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It’s pretty rare these days to find a game that really looks unlike anything else. Describing the art style of The Case of the Golden Idol is a challenge for sure. That is an achievement in and of itself. I’ve never seen a game so gruesomely “ugly” yet striking and awe-inspiring in its own weird way. What an irony to have a studio called Color Gray Games release a game that couldn’t be further from the color gray. Despite its dark subject matter, Golden Idol is actually rather bright and colorful. The reduced color palette combined with a masterfully utilized dithering effect gives the whole game a unique retro charm. The environments you get to visit during your journey through this mystery tale are a sight to behold for sure but nothing comes close to the simply unmatched expressiveness of these faces. Just look at these ugly-ass dudes. The huge bulging eyes, the crooked noses, the swollen pursed lips and never-ending foreheads. It’s an art style that embraces its obliqueness proudly and it reinforces the strange and mysterious vibe the game is going for perfectly.
Yes, the titular case in The Case of the Golden Idol, is an intriguing one. Through 12 chapters, you follow the events surrounding a mysterious artefact – the golden idol. It makes its first appearance near the isle of Lemuria where two men are entangled in mortal strife over the ownership of this ominous and strangely alluring item. This is the first case you have to solve and everything you need to know to progress the game can be learnt here.
This is a “whodunit” murder mystery puzzle game and you take on the role of an observer/detective trying to piece together what transpired in each chapter. Certain rules always apply. There’s always a body, the cause of death can be inferred from clues that are scattered around the vicinity and things are never as clear as they first seem. Similar to games like Return of the Obra Dinn, it is your task to identify each person in a scene and determine what chain of events led to the eventual death of the victim. You do this by gathering clues in the form of names, objects and activities. Yes, by clicking on points of interest in a scene, you literally collect words that you then need to input into an incomplete text describing the events. You fill in the blanks and, if your deductions are correct, solve the case.
What I loved about this approach is that Case of the Golden Idol uses environmental storytelling to great effect. Once you enter a scene you only perceive the aftermath of the horrific event that led to a person’s death. The environmental storytelling is all there is for you to make any kind of sense of what happened. You can check people’s inventories, you can look into drawers or closely examine papers and paintings. Everything you see can hold a clue to the mystery at hand.
But it doesn’t have to!
That’s the cool thing here. Sometimes, the game deliberately misleads you by presenting “clues” that are really not going anywhere. I remember a specific chapter in which the game put great emphasis on showing a variety of footprints. Additionally, for every character present in the scene, you could zoom in on their shoes and match their shapes with the prints you found. Did you need any of this? Hell no! At least for me, I had the case figured out without this info. I don’t think this is a bad thing though, quite the opposite. I love when puzzle games respect my agency as the player. Let me figure things out on my own given all the information available. Even if seemingly useless information can feel like it’s only there to confuse you, I actually enjoyed crawling through the heaps of data trying to identify the relevant bits and pieces I needed to solve the case.
I say “seemingly useless information” for a reason. You see, another positive effect of this approach is that sometimes, the game embellishes a scene with information that isn’t necessarily important for the identification of the murderer but that still enriches the world and its characters. Many times did I find a peculiar piece of writing or a clothing item or jewelry that would tell me something about the person who possessed it. Sometimes, entire relationships between characters are recontextualized this way. You think you know how certain characters relate to each other and then you find a letter in someone’s pocket that turns everything on its head. It’s the coolest thing ever!
As you move from one case to the next, an initially unconnected series of events slowly starts to reveal itself as a continuous storyline as every case is in some way connected to the golden idol. Certain characters are featured in multiple chapters and by the end of the game, you have a pretty solid understanding of their personality, ambitions and morals. What starts as a fictionalized tale of colonial thievery subsequently turns into a grand epic about conspiracies, secret societies and coup d'etats. It’s a gripping alternate history that slowly unfolds, sucking you into its dark narrative further and further with every chapter you play. When it all came together so beautifully in the end, there was this moment of epiphany that shook me to the bone. This is usually the moment that makes or breaks a mystery game - the resolution at the end. I can’t stress this enough but The Case of the Golden Idol nails this so perfectly. Not only does the ending give you a satisfying sense of closure, it also completely reframes everything that happened until that point. In your mind, you go back to previous cases and it gives you one aha moment after another. The writers did a fantastic job here and I have nothing but praise for their work. It’s a slow burn for sure but I guarantee you that if you give this game a little time to get going, its story will have you in its grasp until the very end.
Another game element that delights me is how optional objectives are designed. To progress the story, you have to fill in the blanks of a descriptive text delineating the events of the current chapter. However, there is more to do if you wish to. Identifying every character, correctly placing every person in a seating order or matching tattoos with their corresponding social standing within a secret society. The game gets really creative with these. Oftentimes, those “optional” tasks really help with the main mystery. Knowing everyone’s identity or where everyone was seated during a dinner party when the victim collapsed sure helps with solving the case. I love how the game doesn’t hold back here. There are some genuinely tricky tasks here that absolutely require you to pay attention to the scene, connect the dots and sometimes, learn certain rules or symbols by heart. I found myself sitting in front of the screen trying to piece everything together and often being close to losing the plot. But I always kept going because I just needed to understand everything that was going on. To summarize my feelings for the puzzle design in this game: “It makes no damn sense…compels me though.”
I have nothing more to say other than: Play this game! If murder mysteries interest you at all and you have a fondness for puzzle games like Return of the Obra Dinn, this is one of the if not the best in the genre. The way this game misleads you, the way it subtly tells you so much about its characters with so little, the way this small-scale story about an ancient artefact turns into a grand alternate history tale is nothing short of marvelous. Amazing narrative design, outstanding audiovisual presentation and a core mystery that stays compelling till the very end… The Case of the Golden Idol is close to perfection.