The Case of the Golden Idol Reviews
The Case of the Golden Idol offers us one of the best recent investigative stories. The main gameplay mechanic is your brain and how you can deduce everything. It's an absolutely brilliant game and I wish more like it came out.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
For situations where players have exhausted all their available options and brainpower, The Case of the Golden Idol also offers a fantastic in-game hint system. It doesn't overreach and offer solutions blatantly, but instead uses phrases like "consider the food on the dinner table, and everyone's personal eating habits" to point confused players in the right direction. None of the puzzles presented in the game are impossibly difficult (except for one late game chapter which suddenly threw maths in, but that could be my own personal shortcomings) and the story it tells about the golden idol itself is delightfully weird and fleshed out despite the game's short runtime. For anyone looking for 3-6 hours of cryptic crossword-like murder mysteries, The Case of the Golden Idol is a solid choice.
This handsome detective game isn't quite the second coming of Return Of The Obra Dinn, but it does come pretty damn close. An entertaining story told through a dozen murders, The Case Of The Golden Idol is a mystery well worth solving.
The Case of the Golden Idol is a tight adventure with good mechanics, excellent design for all the scenes, and great presentation. Players should try to play a sequence at a time, savor the clues and avoid relying on the hint system as much as possible.
The Curse of the Golden Idol keeps you guessing right up until the end. It smartly connects its cast and cases, really immersing you in its mysteries and intricacies. Some minor UI issues aside, this is a must play for adventure game enthusiasts or anyone looking for a good, memorable journey.
While I do think there was room for some additional quality of life features here, and it sometimes gets a bit too clever for its own good, The Case of the Golden Idol took me back to my childhood, reminding me of the puzzles I once loved while putting its own spin on things that would only work in a video game. This idol might be cursed, but you should still take a chance on it.
Everything that I love about Return of the Obra Dinn is present in The Case of the Golden Idol and more. Things are never as straightforward as they seem, and the story is so absorbing that I once again spent all night delving into each case. My only wish is that the game was longer, as I eventually completed it in four hours. But when the only flaw is that you wanted more, can it really be considered a flaw?
A challenging and inventive set of mysteries to solve tied together with a brilliant storyline.
The Case of the Golden Idol is one of the biggest surprises of this year. I liked the demo a lot, but I honestly wasn't expecting the full game to go far beyond that and offer a completely original and memorable experience like Return to Obra Dinn. You'll be sorry if you miss it.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Witty, observationalist writing and a hands-off approach to deduction elevate this excellent period murder-mystery to a singular work.
I will commend The Case of the Golden Idol for being an excruciatingly smart game with a neat method of developing its lore and world-building, but its mystery solving gameplay loop, while engaging for those into whodunits, features some flaws worth pointing out. Solving a case is really rewarding, but getting stuck in a particular puzzle feels punishing, with the game nearly starting to treat you in a condescending way if you start using its (tiresome) hint system too often.
Color Gray Games could never release another game and they'd still be a team I'd remember years down the line. Case of the Golden Idol is an incredible first showing that may just revolutionize the mystery game genre in the way that classics like Return of the Obra Dinn did at launch. When I was done with it all, I was left with this hunger to create art, because that's what happens when I consume a piece of truly great art.
The Case of the Golden Idol is a game that makes me feel like a TV detective, slapping photos on a wall and drawing red lines between them. Those strings of yarn crisscross throughout my notebook, connecting characters and murder weapons and motives. It’s easy to get sucked into small details looking for a lead, but the feeling it gives when I’ve locked in the correct answers… It’s like I’m the most brilliant person on earth — even if just for a moment. The Case of the Golden Idol, like other deep detective games, expands past its own boundaries and into the pages of my notebook, leaving me thinking about its clues long after I’ve closed the game.
A treasure inspires murder, and your job as detective is to piece together the crime in this addictive 18th-century whodunnit
The Case of the Golden Idol's clever mysteries leave players feeling like Victorian super sleuths.
The Case of the Golden Idol is an excellent debut. Color Gray has learned the lesson of Return of the Obra Dinn and reinterpreted it with its own style. The cases to be solved are well thought out and to come to grips with puzzles that require deduction and intelligence rather than skill with the classic mechanics of the genre is quite satisfying. The Latvian developer duo in his first game shows they have personality, including in the graphic style that does not mind being disturbing and in the appropriate background music, all of which conveniently mystery-themed.
Review in Italian | Read full review
As a debut title from a new indie team, it's difficult to imagine how things could have gone better: Gray Color Games has indeed managed to create a charming and well-crafted investigative adventure that every wannabe detective should really consider playing.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Another great indie detective game that not only makes solving crimes fun and interesting but has some surprisingly good storytelling to tie everything together.
The game excels at having an interconnected narrative, which greatly motivates you to delve into deep thinking to solve every mystery and unravelling all secrets.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Case of the Golden Idol is an innovative and truly engaging detective masterpiece.