brother Herman appears to get involved in something shady due to Hanna dealing with a terrible illness, which sends the police to their door. Hanna has no trust for the police for a variety of reasons, so she escapes and heads off to find her brother before the police do.
It’s funny to think back on those early hours of the game, as they completely fooled me into thinking Eriksholm was a standard stealth game. Hanna has no abilities in the early going, so you mostly do standard sneaking around past enemies, though there are a few minor puzzles worked in. This section has one thrilling escape from police after another as Hanna makes her way to her destination.
Soon after the opening part of the game, Hanna unlocks a blowpipe that lets her put guards to sleep. This blowpipe has very specific requirements in order to use. You must be pretty close to the enemy. They cannot see you at all when you use it or a few seconds after they get hit, and no guards can be nearby. No one can see the body on the ground afterward either (you can move most of the bodies in the game). This ability is when Eriksholm starts to showcase what it really is. The game is very carefully designed so that you can’t cheese your way through any area with the blowpipe. The game sets up its areas, enemies, and their movement patterns so that there is pretty much one specific solution to almost everything in the game. There were a few times when I thought I might have fooled the game and solved something in a way I wasn’t supposed to, and in almost all of those situations, I was eventually caught.
Unlike most stealth games, Eriksholm also has an isometric camera that you can move and rotate around as much as you wish. So, as you enter each area, your goal is to scout out the area, the enemies, and their movement patterns, and then figure out which route to take to get to the next area. With all the planning you have to do, this is a big part of the game, and luckily, the camera controls well and is mostly painless to use.
Eventually, you gain the ability to play as a second character that has a special ability that allows them to distract foes and take out lights, and then a third character that can choke out most enemies from behind. Both of these characters enter the fray at the perfect time, and each adds significantly more depth to the puzzles the deeper you go into the game. There is some strong puzzle solving even when you are just using Hanna in the early going, and it only gets better when you have to figure out how to utilize three different characters with different skillsets to advance.
Eriksholm also does a great job of throwing consistently interesting scenarios at you. The story stakes keep rising the further you go, and the scenarios the game puts you in match those stakes. Eriksholm gets pretty damn epic by the end, and there are plenty of situations where my heart was absolutely pounding. The game really has some of the best of both stealth and puzzle solving with what makes it appealing. I loved the feeling of infiltrating a highly guarded complex, but the game had my brain working in the same way the best puzzle games do.
I also thought the difficulty balance was just about perfect, as nothing stumped me for all that long, but I did think that the game was sufficiently challenging throughout as well.
Girl, You Are GLOWING (sometimes)
Most of the difficulty in Eriksholm really comes from occasionally poor visual design more so than the actual puzzle design. Enemies are not highlighted in the game in any way outside of when you are using your special abilities to target someone, so it is at times easy to miss enemies and get caught instantly by someone you never saw. The enemies can blend into the environments pretty well in darker areas, and the isometric camera makes it especially easy to miss someone hidden behind a building if you aren’t scanning every single angle possible.
Navigation tools like pipes and crates have a slight glow to them in order to highlight them, so luckily, those are usually easier to find. But there were a few times where I got stuck because there was a hidden ladder that I hadn’t seen, or a door that they do not make obvious that you can go through. These scenarios all popped up a bit more often that I’d like, and hurt the flow of the game at times.
My only other issue with the actual puzzle solving is that there are definitely a few scenarios that are pretty trial and error in ways that I found mildly annoying. There are several situations where you need to set off a distraction and see how the enemies react before you can really know how to advance through the area, since enemies react in very specific ways to different situations. In most stealth games, enemies react pretty much the exact same way whenever there is a suspicious situation. Eriksholm is much more handcrafted since it is more of a puzzle game than a stealth game, which can lead to unpredictably in both good and bad ways.
The other thing that hurts the flow of the game is the navigation once you start getting multiple characters. Having three characters is a treat in terms of puzzle solving, but I wish the game brought all the characters up to where the lead character is in more situations. There are plenty of spots where I had taken out all of the enemies in an area, but I still had to slowly bring all three characters to the next point in order to keep going. There are actually a few scenarios where the game does just advance all of the characters, but it doesn’t happen nearly enough in my view. Luckily, this is mostly a minor nitpick.
Coming Soon To The Big Nerd Gaming Awards… “Most Chemistry Of The Year”… Actually… That’s Not A Bad Idea
The gameplay of Eriksholm surprised me in multiple ways throughout, but I may have been even more stunned by the strength of the story and production values in the game. Eriksholm absolutely nails everything it does, which is impressive from a very small studio.
While I obviously won’t get too deep into the plot, as I want to avoid spoilers, Eriksholm story really develops into something great. What begins as a simple story of escape turns into one heavy on politics, intrigue, and character drama. The plot builds up to several crescendos throughout and delivers on pretty much every single one of them.
The game does an excellent job with its worldbuilding, too, which ties in well with the political nature of the story. There are a lot of interesting things going on within the government, and it all ties in perfectly with Hanna’s story. There are also tons of collectible letters and posters that you can find in the world, and Hanna (or her other characters) will have their own little commentary on everything they find, which adds even more flavor to everything.
Those characters are the other element that really carry the storytelling element of the experience. Hanna is an incredibly likable and well-made character who is impeccably voice acted by Rosie Day. She eventually meets up with Alva (played by Lucy Griffiths, who is also excellent), who is her former mentor of sorts. There is both a love and tension between them that is absolutely electric throughout the entire game. Almost every interaction between Hanna and Alva is absolutely must-see material. The writing in Eriksholm is consistently strong.
Those interactions are also enhanced by some fantastic visuals. Eriksholm is yet another indie that makes great use of the Unreal Engine to deliver one gorgeous environment after another, with the lighting being a personal highlight for me. The game’s cutscenes are also top tier, with some excellent and detailed character models that combine with the strong voice acting to always be compelling. I was always highly engaged with them. In fact, my only complaint with the production values in the game is that they don’t always go quite big enough. There are several really important moments in the game that don’t get the cutscene treatment. They happen in the in-game engine instead, which is very zoomed out. Normally, I’d be pretty forgiving on this with an indie game, but at $40, Eriksholm is a bit more expensive than your average indie. I think that when charging that price, they could have had a few more cutscenes, but these moments are still powerful either way.
Picross Fans, Plague Tale, And Metal Gear Solid Fans Unite?
Despite that complaint, let me assure you that I was more than happy to spend $40 on Eriksholm. It earned every cent from me. Eriksholm is a ride that had me completely engaged for the entire 9 hours I spent on it. The gameplay slowly evolves and gets better and better. The story stays engaging throughout, and you’d never believe that this was a 17-person studio based on the visuals.
Eriksholm feels like a game that both stealth fans and puzzle game fans could enjoy. It’s rare to see two genres blended together so seamlessly. As someone who likes both genres, it was a very enjoyable to experience. I can’t wait to see what River End Games does next.
Score: 8.5/10
If you enjoyed this post, please consider following me on social media, or checking out The Big Nerd Gaming Podcast!
The Big Nerd Gaming Podcast on Youtube
Big Nerd Gaming 
Leave a comment