Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream will be the debut game from River End Games, a developer boasting a mere seventeen team members. Not one to be held back by its resources or conservative talent pool, River End Games is shooting high with Eriksholm‘s gameplay and visuals, looking to create a deep, cinematic, and engaging game that doesn’t pull any punches.
Eriksholm‘s creative director, Anders Hejdenberg, recently walked Game Rant through a few early sections of the game, highlighting its puzzle-like stealth and mystery-thriller narrative premise while granting new insights into its development process, as well as sharing what players can expect once it’s actually in their hands. Presentation, character dynamics, and variety-driven game design were all introduced as important themes of Eriksholm, and the footage Hejdenberg showed suggests that these ideas will flourish in the final product.
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Eriksholm’s Presentation Is Top-Notch
The first thing that stands out about Eriksholm is its incredible cutscene direction. Of course, the game looks great, leveraging Unreal’s MetaHumans tools for impeccable character models and animation, but getting a nice, extended look at certain in-game cinematics revealed a few other important directional pillars. Hejdenberg kicked off the presentation by showing a scene between Hannah, the game’s protagonist, and a pair of city guards searching for her brother, and it’s through this scene that many strengths become immediately apparent.
High-quality character models can only go so far toward making a game’s cutscenes work, and River End Games seems to have a strong grasp on this notion, as this scene between Hannah and the guards demonstrates Eriksholm‘s strong voice acting, cinematography, and direction, highlighting its attention to detail. The speaking guard is shot at a low angle, effectively conveying his intimidating stature, both physically and socially, and Hannah’s street-smart, slightly petulant attitude does a lot to establish her as a bright character who thinks on her feet. When she resists the guard’s faux-polite demands, and he rests his hand casually on his baton, her eyes fall on it and her facial expression changes ever-so-slightly: an example of Eriksholm‘s nuanced visual storytelling.
The same can be said about another scene wherein Hanna enlists the help of Alva, a character with whom she has a complicated history. Special praise should be paid to the writing here, as lines from Alva like “Oh, it’s always about you Hanna,” efficiently and deftly communicate these characters’ shared past without feeling ham-fisted or revealing too much. Once again, scene direction shines in this exchange, with the conversation flowing in an engaging, clear, and effective manner, the emotion and gravity of the situation conveyed with nuance and maturity. It’s clear that River End Games’ developers are students of cinema.
Eriksholm’s Storytelling Extends Beyond the Pre-Rendered Cutscenes
Hejdenberg told Game Rant that Eriksholm has about “25 to 30 minutes” of pre-rendered cutscenes, like the ones referenced above, but the rest of the game is doing some heavy narrative lifting as well. The character of the game’s titular city is typified through environment design and NPC interactions: a guard may harass non-combat NPCs for a cigarette, showing the force’s manipulation of power, or the industrialized, impoverished status of a neighborhood may be expressed through its unmaintained buildings. It’s not an approach that’s necessarily groundbreaking, but once again, Eriksholm shines through attention to detail.
Little to no visual fidelity seems to be lost outside Eriksholm‘s pre-rendered cutscenes: the explorable in-game areas are well-realized and attractive, with true-to-life lighting and plausible level design that lend them a significant allure.
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Touching On Eriksholm’s Puzzle-Stealth Gameplay
Eriksholm Rewards Real-Time Stealth and Forethought in Equal Measure
Eriksholm is an isometric game, offering players a birds-eye view of any given playable scene. This appears to have a major impact on how stealth gameplay is presented, and how the player can engage with each setpiece. Although Eriksholm‘s gameplay hinges on many of the same principles as other stealth games, with factors like visibility and sound being used for one’s advantage or detriment, the top-down perspective grants each encounter a puzzle-like quality because of how players can view the battlefield. The locations of enemies, environmental hazards, vantage points, and the like, are not obfuscated by a third-or first-person perspective. They’re all visible, and it’s up to the player to decide if, when, and how to engage with them.
Each stealth encounter thus assumes this puzzle-box identity, blending genres together in a manner that promises to be both satisfying and constantly changing. One such satisfying variable that Hejdenberg touched on is the character-swapping system. All three playable characters, Hanna, Alva, and Sebastian, have unique abilities that impact how a player can engage with enemy NPCs:
- Hanna can shoot sleeping darts.
- Alva can scale certain walls.
- Sebastian can swim.
An example of this tandem gameplay was demonstrated toward the end of the preview during a scene where Hanna and Alva work together to take out an enemy NPC. Alva was able to use her movement abilities to climb to a high vantage point, allowing her to throw a rock at a noisy grate, luring an enemy into Hanna’s line of sight, and thereby allowing Hanna to shoot him with a dart. This is a promising example of Eriksholm‘s synergy between puzzle and stealth mechanics.
So far, it looks like there’s a lot to love about Eriksholm. It’s punching far above its weight graphically, which has garnered a lot of attention so far, but River End Games is clearly looking to implement strong gameplay as well, making it more than just a visually stunning experience. If its gameplay and presentation mingle as effectively in the final product as they did during the preview, then Eriksholm will be a title worth checking out.
Experience an isometric, narrative-driven stealth game set in the stunning city of Eriksholm. When Hanna’s brother, Herman, disappears and the police begin to pursue him, her search sets off a chain of catastrophic events that will not only alter their lives but also the destiny of the entire city. Join your allies, outsmart relentless enemies, and use your cunning to uncover the truth behind Herman’s disappearance — where greater powers are at play than you ever imagined.
Follow Hanna’s adventure through the vibrant streets of Eriksholm, a sprawling Nordic city inspired by the elegance and grit of early 1900s Scandinavia. In this world, every shadow offers a hiding place, and every corner hides a new challenge. Allies and quick reflexes are your greatest tools as you unravel the city’s secrets and outsmart your pursuers.
Narrative Adventure: Join Hanna’s adventure through Eriksholm on her quest to find her brother and uncover the mystery behind his disappearance. Venture into stunning landscapes in a gripping story where every second counts as Hanna strives to reunite her family.
Distinctive Characters: Switch between three unique characters, and utilize their unique abilities to access new areas, overcome various challenges and puzzles, and outsmart your enemies.