Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream Review (Xbox) – Holm Girl

I’m never sure about subtitled game titles. Why was Eriksholm as a one-word title felt to be not enough, and ‘The Stolen Dream’ was felt necessary? Is the Stolen Dream a tangible thing in the story, and massively important, or just some MacGuffin, or worse, completely forgettable and superfluous? Eriksholm is clearly the place the game is set, and from any single piece of media surrounding this title, you can see it’s one of the main draws for the audience – a beautiful top-down world with a Scandinavian industrial flavour.

So surely Eriksholm is enough? I don’t go around saying Injustice: Gods Among Us, I just say Injustice. I don’t say Intergalactic, or The Heretic Prophet, because both of them are too long and as unwieldy as a buster sword. But I do get it on sequels, like being able to differentiate between Horizon: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. But I still think I would have preferred Horizon and Horizon II.

Never start your essay with a digression, they say. Well, it’s too late. Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is already here, and its gorgeous world is just begging to be explored. I’ve rolled credits, I know The Stolen Dream doesn’t matter that much. So, let’s talk about what does.

Holm Alone II: Lost in Eriksholm

Hanna has been sick. Like out of it sick. With a plague-like disease called Heartpox. Nasty. But she’s pulled through, bless her. The world has moved on without her. Her brother and flatmate Herman says he’s taken shifts at the coal yard to keep money coming in and been caring for her in her convalescence. I enjoyed this intro, it was a nice way of making things new without having an amnesiac protagonist for once.

However, when Hanna’s first day back ends in the Eriksholm City Police barging into her home, and her brother missing, presumed in trouble with the law, Hanna opts to flee and find him, rather than disappear into the obviously oppressive penal system. Clearly, the coal yard was a lie, Herman. What else doesn’t Hanna know? It’s time to go full-on stealth for the next ten hours, evade the police, and find Herman.

So starts a fun, relatively simple, but robust stealth adventure, with serious emphasis on the stealth. Like any single sighting is a restart. Any body found is a restart. Hanna ducks out of the tenements, crosses the rooftops, the docks, the industrial yards, train stations, rich quarters, mines, and harbours of Eriksholm as she seeks her brother’s favourite hiding spots. It’s very quickly revealed that Hanna and Herman were thieves until recently, and were trying to go straight, but clearly Herman is in trouble with the law, so that can’t have been going perfectly.

Holm Sick

White splattered paint, that looks uncannily like bird shit, replaces the well-memed yellow paint of games like Horizon, and Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream pulls you along at a fair clip from one locale to the next, each with a small stealth puzzle to traverse. It’s usually pretty straightforward and generally feels like there’s mostly just one solution, even if little areas present two or three routes, especially when you have two characters. Scripted stealth is what came to mind most often. You will rarely feel free to experiment.

Hanna’s stealth repertoire is very small. There’s virtually no tools of any kind, one single weapon – a sleep dart blowpipe (upgraded to poison by game’s end), and no crafting or item/ammunition management. There is barely any UI, no item screens, and only a running total of the collectibles you’ve found. Hanna is helped in her endeavours by two other characters with their own subtly different stealth styles: Alva, the Lady of the Mountain, who can throw rocks and shimmy up poles, and Sebastian, a lumbering man who can throttle guardsmen and swim. That is the extent of the skills and the extent of the playable characters.

It’s got to be the straightest played, most scripted stealth game I’ve come across in a long while. With its stealth gameplay, the historical setting, and the plague going on, it draws easy comparison to A Plague Tale: Innocence (another unnecessary subtitle), but it has little of that title’s charm, experimentation or array of options for sneaking.

Nothing To Write Holm About

However, in simplicity lies mastery. Eriksholm’s stealth mechanics are remarkably competent stealth mechanics. While simple and only using those scant few tricks I mentioned, it manages to implement fast quick-save-like reloading ala Shadow Gambit and simple dual and triple character play (later in the story) that makes the commando-swapping controls in the recent Commandos sequel seem cumbersome in comparison. Everything is a single button press or an aim and release, it’s all intuitively mapped and easy to perform.

Eriksholm, even if mostly only seen from above, is strikingly beautiful and I enjoyed looking at the game throughout its 8-10 hours. It’s a visual treat. Granted, some areas can be very dark and seeing Hanna can become its own little sub-challenge – I’m very grateful they included a zoom-in and small glow around the avatars. I found camera control pretty good overall, as again I’ve played games where camera control is done pretty badly, such as in Commandos recently; however you do lose Hanna a fair bit, and the locales could have been subtly redesigned, just maybe to have a few less places where vegetation gets in the way.

Cutscenes, while few and far between, are again jaw-droppingly detailed and with incredible production values on show. Great performances from the whole cast, from Hanna all the way down to lowly guardsmen, even if a teensy bit overdone at times. I especially liked the snappy, combative dialogue between Alva and Hanna, always delivered well by both actors. But while voices and sound effects were wonderful throughout, I barely ever noticed any music. If there is an incredible soundtrack in here, I missed it. Something about the refrains and ambience just means the music faded into the background more than Hanna fading into a convenient dark shadow.

Holm Schooled

While Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is competently made and never really puts much of a foot wrong, I somehow found myself a little nonplussed. Something about the simplicity of it all meant I found myself getting a bit bored of the limited options available and too good at knowing what they were. I was grateful when Sebastian turned up in Act 3, and I suddenly had a third set of options, but it’s a case of a bit too little, too late.

There’s a fun adventure to be had sneaking across Eriksholm with a character who I got behind if didn’t entirely fall for, but her brother-tracking plight lacks any real weight until you are well into act three. I felt more engaged with Amicia and Hugo in A Plague Tale, probably because, instead of being absent most of the story, I had to drag her brother across half of France. I’m sure plenty of lessons will be learned, and if the River End Games makes another game in the same genre, I suspect it will be exceptional.


Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is available now on Xbox Series S and X (review platform), PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam.

Developer: River End Games
Publisher: Nordcurrent Labs

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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7 10 0 1
Eriksholm the place is a beautiful creation, full of detail and complexity. It’s a shame that Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream lacks the same kind of complexity. With only a handful of stealth tools or route options, it feels like a guided tour of the city rather than a stealth adventure where anything could happen.
Eriksholm the place is a beautiful creation, full of detail and complexity. It’s a shame that Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream lacks the same kind of complexity. With only a handful of stealth tools or route options, it feels like a guided tour of the city rather than a stealth adventure where anything could happen.
7/10
Total Score

Toby Andersen

Critic, Feature Writer, and Podcast voice at fingerguns.net Fan of JRPGs, indies, cyberpunk, cel-shading, epic narrative games of any genre. Tends to get overhyped, then bitterly disappointed. Lives with his wife, son, and a cute little leopard gecko. Author of the Overlords novels https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07KPQQTXY/

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