Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream

Firstly, do youself a favour and set post process to high, instead of max, you will get much sharper textures & more detailed environment, i think its some kind of bug, but max will make your game looks soapy/blurry. Eriksholm was built on great visuals, interesting story and superb animations & cinematics, unfortunately not necessarly on commandos like viarety of skills etc. Each of 3 playable characters have ~2 mechanics, so not a lot, but maps were crafted to complement each character by other. Experience was semi similar to plaguetale, where you also have some hard limitations how to get through sections, but atmospehere and world is interesting enough to keep you playing. A bit short, but definitely worthwhile experience, Acheivements are easy enought to now cause frustration, especially chapter/section seletc eases 100% substantionaly. I wouldnt mind playing next game embedded in this world.

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 646: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆ (8/10) I enjoyed my time with [i]Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream, [/i]but I also walked away a little disappointed. The production values are fantastic, the world is beautifully realized, and there are plenty of small touches that make the city feel alive. At the same time, I came in expecting a tactical stealth game in the vein of Mimimi Games's titles, and that's ... not really what this is. (My bad on that, though!) Instead, [i]Eriksholm[/i] is a linear puzzle adventure with stealth mechanics. There's very little room for improvisation, and many encounters boil down to trial and error until you discover the intended solution. That's not inherently bad; it just wasn't what I was hoping for. Would I recommend it? Yes. .. just not at $39.99. My playthrough lasted roughly 11 hours, and while I enjoyed every minute, I don't think there's enough here to justify the asking price. Pick it up during a sale, and you'll likely have a great time. [b][h2]Pros:[/h2][/b] ✅ [b]Beautiful presentation.[/b] From the environments to the character models and voice acting, [i]Eriksholm[/i] is an incredibly polished game. Every location feels handcrafted, and it's clear a tremendous amount of care went into creating the world. One chapter has you sneaking through damp, claustrophobic sewers, the next through lively city streets, dense forests, or sprawling military compounds. The variety in environments keeps the adventure visually fresh from beginning to end, and each area has its own distinct atmosphere. The lighting, too, deserves special praise. There's a special term for that hazy, warm, golden light! A special art term I can't quite remember, but I know it's beautiful! ✅ [b]Excellent world-building.[/b] One of my favorite features was collecting letters, journals, and notes scattered throughout the game. Better yet, they're voiced instead of simply being walls of text, making them much more enjoyable to find. I also loved listening to the guards chat with one another and hearing witty barbs be thrown back and forth. ✅ [b]A compelling story.[/b] While I wouldn't call the narrative groundbreaking, it's well told and kept me invested from beginning to end. I wanted to see what happened next, and although the game doesn't spend an enormous amount of time developing its characters, I found myself strangely attached to all of them. Hanna, Alva, Sebastian, and the supporting cast are all easy to root for thanks to strong voice acting, natural dialogue, and believable chemistry. I even loved that noble lady at the end! [b][h2]Mixed:[/h2][/b] 🟨 [b]The stealth isn't what I expected.[/b] Going in, I was hoping for something closer to [i]Shadow Gambit[/i] or [i]Desperados III[/i], where scouting enemy positions and carefully planning your approach are the heart of the experience. Instead, [i]Eriksholm[/i] is much more linear, often presenting a single "correct" solution to each encounter. That makes the game feel more like trial and error than real, tactical stealth. Once I found the intended sequence, encounters became straightforward, but reaching that point often required several failed attempts. [b][h2]Cons:[/h2][/b] 🟥 [b]It desperately needs enemy outlines and vision cones.[/b] This was easily my biggest complaint. Games like [i]Shadow Gambit[/i]make planning enjoyable because you always understand what enemies can see. [i]Eriksholm[/i] often forces you to guess, fail, reload, and try again. Adding optional vision cones and enemy outlines would have made the stealth feel much fairer without sacrificing difficulty. 🟥 [b]The price is difficult to justify.[/b] I finished the game in around 11 hours, and while it was a quality 11 hours, $39.99 feels steep. There's very little replay value outside of collectibles, and I never felt compelled to start another playthrough immediately. This is an easy recommendation at half the price, but much harder to recommend at full price. 🟥 [b]It never reaches the heights of the genre's best.[/b] That's admittedly an unfair comparison, but it's the one I couldn't stop making. I was quite surprised by the Overwhelmingly Positive reviews. Like, the game is [i]good[/i] but not [i]amazing.[/i] If you're looking for deep, tactical stealth where experimentation and planning are rewarded, I'd still recommend Mimimi's games (RIP omg) first. If you want a story with similar gameplay, try [i] The Last of Us[/i] or [i]A Plague Tale[/i]. [i]Eriksholm[/i] succeeds as a cinematic stealth adventure, but it never quite scratches that same itch. [hr] If you enjoyed this review, please check out my curator page to find more: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45814768-Verdict-Play-or-Pass/]Verdict: Play or Pass.[/url] Also, please leave a like and visit [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Indie_Gems]IndieGems[/url] and our [url=https://www.youtube.com/@IndieGems2]YouTube channel[/url] for more reviews like this one. [/hr]

