The Case of the Golden Idol

Very cool information game, in the vein of The Return of Obra Dinn. Puzzles aren't as clever IMO, but there are a few pretty fun twists. Everything can be figured out with some focused thinking, no guesswork required. Story is pretty solid too. I disliked the UI. The interface where you have to fill in the proof you understood what happened is super fiddly. I didn't fully love the graphics style either. Recommended if you like narrative information-style games.

[h2][i]The Case of the Golden Idol[/i] is a deduction detective game that hooked me quickly with its gameplay mechanics but eventually let me down with its story.[/h2] Twelve murders across four acts. A timespan of fifty years. An 18th-century aristocratic family and a golden idol. A minimal narrative, but you will receive clues through letters, notes, characters’ possessions and quirks. With all the facts in hand, it’s up to you to figure out whether this is the [i]case[/i] of the golden idol or… the [i]curse[/i] of the golden idol. (Mostly through whodunit, of course.) [u]A lukewarm 5 out of 5 from me, unfortunately.[/u] I’ve gone back and forth on my rating for this game a lot. I really enjoyed the first two acts, when the gameplay mechanics still felt fresh and the world of the game very new. I was intrigued by the game’s many mysteries – certain characters that kept popping up, the titular golden idol – which were presented to me quite cleverly through the murders I was solving. However, by the third act, the novelty of the gameplay was wearing off and a certain [spoiler]cult-y[/spoiler] subplot started to take more and more of the center stage. My enjoyment plummeted heavily at that point. I did not like where the game ended up. I felt that it rather weakly explored its central themes and point that it eventually tried to make. By the end I was phoning it in without care. That does not take away that many people have loved this game. If you like the gameplay, this might still be the detective game for you. [h1][b]Pros[/b][/h1] + Puzzles are fully deduction / logic based + Lots of ‘hidden’ details that even further support your conclusions + Out of 12 murders, at least 7 also felt like great ‘standalone’ mysteries [h1][b]Neutrals[/b][/h1] ~ The art style is an acquired taste but fits the eerie vibes ~ DLCs have less cases but harder puzzles ~ Plays well on the Steam Deck [h1][b]Cons[/b][/h1] - The ending of the story as well as the exploration of its themes were unsatisfying - No clue organization - Lacks polish (grammatical errors, missing audio cues, strange click zones) I feel like [i]The Case of the Golden Idol[/i]’s strongest feature is its gameplay. You are presented with static scenes of a murder – sometimes multiple, so you can explore a setting a bit – and get to hunt for clues. You’ll gather words from letters, books or other items that you automatically collect. Once you have all available words for a case, you can attempt to solve the murder by using these words to fill out the case’s ‘scroll’ that narrates exactly what happened. You can also apply your deductive reasoning here – the game categorizes the words you find by names, nouns, and verbs. These have different colors in the scroll, so you can already guess a little which might go where and use that to lead your investigation. While you investigate, certain optional puzzles might pop up in your ‘task bar’ that you can help you fill out the scroll as well. For example, assigning a first and a last name to every person present at the scene. Or work out who sat where at the dinner table. It’s a very satisfying system, and one I hadn’t encountered before. However, as cases get longer and more complex (more words!), it becomes a lot more annoying to work with. There’s no collection of your evidence; you’ll have to retrace everything to where you found it if you want to reexamine it to double-check. I also never understood why first and last names need to be separated, making it needlessly finnicky. [spoiler]There is ONE instance in the ENTIRE game where a character changes their last name due to marriage. ONE. Do you know how many times I had to fill out everyone’s first and last name perfectly just for that ONE, SILLY time it mattered??[/spoiler] As for the story, the game presents itself in a very ‘flat’ way. You are shown murders, often in medias res, which you solve by looking for the facts. Whether you solve them or not has no influence on the story. There are no arrests or consequences. You are not really an 18th century detective – you are an observer [i]outside[/i] of the game who is shown a certain larger story through a string of crimes across fifty years. This type of presentation does not have to be a problem at all. I actually very much enjoyed that fresh take at the start of the game. My problem with it, however, was the distance I felt from the narrative as well as the characters. When I figured out where the story was going, I did not find anything interesting or emotionally compelling enough to keep enjoying my experience. There are so many layers to this world and story – politics, colonialism, power, thinly-veiled real world allegories of empires and mercantile operations – and yet the game does so little with it. Then why is it there, with such attention to those details? Why all this effort to show the connection that runs through every single murder (DLCs included) without engaging further or deeper with the themes you’re using for worldbuilding? In certain ways, the game seems very aware of these themes, and in others it does not. [spoiler]Creating an alt-England called ‘Albion’ which eventually becomes fascist seems on point. But what is the point of using Sri Lanka as the base for ‘Lanka’? To still portray Albion’s colonialism? In which ways? To show that colonial powers send over one man who singlehandedly fucks up Lanka’s politics and gets away with murder? That’s not really what colonialism is, is it? A fake civilization is used as the origin of the golden idol – Lemuria. But the Lemurians are then portrayed as native hippies living in a commune, all wearing the same drab grey clothes and living in primitive villages. They also very much DO NOT understand their own ancient technology (ouch).[/spoiler] There is certainly a point being made at the end of the game, which I get. But it is not particularly engaging nor is it satisfying. And it also happens fully off-screen, just to give us another mystery to solve. (Also, just to clarify: I do not require my detective games to have a strong thematic conclusion or point to make! It’s just that in this game, a certain setting has been chosen multiple times over, just as certain clues and plot points are chosen over and over. All serve to create a world and a thematic framework. Neither of which are engaged with properly, I feel.) Anyway, those are my highs and lows with [i]The Case of the Golden Idol[/i], and why I ultimately chose not to recommend it. I do think a lot of people can and will still enjoy it, so don’t let my review deter you from trying it out. I can only hope I can offer a bit of a different opinion amongst the sea of Overwhelmingly Positive ratings.

