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A disappointing sequel to one of my favorite Detective Games of all time

Disclaimer: This Review contains mild spoilers for the Rise of the Golden Idol and Major Spoiler for the Case of the Golden Idol.
If you liked Golden Idol 1, you will also find your fun in this game, you might, however, like me, find yourself disappointed with what the Game will have to offer.
The Case of the Golden Idol is one of my favorite detective Games of all time, it does so many things well and presents a new way to experience detective games.
Instead of figuring out, who did it, it is much more about HOW they did it and who everyone is in the first place.
It smartly uses its structure to connect, at first seemingly unrelated cases with each other and weave an intriguing narrative about Humanities Greed and the consequences of unchecked Power.
The Rise of the Golden Idol, in contrast, fails in many aspects where the first game succeeded, and instead of elevating the incredible Foundation that the first Game set, the game simply became a worse version of a game I already played.
Gameplay
Cases
Unlike the first game, The Rise of the Golden Idol focuses on smaller cases.
Cases that can be solved relatively quickly, but will be part of a larger puzzle, similar to how in the first game, all other cases would fuse into one big case at the end of the Game.
This however means that you constantly have to switch back to old cases to solve the bigger picture and unlike the first game, this game has loading times , making the whole process just extra annoying, especially when it's information that you have already deduced before.
One of the most outrageous examples being how you have to Name the same 5 people multiple times throughout the game.
This game also really lacks that “Final Conclusion” that the first game has.
Sure, it's easier to navigate between cases now, but you hardly ever need to.
As long as you somewhat followed the Story along, you will hardly if ever return to old cases, partly a fault of the cases being as small as they are now.
What I miss the most here is just the creativity, why not have a case you have to solve alongside another case?
How about a puzzle, where you need to figure out a Code from multiple other cases?
Just something new, anything.
Screens
Also new in this Game, the once static 2 Screen mode, between exploring and thinking has been replaced with pop-up windows, which each host their own Puzzle to solve.
In theory, this should allow for more dynamic and interesting cases, with more variety.
After all, the Game now isn’t tied to a single screen.
In practice, however, these screens rarely find a use outside of what already was there in the first game.
Additionally, now, because these screens are independent of each other, you suddenly find yourself always fighting against them.
While in the first game, you could always quickly use Words from one screen to the next.
Here the windows are so big that you always have to blend them in, then out again, then overlay them, move them around, and just constantly have them in your way.
And unlike the first game, because they are as big and as plenty as they are, you can never just have everything on one Screen.
Something this new system also sacrificed, was words disappearing after having used them correctly.
It wasn’t just satisfying to see words slowly disappear showing your progress in the case in real time and how you slowly piece everything together.
It also helped to declutter the interface and keep an overview.
This game directly shows the consequence of not having it, by always having a full word box that never gets smaller.
This is especially annoying in cases where you don’t have to fill names, in these cases you just kind of have to sort the words on your own with the limited space you get and constantly search for them again, should you need them.
Speaking of which.
Words
I only rarely had a problem with filling in the texts in The First Game.
A lot of factors made filling in these texts pretty fun, but one of the most important ones was its precision.
Sometimes these texts could serve as subtle clues to what happened.
The only time I got these Texts wrong, was when I truly missed something or oversaw an important detail.
The Second game, however, had me constantly stuck with semantics.
It became so bad, in the final cases that often times, I knew the conclusion of the case but simply had a word wrong that the game didn’t accept despite meaning almost the same thing.
There were also times when the text was just structured so weirdly, that I was genuinely confused about what the game wanted me to answer.
Also to add to this, some puzzles were just straight up not fun.
Puzzles like about learning bird names by constantly clicking between 2 screens, felt more like chores than actual brain teasers and at times, even mild leaps in logic and assumptions.
Story
If I had to describe this games Story in a word, that isn’t “Disappointing” it would be “Anticlimactic”.
The first game in my opinion was a Masterclass in storytelling.
It told a story about Humanity and its greed, about people abusing power for good intentions but ultimately creating a tyranny, and most of all it was just so FUN.
One moment you would attend a tea party where somebody was poisoned, in the next you would suddenly end up inside of a cult, only to then suddenly be thrusted into a world domination plot.
Only to, in the finale, finally piece together what happened, which made everything escalate so suddenly.
All of it ending up in one of the coolest and out of nowhere plot twists I have ever seen.
A plot twist that the game never tells you, but you simply have to figure out for yourself how to solve the case.
With the first game, I was always excited about what case came next and most of all, just how far it would escalate.
There hardly were any cases where not one or the other was present, if not both. Always keeping stakes and excitement high.
It was as if you saw the Story that unfolded, through the eyes of the Statue.
How it observed these People, wrestle with it until one inevitably broke it.
In the second Game however, you get thrust into some of the most boring cases I have seen in any Mystery game, period.
A man ending to birds, models having a photoshoot. These cases just had me begging for them to be over.
Chapter 3 and 4 in general have to be the lowest point of this game, as there is simply nothing exciting happening.
For comparison, everything we pretty much find out in these Chapters, were a single case in the first game and it wasn’t even the focus point of that case, it was simply another mystery.
It often feels like padding and the game simply never captures the same excitement the first game has.
The Final chapter of the game, very well could and should have been the halfway point of a much bigger Scenario.
Instead of upping the excitement that the first game provided, barely anything interesting happens.
The biggest escalation we ever got was, somebody being mad for not having won first place in a competition.
The deeper themes of the first game were also just kind of lost in this one.
It wanted to bring a message about corporations and pseudoscience, but not only did it not delve into those nearly enough.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this sequel was just disappointing.
So disappointing, that I actually for once in all my time on Steam went and wrote a review.
The game is more of the first game, which is good.
But it just does everything worse than the first game did.
I was really excited about this game, ever since it was announced.
But now that I have played it, I fear that the first game might just have been lightning in a bottle.
So, in conclusion, would I recommend it?
Only if you really liked the first game and even then, probably at a big discount.