Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream

One of the great delights of this stealth adventure tends to come at the very start of a level. This is the moment when the isometric camera shifts from the position of your tiny, crouching avatars and soars out over the complex muddle of cityscape, parkland and shattered coast that lies before you. There will be paths to cross and patrols to avoid. Maybe you'll spot the odd overhead lightbulb that you can shatter with a well-placed shot from your sling. Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is a compact game, powered by simple, well-tested ideas and made by a team of fewer than 20 developers. Yet these moments reveal that there’s a luxuriousness to it as well.

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Above all else, it offers the pleasures of landscape. It tells the simple tale of a young girl searching for her missing brother, who's wanted by authoritarian police, but the city this search takes her across is the game’s true star. There are sun-bleached brickwork façades and golden railings, factories and stations and palaces. There are complicated interlocking structures where gantries cross high over cobbled streets. The place is based on Scandinavian cities of the early 1900s, walls painted with huge, faded advertising images for imported tea and other luxuries. Exploring it is a treat, and it’s telling that the game struggles only in the rare instances when it steps away from the streets and heads down into formless subterranean depths.

Stealth is simple but robust throughout: avoid the light and stick to the shadows. The game's at its best when levels pit you and your team against patrols of the most basic guards as you work your way towards the next objective. The twist to the standard genre template is a lean towards the squad management of a Commandos or Shadow Tactics – the traditional sneaking arsenal is divided between three characters, who you can switch between at will. The youngest, Hanna, can fire knockout darts from a blowpipe and wriggle through small vents. Alva, older and more experienced, can shatter street lamps to create areas of darkness and climb poles to get a better lay of the land. Finally, gruff Sebastian can choke enemies and swim.