Genuinely STUNNING game. At first the game play can be tedious, but it's actually an amazing mechanic to have the story so painfully obscured. It makes some great lore reveals pay off at the end of the game. I am a huge fan of point and click detective mysteries and Golden Idol is maybe one of the best examples of "letting the player actually figure out what happened." 11/10: would recommend if you like fine detail clue hunting, political intrigue, and logic puzzles

I took the bait and thought it was an investigation detective game (according to the game tags.) it wasn't. to be precise, it was a series of logic deduction puzzles. it was about a cult, without any mystery. instead of whodunit, most of the time, you had to find out who was who, or the timeline of events, by reading a lot of letters, which i thought it was no fun at all. try “the centennial case : a shijima story”, “Sherlock Holmes: the devil's daughter” if you are interested in detective genre.

Great puzzles. Very interesting way to tell a story too. I highly recommend this game.

Wonderful puzzle game. I Felt smart by the end of it. Try not to use any hints, much more rewarding that way.

Great investigative puzzle game. Sucked in by the story and played it in one sitting.

It is a good puzzle. You will be stuck sometimes (mostly in the later level and DLC), but if you enjoy struggeling throug that, i would reccomend it.

It's a pretty cool clicky detective game. Played it together as a couple and quite often had to resort to randomly assign answers as nothing made sense.

Definitely one of my favorite mystery games ever made. Its very unique in its presentation and legitimately makes you feel clever for putting things together.

Binged the base game and both DLCs in a day - this is easily one of the best puzzle games I’ve ever played. One of the best ways to play this is with friends (so that you won't have to suffer alone). Picture this: it's 2am and all three of us need to wake up for work in 5 hours. One is going through all permutations of possible answers, one is whispering to himself and trying to make sense of things, and the last one has completely has given up but still emotionally invested and therefore refuses to go to bed. 10/10 will subject myself to a neuralyzer just to experience this again.

Amazingly crafted mystery and deduction game, and I say this as someone who's been playing them since I first gained access to the internet. Excellent layout of clues in the most inconspicuous of places; everything fits together and falls ito place beautifully once the truth (which originally seems far too obscured to ever be discovered) becomes clear. Can't wait to play the sequel. The encouragement of the player away from the hint system was also a nice touch, in my opinion. You can tell this game was made by people who love the genre they're joining.

Good art style great story and fun to figure out puzzles

Dammit this is so addictive!!!! I really struggle to get absorbed in to games, but its been ten hours this weekend and I have so much to go at. Its also hard, really challenging.

