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Of all of the games releasing this month, Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream was one of the top games I was watching out for. The gritty, narrative-driven stealth game looks like a glorious experience, taking place in a world that looks like it's straight out of the 1900s. Luckily, I am also reviewing the game, and I can confirm that so far, it's a blast to play. I haven't had the game for long enough to do a full review yet, but I have a pretty good idea of how it plays on the Steam Deck, and that's what this article is for, and so far, my feelings are very positive.

Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream

Note: This is a preview for the game and not a full review with settings recommendations. Performance on the Steam Deck may get better or worse as the game progresses.

Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream - Steam Deck Performance So Far

With how beautiful the game looks, I expected the performance to be rough. It looks beautiful and detailed, with a top down view that can see a large area of land and buildings. This usually leads to middling performance because of the bigger rendering area, and is something I have seen far too many times in many games. Eriksholm doesn't seem to suffer from this issue, and the developer River End Games has done a wonderful job with optimization.

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The game starts off at the maximum quality settings with 100% render resolution, which worried me when I first started. However, this worry was unfounded. The opening level is inside a building, so the render area wasn't massive, and it held out around 55 - 60 FPS. I was pretty blown away by this, and the feeling held the more I played. As soon as I got outside, and I was able to see more of the city, the framerate dropped to around 41 - 45 FPS. This is a big drop from the inside range, but this is at maximum quality settings, and anything above 30 FPS at this quality is going to get a lot of praise from me.

EriksholmTheStolenDreamPreview3 1

Another big factor in performance is how zoomed in the camera is. Being fully zoomed in while outside the building brought me back into the 50 FPS range, but zooming all the way out will be around the 41 - 45 FPS range. So, choosing to play fully zoomed in, which still gives a good amount of visibility of the world, will result in better performance. For my recommendations in our full review, I will be optimizing for zoomed-out gameplay, but it's nice to know something so subtle has a nice effect on performance.

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Playing with a 30 FPS lock at the highest quality settings will definitely work and be very playable. It's pretty amazing with a game that looks this good to be running so well, and at maximum settings. I am elated about it. I would say 40 FPS this way, when zoomed in, is very possible too, and if you are fine putting your quality preset to High with 90% render resolution, 50 FPS is possible here when fully zoomed out!

I would say with even more sacrifices, 60 FPS may even be achievable. However, I think a solid 40 FPS with near maximum settings is going to be where my recommendation lies in the full review. It just looks so beautiful and plays so well, so with some minor adjustments, I can see it being a dream come true with smooth, stealthy gameplay.

EriksholmTheStolenDreamPreview1

I definitely had my worries going into Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream, but most of those worries are gone. It runs beautifully and sticks to over 40 FPS on the highest settings, even when in outside areas. Limiting to 30 FPS will definitely work here and save some battery, but I see a lot of wiggle room for possibly 60 FPS gameplay with more sacrifices. Even still, this is a great Steam Deck game so far, and I can't wait to keep playing through for the full review.

Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream will be available tomorrow July 15th and is rated Verified.

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Noah Kupetsky
A lover of gaming since 4, Noah has grown up with a love and passion for the industry. From there, he started to travel a lot and develop a joy for handheld and PC gaming. When the Steam Deck released, it just all clicked.
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