The Stolen Dream review — A brilliant narrative driven stealth adventure

Eriksholm is an isometric stealth game, with a huge emphasis on the stealth aspect. Hannah, Alva, and Sebastian are treated as humans. Capable, yes, but ultimately easily dispatched or overwhelmed. This means that remaining hidden is imperative to survival. There are no heroes here, instead progression requires teamwork between your characters and a slow, methodical approach to each scenario you encounter.

The first quarter or so of the game you play as only Hannah, allowing you to get a feel for the gameplay mechanics, before adding Alva, and then finally adding Sebastian to complete the trifecta. Thankfully, Eriksholm is great at introducing new concepts and characters and then merging them seamlessly into existing gameplay elements without ever becoming confusing or frustrating. 

Each character has specific abilities, which blend together to allow this scrappy trio to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Hannah is small and can crawl through grates to enter into otherwise unreachable rooms. She is also equipped with a blowgun, which she can use to subdue enemies for a short period. Alva is equipped with a slingshot, which can be used to destroy lights, allowing you to remain hidden, and can also be used to create noise for a diversion. Alva is also able to shimmy up pipes to reach roofs or other high locations, giving her a vantage point unavailable to either Hannah or Sebastian. Sebastian has no long-range weapons, but he is capable of performing chokeholds on unsuspecting victims, and is capable of swimming, helping him reach otherwise unreachable areas.

Players can swap between Hannah, Alva, and Sebastian at any time once they join your team by simply pressing left, right, or down on the diagonal buttons. Be ready to experiment, as each encounter is structured so that you cannot progress without becoming comfortable with each member’s playstyle and utilizing each in turn as even areas that look quite simple to traverse at first often prove to be deceptively complex to navigate safely. 

While your group is capable of taking down enemies, many times it is better to figure out how to distract guards long enough to rush by unseen instead. Taking down an enemy can only be done when there is no possible way another guard can see the takedown, and requires you to hide the body, as finding a body will alert all nearby guards and result in an automatic game over.  Further preventing you from mass takedowns is the fact that enemies are surprisingly smart. They often work in pairs and search areas in smart ways, rarely providing more than split second opportunities to make your move. This becomes even more standard as you progress, because the enemies begin to react to their colleagues being taken down by your group, and increasingly become more nervous. This leads to them actively creating plans to stay safe, including a memorable moment where only two guards remained in a room so one went on patrol and whistled the entire time to inform the other guard that he was still safe. Scenarios like this pop up throughout the campaign, ensuring Eriksholm is always throwing new objectives at you to overcome.