Pretty good puzzle game. You find the hints in a snapshot and use them to recreate what happened with the keywords you unlocked. Starts very easy, gets trickier. It took me about 3 hours but I'm usually pretty good at this kind of stuff so I assume the average completion game is higher. I did spend some time on the later scenes so someone can probably finish the game faster if they're really good. Either way, not a game you spend hundreds of hours playing, but one that makes you think and use logic and deduction (and a tiny bit of math in one of the snapshots, I had to use a pen and paper for that one). I recommend doing it with the highlights unless you like pixel hunting, I don't feel that it takes anything away from the experience.

Cool story and intuitive UI. Honestly the puzzles can be easy at times, but solving the more complex ones always feels rewarding, plus it has a rich and interesting story full of constant twists and turns and so much betrayal and sabotage, perfect for anybody looking for some low-stakes fun, especially if you love murder mysteries and investigation games. Once you start piecing everything together and you finally solve the main puzzle, it just creates more intrigue for what will happen next.

Good game, I recommend it. This game is similar in style to Return of The Obra Dinn, but I found Obra Dinn to be the more enjoyable game. Not for anything, but I prefer first or third person perspective when exploring any game over point and click, which swayed my opinion to Obra Dinn. Still this type of investigative games is a rare sight, so I welcome this game anytime. If I have any issue with the game, then it would be the UI of redux version. It is too large for a computer monitor, and has issues with K&M control. Its clear that it is made for touch devices and consoles. So I recommend anyone planning to play the game with K&M to use the original game instead of the redux. Last the dlcs are good. Their purpose is just wrapping up minor loss ends from the main story. If you know that you will enjoy this type of game, then you should get them. Otherwise the base game is more than enough.

Loved the mechanics, the subtle clues and the rotten characters! Playing as just an observant rather than a character might feel a bit odd at first but the mysteries left unanswered are so much more intriguing!

I LOVE a good point and click game. This checks all my boxes. It is clever, witty, funny and makes you think and pay attention to detail while also enjoying a silly/mysterious storyline. The visuals are fun - brings me back to computer gaming in the 1990's, so a real sense of nostalgia as well. I am currently recovering from a spine surgery so this game has been a life saver - so to speak - while I recover. Easy to pick up and put down, and return to with ease. The writers and content creators of this game did an awesome job. If you're looking for a low key game that you and a friend can play through together (literally physically together as this is a single player game) - or remotely is you each play it at the same time - this is also a fun option. I appreciate that you can easily play with or without the hints on, but when you need to double check you have found everything or there is that one last clue you can't find - turn on the hint view and you will either feel great that you found all the clues OR - slap the head, "...how did I miss that?!" ANyway, fun and entertaining. I highly recommend. The creators also did a great job of increasing level difficulty as the game and storyline progresses. Bravo!!

Super fun deduction-based mystery game where you solve murders across a series of interconnected cases. There's a small cast of recurring characters that you'll learn about and the overarching story/mystery is intriguing enough to keep you pushing the story forward. Gameplay is simple and most of your time will be spent browsing the screens and re-reading text to try and piece the story together bit by bit. Recommend trying the demo first if you're on the fence as it contains the first few cases and will give you a definitive idea as to whether the game is for you or not.

Yes. Just yes. loved it! Good and compelling story telling, no unfair logic puzzles, just pure deduction.

Just as good as I'd been told. You navigate a series of frozen scenarios clicking on elements of the scene to gain keywords you will use to try and piece together the people and events of the scene, gradually revealing a larger story. Excellent murder-mystery puzzle game

While it's a really good game, I encounter the same issue that I have with similar detective games. The price. I understand it's expensive because of the quality, but I solved some of the chapters in less than 5 minutes and blew through the entire game in about 3 hours. I got it on sale for 9 euros, which I already think should be the normal price. 18 euros full price is something I could never find myself paying for only 3 hours of game play. Other than that, it's a great game! Some of the context clues are a bit out of reach, but that's fine since it makes you form assumptions. Music is fun, characters have their own development and reoccur in later chapters as well. It's all tied together until there is the one "showdown" or the march, which makes you think of everything that happened previously and tie it all together in one final puzzle. During a sale, make sure to grab this fun game!

This was a nice little adventure. I liked the way I had to hunt for clues and then strung the story together. Figuring out the story was the most rewarding, and also pretty challenging at times. That said, this one game (with DLCs) was quite enough for me, and I don't think I want more. It's kind of like Sudoku: each new level is more of the same, just less numbers are filled in for you. I recommend it if you like puzzles. Play the free demo if unsure.

mad libs style detective game that does a good job of dolling out its absurdity and themes in bite sized doses. cant start a chapter and not finish it. love the art style.

