Eriksholm is a top-down stealth game with an immersive world design and fully animated cutscenes with realistic characters, developed by River End Games. The intro to the game had so many technical marvels to it, it was difficult for me to believe it was the studio’s first game. From the visual world-building of 1900 Scandinavia to the sheer emotions on the characters’ faces, both are done extremely well. Here is a brief impression of Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream.
1900 Scandinavia Come Alive
River End Games did an amazing job in recreating 1900 Scandinavia, from the advertising posters on the brick wall to the collectibles found in the game. The scale of the buildings, to glimpses of ordinary people going about their lives, make the world alive and breathing. The game also enhances world-building through Collectibles, Letters, and dialogue between minor characters that takes place on the side of the main screen. The intertwining of the visual world-building and narrative world helps the game a lot in bringing out the subtlety of the world.
The dialogue and the accent also have a touch of the Scandinavian theme. The cast of characters all had their different lives, and the voice actors painted brought those to life with their unique dialects, distinct from others. The accent and the dialogue delivery made these characters more memorable, even if they are present on the screen for less than 2 to 3 minutes.
The story is about a girl named Hanna with a missing brother. She has to flee from the town of Eriksholm to look for her brother and meets many people on the way. After the first intro cutscene, Hanna loses her brother, and she must flee to survive. I wish the game had spent a bit of time building up the relationship between Hanna and her brother instead of pulling the rug out in one cutscene.
Gameplay: Crouch and Run
In a top-down stealth game, you just have to click the mouse button to make your character move from point A to point B. Since it is a stealth game, every little input matters to make the core concept work. A slight issue with the button can jeopardize your chances of getting caught. This brings me to the major highlight of the gameplay aspect of Eriksholm, its intractability.
You don’t have to click on the ladder to climb it; hovering the crosshair around the ladder will make your character start the climbing animation. While this neat little feature may not sound big, it greatly enhanced the gameplay interaction for the world. From picking up items to jumping off the ledge, the large circle around the actions did make things easier. In a stealth game, where time is precious, this small new gameplay addition made the gameplay smoother.
The game also has an objective marker that always reminds you of the main objective, which calmed my Collectible Heart. I was aware of both the side path and the main route. Taking off the beaten path will help me discover collectibles and other items without a feeling of missing out. It encouraged exploration without tying me to the main objective.
While the game does offer some offensive style, I did gain a blowdart to make guards sleep, but the major part of the game focuses on Stealth. The levels are maze-like in appearance, which further enhances the stealth route, as I had to navigate through guards and dead ends to make it to the finish line. The game did add layers of difficulty by adding a metal floor, walking on it made noise, so here I had to resort to activating the generator to even the playing field.
Unoptimized Controls and Physics
One major gripe I have about the game is the camera controls. Pressing the Q and E keys to move the camera might sound like a decent idea, but it does feel clunky. If we look at other games that share the top-down view, they have their camera controls assigned to R.Click or L.Click while holding the mouse to change direction. In a top-down view, most of the actions will be done with a mouse; here, using the keyboard to handle camera controls feels like a bad design.
Another small problem is the missing Quick Save and Quick Load functions. A bread and butter to any stealth game, resorting to a checkpoint system doesn’t translate well. Since a stealth game is all about making mistakes, here the checkpoint system can feel a bit tedious and frustrating after mistakes.
There was a mini-puzzle where I had to pull and place a gasoline canister using machinery from one point to another. Here, I had to work around the game’s physics, which was the most difficult task I faced in the game. I had to restart from the checkpoint to pick up the canister and place it perfectly into the target location, or it wouldn’t work. Since the physics felt clunky, perfectly placing an item via machinery was the most tedious aspect of the game.
Conclusion
What Worked:
- Stealth Mechanics
- Immersive World Building
- Interesting cast of Characters
- A good Narration
What Didn’t
- Physics-based mini-game
- Missing and unoptimized controls and game system.
Eriskholm is a must-play for any stealth enthusiast; the game has few problems that can be easily overlooked compared to the bigger picture. The game managed to nail the world-building, characters, dialogue, stealth mechanics, and more to make my one hour and thirty minutes of gameplay engaging from the first second to the last.
