14 DAY TRIAL // 
A document showing the successors of a man who died falling from a horse. A few gambling notes, some knives in coats, a will torn apart. And, more importantly, a man running and on fire, which is incredibly weird for a small noble estate in the XVIII century. Who looks perplexed? Who had a motive? Who is everyone and how was the victim chosen? A good detective needs to look at these clues, find the relevant names and words, and put together a coherent explanation for what and why happened, preferably without the use of hints.
The Case of the Golden Idol is developed by Color Gray Games and published by Playstack. I played via Steam on the PC. The title delivers a delightful mystery and adventure experience centered around an artifact and the people that want to gain power through it.
Players take on the role of a detective operating in the XVIII century, investigating a series of cases. The first is pretty simple, serving as a tutorial, and introduces players to an expedition, an idol, and a family. The level of complexity increases with each new tableaux and chapter.
A noble dies alone in his room. Members of the family squabble over the inheritance and the idol is always present. The level of weirdness increases with each new case but there’s always a clear connection to previous sequences. The game’s writing manages to be equally efficient and a little arch. It creates a perfectly defined small universe, with its own rules, that will keep players immersed across the twelve chapters.
The Case of the Golden Idol has simple and clear mechanics. Players will get to look at a situation, made up of one or more scenes. They feature characters and items, with the ones that can reveal clues helpfully marked (if you really like pixel hunting this can be tweaked via the Options menu). Clicking on a highlighted word will allow players to collect it as a clue. The first order of business is to move through each scenario, getting all these clues, and creating a first shaky mental map of what might have happened.
It’s then time to switch over to the Thinking space and learn what the detective has to figure out. This includes the identity of those taking part in the scenario, the actions that led to the death, and more. Players will solve the case by moving words to their appropriate places in the scrolls of the Thinking page. It’s elegant but also means gamers need to have a clear mental image of the events before they begin solving.
There’s no chance to simply guess but moving the words around often unlocks new ways to look at a problem. There are no traditional puzzles to solve, no conversations to monitor, and no characters to follow around. Players simply have to build the right scenario, using the game provided info and their intelligence.
The Case of the Golden Idol also features a hint system, for those moments when something doesn’t fall into place no matter how long one stares at the clues. It asks players to play a simple word-and-item matching mini-game to give them an idea of how to solve a particular element of a situation. It’s a good system but it might frustrate players who want to get a direct set of directions to get through a scenario.
The developers were wise to add a simple screen for players to click through before getting to the hints. Exploring spaces, looking at clues, evaluating potential approaches, and trying out scenarios, is what makes the experience fun. When I felt I was unable to make progress, I wrote some info into a text file and walked away from the game. After a few hours, I was itching to try out something new, hopeful that I could move to the next scene.
The Case of the Golden Idol’s presentation benefits immensely from the art style, which evokes older titles in the adventure genre but also has clear personality. I like the characters most, drawn to show off traits, hard to confuse, and designed to keep players guessing. The soundtrack is good but stays, smartly, in the background, giving players the mental space, they need to try to make connections and solve the game’s mysteries.
The Good
- Detective mechanics
- Mystery development
- Solid presentation
The Bad
- Repetitive gameplay
- Limited hint system
- A few trope-driven story moments
Conclusion
Playing with a group of people will probably make the entire experience, with or without hints, even more enjoyable. The Case of the Golden Idol shows what Color Gray Games can do with a solid premise and carefully designed scenarios and I would love to see their set of skills applied to other settings.
Review code provided by the publisher.