Very fun. A bit like a smaller-scale Obra Dinn with a fantastically charming art style. Good puzzles that contribute to a neat story.

A very nice investigation game with mysterious riddles who slowly draw the outlines of a conspiracy with a lot of surprises. I used to start by filling out the optional files for each case and it almost always helped me solving the main case file, except of course when magic made the impossible being the truth. If I must give one bad point it would be the appearance of the characters that wasn't to my taste, I felt they were a bit gross. But that didn't hindered me from enjoying solving the puzzles and finishing the game!

Great fun, interesting story, satisfying when you complete each scenario.

I stayed up way too late playing this game! I really like the puzzle system -- it tells you if you're just a tiny bit off, so you know if you're on the right track. The in-game hints were unfortunately not very helpful for me -- I didn't use any until the second game (in the Rajah's palace), and by the time I used them, I had a pretty good handle on the information they revealed. But I do appreciate that the hint system is cumbersome, so you don't start to rely on it too much, and is intended to ensure you understand the scenario clearly rather than just telling you what to put in which box. There were a lot of good puzzles in here, and I love how subtle some of the clues are! You really have to pay attention! My biggest piece of advice for new players: when you learn someone's name from a note in their pocket or a person calling them by name, switch to the Thinking panel immediately to fill it in. Do it even if you only have one of their names! Then you won't forget where you read someone's name. You can also wait to click on name hints until you know who they refer to, so their name is right at the end of the clue list and is easy to find.

Edit: I decided to purchase the game on Steam with both DLCs and finished them in two nights. I love that the DLCs take you full circle, and dang, the Spider one was the hardest of all the puzzles, but satisfying. Definitely will check out the sequel. ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ - 4 1/2 out of 5 stars This game's feeling is very much like Return of the Obra Dinn, and much like that game, The Case of the Golden Idol gives you a chance to bring out your inner Sherlock Holmes. Only my inner Sherlock Holmes doesn't like math, so I cheated and skipped chapter...ugh, I don't remember, because it was a number and contained MATH. But the rest was really fun and was a great brain teaser for me. There are two DLCs for this game (both of which weren't available on Game Pass), and I liked this so much, I might eventually go back and buy them to finish up. There are some definite questions I had after playing that weren't answered by the game, which is disappointing, but I'm willing to look past that because it was really a fun game to play. There was a twist that I wasn't expecting, so that's always nice. Took me about 6 hours to beat, so if you want a shorter game where you can play detective, this is the game for you.

I struggled for 10 minutes trying to find a way to phrase just how much I love this game's logic and the way it expects you to solve puzzles. I can not emphasize enough how this game scratched the investigation itch in the back of my mind. 10/10

A puzzling and deducting game that is swirling an investigator's sensation to discover the truth underneath the crime scene. Usually players were given a simple background to help understand the situation, but Golden Idol remains vague explanations to the storyline, players will solve the mystery, but do not have to join the rest of the party. However, if players really get into its undescribed design of character vibration, or blurred facial expressions which may found it difficult to determine whether they felt unfortunate, dissatisfied, or just calm. Similarly but not analogously, it might look like Philomena Cunk dancing pump up the Jam in front of the suspects and victims to reveal what's all behind, through players' hands.

By far the best deductive mystery game i have ever played. With a compelling story, unique art style and engaging way of solving mysteries, that is more then just trial and error guessing, The Case of the Golden Idol will keep you hooked for hours as you solve one mystery after another.

Very unique and engaging game. I adore the art style and the manner of solving the puzzles. It reminds me of older point and click games from when I was younger. Great to play with friends as well. Always fun to see the reaction to a gruesome scene. ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Cracking murder mystery cum political thriller. Color Gray have not hit upon the perfect system for proving that you've figured it out but the figuring-it-out process is very satisfying.

Does what it says on the tin. Riveting stuff in terms of conspiracies and the supernatural. Fascinating twists and callbacks tying everything together. Strange to see how it kind of unceremoniously ends the game with the DLC. Bit pricey for what's on offer though. It's great but please don't compare this with Return of the Obra Dinn. That's a truly unique indie masterwork and one for the ages...

Just a fantastic clue-finding deduction game that has a solid story through-line and very fair and well-constructed puzzles. The one time I thought I caught them in a mistake, it turned out the "error" was intentional and was a clue. The solving mechanics are well-thought-out and lead to maximum satisfaction with minimum frustration. 100% recommend.

