PRETTY SNEAKY SIS

ERIKSHOLM: THE STOLEN DREAM's Scandinavian stealth is too strict for its own good

-  Joshua Wolens

Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream will dupe you. An isometric stealth game that puts you in control of multiple characters who each have their own abilities? You know what this is, surely? You'll think to yourself, "This is a Commandos, this is a Desperados, this is a game about combining and applying your characters' skillsets to creatively overcome obstacles." And you'll be wrong. Despite appearances, Eriksholm is a strict, tight, and mostly linear thing.

There’s more in common with Hitman Go than Shadow Tactics here: the job before you is not figuring out your own solution to its artisanal, bijou stealth encounters – it’s poking at them until you figure out the precise solutions the devs intended, and getting spotted is an instant failure. Trying to cheese any of them invariably means a swift end and a return to an admittedly generous checkpoint.

So it’s more stealth puzzle than stealth sandbox, but within those confines it’s satisfying to figure out what each encounter wants from you, even if it doesn’t feel especially creative. And gosh, what a looker. Never before have Scandinavian cops been so lustrously lit, their twitches and grimaces so minutely animated.