Despite its conventional isometric viewpoint, there’s plenty within Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream which aims to provide fresh perspectives on the stealth genre. In many ways, this is a puzzle-driven, narrative-led game viewed through a stealth filter, rather than a real-time stealth tactics game like its top-down perspective would imply. Here are 14 things you need to know before you buy.
What is it?
Described by developer River End Games as an isometric, narrative driven stealth game, Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream’s top down perspective and enemy vision cones suggest inspiration soley of Commandos, Desperados, or Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. But, this being a story first experience, playing through Eriksholm reveals something that’s less of a sandbox, more handcrafted and linear. Don’t be put off though. An immersive setting, an unconventional – for stealth games, at least – lead protagonist, and character-swapping mechanics support The Stolen Dream’s narrative depth nicely.
Story overview
Taking place within a Scandi-influenced city in the early 1900s, in Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream players assume command of Hanna, a citizen forced into the shadows in pursuit of her missing brother Hermann whilst the city’s police force are also on the hunt. As she strives simultaneously to uncover the mystery surrounding Hermann’s disappearance whilst evading the authorities, she provokes forces darker than she ever imagined. Eriksholm harbours secrets, and Hanna’s efforts to reunite her family could alter the city’s future altogether.
Motion capture propels the story
Utilising Unreal Engine 5’s MetaHuman, the modest 17-strong team at River End Games aim to raise the bar for photorealism in games, mirroring Ninja Theory and their work on Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Stunning cutscene visuals typify Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream’s narrative delivery, its use of carefully scripted and acted cinematic interludes exemplifying its story first deviation away from those aforementioned giants of the isometric stealth genre.
Stealth mechanics overview
All the trappings of the stealth genre you’re likely familiar with are present and correct here in Eriksholm: skulking in shadows, observing enemy patrol patterns, distracting guards with thrown pebbles, non-lethal takedowns (in the form of a dart gun), hiding bodies, crouching in long grass. It’s likely Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream won’t present a mechanic you haven’t encountered before if you’ve played even a stealth-adjacent game. However, blending unique character skills to solve puzzles whilst using the environment diegetically sets the stealth action in this title apart.
Eriksholm, the city
Growing up in Scandinavia, plus the realisation that the region has universal appeal, inspired the Swedish team behind The Stolen Dream to craft an immersive city for their game. Eriksholm, the city, is both beautiful and gritty, harbouring districts with distinct culture, architecture, and socio-economic status. There are hints of Disco Elysium’s Revachol in its political strife, whilst its place in history – turn-of-the-century early 1900s – hints at a city getting to grips with industrialisation and capitalism’s relentless grind. In short, it’s a city undergoing upheaval.
Eriksholm’s inhabitants help Hanna
Oftentimes, NPCs in any game serve as quest givers, or walking talking signposts, but not so much in Eriksholm. Here, the city’s inhabitants know Hanna well, and engage in casual chat when encountered. They’ll also aid Hanna in her quest to stay one step ahead of the police, providing access to hidden routes whilst delaying any chasing officers. Citizen behaviour in The Stolen Dream is indicative of River End Games’ wider philosophy to treat every NPC – be it the general public or the pursuing police force – as characters with their own perspectives, reinforcing the grounded believability of the city they’ve created.
Hanna, and her specific skills
Or, lack thereof. See, Hanna is not trained in espionage. It’s implied she’s brushed with the law before, but she doesn’t come equipped with night vision goggles or silenced pistols. She’s an ordinary citizen driven into a life of subterfuge by forces outside of her control. That said, she does possess a back-of-her-hand knowledge of Eriksholm which she can use to her advantage. Plus, in order for the game to present puzzles which can only be solved by combining her actions with her accomplices, she possesses some unique traits: she’s the only one of her 3-strong team capable of squeezing through tight spaces. She acquires the dart gun during her journey too, giving her opportunity to shoot and incapacitate guards from distance.
Alva and Sebastian
Accompanying Hanna, and freely switchable between once enlisted, at set points throughout her journey are Alva and Sebastian, the former possessing unique ability to climb pipes whilst the latter – an elder statesman whose narrative role plays second fiddle to Hanna and Alva’s relationship – can swim.
Skills must be combined to progress
Assessing environmental clues to discover how to combine each of Hanna, Alva, and Sebastian’s skill sets is key to overcoming the game’s puzzles. This process forms the backbone of Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream’s gameplay, and given the explanation provided by the game’s director Anders Hejdenberg these puzzles won’t be a case of, say, Sebastian swimming to the other side of river to lower a drawbridge, but something that requires all three to work simultaneously to progress.
Encounters are hand-crafted
This might be a contentious point given the stealth genre’s propensity to afford players chance to evade would-be captors once spotted, but in Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream encounters are hand-crafted, and failstates exist. See, once spotted the screen fades to black and the scene resets. Whether this is immersion breaking depends on the individual, but designing encounters this way has allowed the dev team to tailor enemy and NPC behaviour to specific situations. Plus, a quick reset maintains the game’s narrative flow.
That said, there’s usually more than one path to success
Yes, Eriksholm’s narrative delivery implies a tightly designed linear experience, but – again, as explained by the game’s director – there is often more than one solution to encounters. The Stolen Dream won’t be a sandbox, but the option to use the environment to your advantage, to distract a patrol by disturbing a flock of birds for example, versus avoiding encounters entirely maintains an element of player agency that is usually lost when game’s are tightly curated.
There are collectables and secrets, too
Reinforcing the game’s attempts to break away from strict linearity is the existence of secret areas and collectables. Indeed, throughout Eriksholm, should players opt to stray away from the beaten path then they might happen upon an unexpected discovery. The ways in which to locate a secret include observing specific guard behaviours and environmental clues, or unconventionally combining character skills to forge imaginative solutions.
Release date, platforms, price
Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream releases to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store on 15th July 2025. Prices across all platforms haven’t been published on their respective stores at the time of writing but as per an announcement via its Steam news feed the game will retail at £33.50 / $39.99 on PC.
There’s a demo
If you’re after a glimpse of Eriksholm’s immersive, story-led stealth before buying then a demo version is currently available to download for PC players via Steam and EGS. Save files from the demo will carry over to the full game, and it’ll be available right up until release date. Sadly, at present no console demo is available.