This game has been amazing from start to finish. I'm not brilliant at solving puzzles. There are hints but It definitely does not hold your hand, rather it guides you in the right direction. You feel accomplished after solving each one. This game definitely had me wondering what was coming next after each chapter. I was so excited to finish each one and move onto the next chapter to find out what happened next. The DLC excellently expands on the history of the golden idol and ties in the main game excellently. The artstyle and soundtrack is great; perfectly eerie and mysterious. This game is very memorable and re-playable down the line.

I friggin' love this game. This is fun deduction and puzzle solving. The art is so unique too! If you're the type of person that loves piecing together clues, this is the game for you!

Just incredible. The puzzles are always thought-provoking and it's such a unique set-up. One of my favorite games of all time.

One of the best puzzle games of all time. With every case, the difficulty increases, and its story is also wonderful and engaging. The music is carefully selected for each case.

9/10 Puzzle game. Had so much fun looking for clues and connecting all the dots and finding out the logic behind each chapter stories.

The Case of the Golden Idol is a very enjoyable game. Possibly a little bit on the short side (my playtime includes the full game + the two extra episodes), but that's better than being too drawn out and not dense enough in content. This game differs from many other point & click detective games in that, rather than going step-by-step and solving one puzzle/clue at a time, it expects you to observe all available evidence at once, deduce the full chain of events, and only then provide a full solution. I would liken it to Return of the Obra Dinn, in the sense that you have to make deductions for what must have happened based on brief snapshots, and to Chants of Sennaar, in that you have to reconstruct more detailed information from isolated snippets. The music is serviceable, if not memorable, while the sound design is well done for the handful of sound effects that there are. The artwork is eccentric, but easy to get used to and full of character. Speaking of which, the primary characters all have a good degree of personality and their own motivations, and the entire story is connected throughout, which makes following through it a rewarding and satisfying experience. I found the difficulty to be appropriate. I'm used to detective and logic games, so people who aren't may find it a little trickier, but there is a hint system, and the game will tell you when all but two answers are correct, which does mean you can brute-force any little bits that you aren't 100% sure about. Some parts are a little contrived, such as people speaking lines that a normal person wouldn't say in order to convey information to the player, or characters keeping detailed clues to a secret code on their person. However, this is something that arises from the limitations of how the game is presented, so can't be judged too harshly. Overall, the game was definitely a positive experience, and I was glad to have picked it up.

[h1]Ideal length - I got bored exactly at the last DLC level[/h1] This game was lying in my wishlist for years, because I thought it's a Point & Click game. It is not - it is in fact a word guessing game. You search environment for words and then slot them into cards to create a full story. And it was cool - for the first half, at least. Later I felt like it's a bit too easy, and last two levels of main campain weirded me out with their political direction. DLC stories, being effectively a prequel, just didn't feel as interesting as main story ones. Still, I enjoyed the game for quite a bit. I think, I'll by the second part at some point - just not now.

Its a fun game but I maybe over-hyped it a bit for myself after playing similar games (e.g. Obra Dinn). Would definitely not recommend playing the Redux version because the UI is clearly a mobile backport and is a pain to work with on mouse and keyboard. Overall, still worth a play for the interesting storyline, great art, and difficult puzzles.

Great game for a set-your-pace deduction scenario. Clearly inspired by Obra Dinn, and I'm happy to see another game like it. Sometimes you do need to take a logical leap, inferring information that's not explicitly telegraphed by a specific clue but rather communicated by the logic of the scenario as a whole. That can be frustrating if you can't intuit the logic yourself, but when I'd find those situations come up it was normally able to be solved with a little brute force. Those few circumstances still don't ruin the enjoyment of the game as a whole and I strongly recommend this to anyone who likes elaborate mysteries and brain teasers.

A clever and satisfying puzzle game, with a good balance of easy starts and head-scratching finishes.

A fascinating puzzle game that requires good deductive skills. Gameplay is unique and storytelling is smart. Worth trying it out.

Fantastic puzzle game, though I don't think the DLC is quite worth the current price. I really liked that, for the most part, each level had a different twist on the mechanic.

I bought this game specifically to hear the soundtrack in game. Turned out to be a wild ride with incredible puzzles and immersive story. I loved it! 10/10