Chaos & Confetti

The Case of the Golden Idol by Color Gray Games takes players through a puzzle adventure that spans decades of time and multiple deaths.  This point-and-click video game requires players to investigate scenes in order to piece together evidence to determine characters, actions, concepts, and crimes.

Each level offers many suspects and items for players to interact with and decode.  Along the way, words can be collected which are necessary to complete the game’s thought scrolls and other items.  Once a scroll is filled in completely and correctly, the players will be able to advance in the game and story.

The Case of the Golden Idol is available for Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Mac operating systems.  There is a base game and two dlc expansions as well.  The game is a single player adventure, but others can still help crack the puzzles without actually touching the controller.  As a duo, working together, we finished the base game in about six hours.

OUR THOUGHTS:

Puzzles:  A unique and fun puzzles system that levels up at a great pace and keeps pulling players back for more

The Case of the Golden Idol does a good job of introducing its exploration and evidence gathering system and slowly turning up the difficulty as players advance through the game.  

Each level comes with a scroll that is missing words (character names, actions, idols, concepts, and more).  By inspecting the freeze-frame crime scenes, players will gather up to dozens of words that they can place onto the scroll.  

Using what they see and discover, players will need to figure out the order and placement of the words they find.  Some words will never be used and some may even be used more than once.  The larger and finer details are all essential to come to a final answer (there is a hint system for those who need it).

The levels feel very doable, but players will need to put their brain to work in order to solve and infer exactly what happened in each scene and who did what.

The Case of the Golden Idol is a blast.  Players will enjoy solving the cases and feel quite accomplished when all is said and done.

Narrative: A dark and entertaining journey through an idol’s history 

Each level (chapter) of the game comes with its own piece of a larger narrative that covers several decades of story progression.  Players uncover the narrative by solving what happened in each scene, discovering more family history and secrets of the golden idol.  

The story itself is a dark (death, murder, cults) romp that should keep players enthralled.  The snapshots of story progression that jumps from key moment to key moment in the idols’ history give just enough information to feel satisfying while still letting the mystery unfold in an entertaining fashion.   

With eleven cases and an epilogue, there is a lot of story to play through.

Overall Fun:  Hits the sweet spot between fun and challenge

The Case of the Golden Idol is an addictive game that provides plenty of fun through its explore and fill-in-the-blank playstyle.  The ramping up of difficulty and complexity sits at a good level which should help players develop alongside the game.  

With so many cases to play through, there is a lot for players to sink their teeth into and enjoy.  The game provides enough of a challenge without ever becoming overwhelming.

WRAP UP:

Puzzles: A unique and fun puzzles system that levels up at a great pace and keeps pulling players back for more

Narrative: A dark and entertaining journey through an idol’s history

Overall Fun: Hits the sweet spot between fun and challenging

Recommended for: 

Those who enjoy deductive puzzles, dark mysteries, point-and-click adventures, and entertaining adventures.

Disclaimer: we were given this game as a gift from friends (not associated with the game publisher), this review is not sponsored. All thoughts are our own.