I really loved the isometric art style, the characters, the story, and the cutscenes. The visuals are absolutely beautiful. It's one of those games that stays with you long after you finish it. Definitely worth playing! Runs smoothly on Linux with Proton.

Лайтовая игрушка Интересный сюжет, правда мне не хватило раскрытия персонажей некоторых, понятно, что все на тропе, но хотелось бы побольше Очень хорошо передана атмосфера, красивые уровни Понятные загадки, хорошая идея разнообразить геймплей разными персонажами со своими механиками P.s. боа о оа

4/10 Heist and stealth games are at their best when you can devise your own plan. Eriksholm masquerades as a tactical stealth adventure but turns out to be a frustratingly rigid experience that offers absolutely no freedom of play. The game forces you to follow a single, predetermined path and adhere to split-second timing, leaving no room for personal creativity. This constant trial and error turns the gameplay into an annoying exercise in rote memorization that artificially drags out the playtime. Ultimately, completing a section doesn't make you feel clever or rewarded. Instead, you simply feel relieved that the frustration is over. I stopped playing after Chapter 4.

Hidden gem. I love stealth games but i never played an isometric one. This one is really a hidden gem and it was so satisfying when everything you planned worked. The cutscenes are great, maybe some in game scens could have alsobeen cutscenes to make it more cinematic but it was amazing anyway. The graphic is amazing, especially after some game-file tinkering to turn off the blurring anti aliasing, which you can't do from in game settings. On my powerful desktop pc it ran at 120fps with everything max without anti aliasing, while on my laptop it was stable at 40 in medium with anti aliasing on. I wouldn't reccomend it on steamdeck honesty. Sadly there was no official italian translation. I'd reccomend playing with mouse and keyboard.

Дуже класна стелс-головоломка з добре прописаними характерами, діалогами, артом і загалом левел-дизайном, чудовою музикою та такою живою й лампово поданою історією, наче подивився хороший фільм 90-х — початку 00-х, у якому сам узяв участь. Є там трохи пафосний момент, який прямо врізався в пам'ять, але загалом розповідь, на мою думку, тримається на дуже високому рівні без просідань. Гра не дуже довга і триває рівно стільки, щоб залишатися цікавою, тримати в напрузі й при цьому не бути затягнутою. Стелс-головоломки здалися цікавими й місцями приємно челенджовими. Дуже сподобалося, як під нашим керуванням опиняється то один, то два-три персонажі одночасно. У кожного свої навички, і тільки завдяки їм можна якось розрулити ситуацію та просунутися вперед (це типу як Commandos, але характери та історія в Eriksholm сильніші). Інтерфейс не перевантажений, усе інтуїтивно зрозуміло. На клавіатурі з мишкою спочатку трохи незручно перемикатися між персонажами, але це не критично і звикаєш доволі швидко. Багів не зустріла, гра чудово йде як на Лінуксі, так і на Вінді. Окремо пробувала грати на Steam Deck — працює все добре, але через невеликий екран деки все стає крихітним. Тоді вже не дуже зручно, бо треба сильно вдивлятися і без того в невеличкі деталі світу. Іноді взагалі навіть на звичайному екрані хотілося більшого зуму, щоб роздивитися щось цікаве на рівні. В цілому, нічого критичного в технічному плані немає. Проходила англійською. Думаю, з рівнем B2 проблем із розумінням взагалі не буде, сам writing мені сподобався.

5/10 boring, there is no way to play the game in more than one way, you can only complete it exactly as the creators designed it.

I came for the stealthy gameplay, which wasn't exceptionnal. I stayed for the story and staging, which was great. A well built world with interesting characters and places, and a nice take on steampunk.