An ancient idol with murderous powers, a sinister cult poised to transform 18th century England into a life-stealing orwellian dystopia, a proletarian revolution brewing. Murder, betrayal, assassins, spontaneous combustion, love triangles, ritualistic poisoning and magic spells. All of this and more is what constitutes the grand conspiracy behind the curtain of this Latvian investigation game made by two brothers.
Overtly inspired by Lucas Pope's modern classic Return of the Obra Dinn, this game puts you in the shoes of an omniscient detective tasked with solving the central mystery in each of the shocking multilayered tableaux that compose its non-linear overarching narrative. The challenge is not in finding the clues (the game even advises turning hotspot highlights on so nothing is missed), rather to piece them together using deductive reasoning in order to figure out who's who, what they have done and why, which is easier said than done. You might have to sift through love letters to find the first name of who was sitting next to whom at a dinner party, then consult delivery receipts to dig up a last name, then cross-reference information from other rooms and characters to understand motivations, so you can fill out a report of exactly what happened.
Unlike Obra Dinn, which to an extent sacrificed complexity in the name of multilanguage accessibility, limiting itself to [First and Last name] was [Fate] by [Perpetrator], The Case of the Golden Idol is made for the English language alone, as such manages to present a far more elaborate syntax: it's not uncommon to have to fill out sentences structured as follows: [First name] [Last name] [Verb] [First name] [Last name] in the [Place] because [First name] [Last name] wanted to [Verb] the [Object]. It even color codes categories of words as to make the incomplete report sheets less confusing at a glance: brown for people's names, yellow for objetcs, blue for actions and grey for places and ranks.
The result might be something like "John Smith drugged Jack Jones in the garden, then stole the diamond from the study and planted it in Jack Jones' pocket to frame Jack Jones for the murder of Tom Brown." It's all very satisfying when everything finally clicks and you manage to figure out what transpired. It's a great feeling of accomplishment to suss out who sleeps in which bedchamber from their belongings, or who was where at which time based on their bar tab and winnings at the cards. One scenario requires you to figure out the hierarchy and rituals of the secret cult, while another entails understanding the intricacies of the orwellian party's judicial system based on the rules of virtues (how bad do they consider a lie vs being drunk or lustful?).
To keep things flowing there are a number of assists designed to aid you in your deductive process: aside from the aforementioned hotspot highlights and color coding, the game's deduction board is segmented into multiple panels, of which only the main one is required to solve each scenario. The game informs you when you have made two mistakes or fewer, to let you know you are close to solving a panel. This cuts both ways, because while this helps you realize you are on the right track, it also opens the way for trial and error: there were one of two cases where I did not figure out someone's motive at all, and simply replaced words until the panel turned green. It's an unfortunate byproduct of accessibility, to prevent the player from getting too stuck and frustrated, since many of the cases can get very complex.
The game also places many, many red herrings in your way to try and veer you off course: sure, that suspicious man carrying a sack on his shoulder might draw your eye, but he might not even be involved in the case in at all. That mysterious half-empty vial under someone's pillow might be the poison you need... or not at all. On that subject, it would have been good to be able to draw the wrong conclusion and accuse the wrong person, much like in Frogware's Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments, which featured a comparable deduction board which didn't shy away from leading you towards the incorrect conclusion if you were too hasty or sloppy. Golden Idol doesn't do that unfortunately, as there is only one solution to each scenario and no real penalty for getting it wrong. Maybe an idea for a sequel.
It would also have been nice to have a summary sheet listing all the characters you have correctly identified, accessible from any scenario: there were certain characters whose identity was difficult to remember from one case to the next. You can quit out and revisit completed cases to check who's who, but it's that extra step that makes it cumbersome.
These are small quibbles, however, and that such are the only points of criticism to be moved against this title shows how we really have something special here: there are so precious few of these games around, where you need to actually think about the clues you have, as opposed to just clicking around until an automatic dialogue option unlocks like in most so-called detective games, that it's impossible not to highly recommend The Case of the Golden Idol to anyone even remotely invested in detective fiction.
Overtly inspired by Lucas Pope's modern classic Return of the Obra Dinn, this game puts you in the shoes of an omniscient detective tasked with solving the central mystery in each of the shocking multilayered tableaux that compose its non-linear overarching narrative. The challenge is not in finding the clues (the game even advises turning hotspot highlights on so nothing is missed), rather to piece them together using deductive reasoning in order to figure out who's who, what they have done and why, which is easier said than done. You might have to sift through love letters to find the first name of who was sitting next to whom at a dinner party, then consult delivery receipts to dig up a last name, then cross-reference information from other rooms and characters to understand motivations, so you can fill out a report of exactly what happened.
Unlike Obra Dinn, which to an extent sacrificed complexity in the name of multilanguage accessibility, limiting itself to [First and Last name] was [Fate] by [Perpetrator], The Case of the Golden Idol is made for the English language alone, as such manages to present a far more elaborate syntax: it's not uncommon to have to fill out sentences structured as follows: [First name] [Last name] [Verb] [First name] [Last name] in the [Place] because [First name] [Last name] wanted to [Verb] the [Object]. It even color codes categories of words as to make the incomplete report sheets less confusing at a glance: brown for people's names, yellow for objetcs, blue for actions and grey for places and ranks.
The result might be something like "John Smith drugged Jack Jones in the garden, then stole the diamond from the study and planted it in Jack Jones' pocket to frame Jack Jones for the murder of Tom Brown." It's all very satisfying when everything finally clicks and you manage to figure out what transpired. It's a great feeling of accomplishment to suss out who sleeps in which bedchamber from their belongings, or who was where at which time based on their bar tab and winnings at the cards. One scenario requires you to figure out the hierarchy and rituals of the secret cult, while another entails understanding the intricacies of the orwellian party's judicial system based on the rules of virtues (how bad do they consider a lie vs being drunk or lustful?).
To keep things flowing there are a number of assists designed to aid you in your deductive process: aside from the aforementioned hotspot highlights and color coding, the game's deduction board is segmented into multiple panels, of which only the main one is required to solve each scenario. The game informs you when you have made two mistakes or fewer, to let you know you are close to solving a panel. This cuts both ways, because while this helps you realize you are on the right track, it also opens the way for trial and error: there were one of two cases where I did not figure out someone's motive at all, and simply replaced words until the panel turned green. It's an unfortunate byproduct of accessibility, to prevent the player from getting too stuck and frustrated, since many of the cases can get very complex.
The game also places many, many red herrings in your way to try and veer you off course: sure, that suspicious man carrying a sack on his shoulder might draw your eye, but he might not even be involved in the case in at all. That mysterious half-empty vial under someone's pillow might be the poison you need... or not at all. On that subject, it would have been good to be able to draw the wrong conclusion and accuse the wrong person, much like in Frogware's Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments, which featured a comparable deduction board which didn't shy away from leading you towards the incorrect conclusion if you were too hasty or sloppy. Golden Idol doesn't do that unfortunately, as there is only one solution to each scenario and no real penalty for getting it wrong. Maybe an idea for a sequel.
It would also have been nice to have a summary sheet listing all the characters you have correctly identified, accessible from any scenario: there were certain characters whose identity was difficult to remember from one case to the next. You can quit out and revisit completed cases to check who's who, but it's that extra step that makes it cumbersome.
These are small quibbles, however, and that such are the only points of criticism to be moved against this title shows how we really have something special here: there are so precious few of these games around, where you need to actually think about the clues you have, as opposed to just clicking around until an automatic dialogue option unlocks like in most so-called detective games, that it's impossible not to highly recommend The Case of the Golden Idol to anyone even remotely invested in detective fiction.