The Case of the Golden Idol review — cults, politics and murder mystery. A concoction of Detective game greatness

After this year’s Game Awards, it’s hard not to get swept up in celebrating the juggernauts of the industry, who showcase the technological capability of video games. Notable is the immense value placed on hyper-realistic graphics and vast open worlds, but when a little goober called Astro Bot won Game of the Year, it got me thinking of what I and so many other players still wanted in our modern games. Style is intoxicating, and the indie industry is bountiful in what it offers in appearance and mechanics. You never know what 3-hour adventure is gonna pop up and swiftly steal your heart or allow you to try something completely out of your comfort zone! Color Grey Games not only does this once, but twice in its titles, The Case of the Golden Idol and its sequel The Rise of the Golden Idol.

I’m going to split these games into their own reviews, as despite hitting the same beats mechanically, I still found my notebook packed full of little bits and bobs that I wanted to talk about in each game, so stay tuned for both reviews!

The Case of the Golden Idol is a point-and-click murder mystery puzzle game that has you step into the boots of an 18th-century detective, following a stream of unfortunate events linked to one family and one mysterious Golden Idol. Despite the limitations of its genre, the game’s narrative was interesting and threaded the family’s history and dynamics through its puzzles really well. You begin the game with a simple quarrel over buried treasure that manifests into a deep family feud of possession and greed that entangles cults and politics. This game is wild to unfold in its many conspiracies but also can be completely unserious in other places. Mainly in its characters, who are caricatures with over-the-top reactions and designs, and the politics that ban citizens from wearing outlandish clothing. It grounds the drama and doesn’t allow it to be completely bleak, as these characters do get butchered and set alight left, right, and center. Since this is all painted in a pixelated style that is both grotesque and charming, double chins and massive noses galore; it really does feel like 18th-century Britain.

What ties these chaotic family members together is the mythical golden idol, which at the start, I thought was desired due to the fortune it could sell for. But it gets messier. The Golden Idol is uncovered to be a powerful device that helps perform ‘miracles,’ like accelerating age or making gold. A supernatural element that allows for some pretty bizarre events and drama to escalate its stakes.
As defined by Game Maker’s Toolkit, definitely give their ‘The 3 Types of Detective Game’ a watch if you’re new to the genre. The Case of the Golden Idol is a ‘Deduction-style’ detective game. You’re provided with a diorama that captures the moment the victim meets their end or simply moments after, and you have to piece together the details and how we arrived at this scenario. You’re more of an omniscient detective, rather than one who’s about to go in all guns blazing with handcuffs saying, ‘You dunnit!’ The crime scene is fresh and active for the player to dissect, giving you the freedom to move across areas, see what’s in everyone’s pockets, and read notes thrown into the garbage. There is always a lot to unpack, and the game does help guide the player in a way that doesn’t feel so hand-holdy but does help you build up a conclusion.

This comes in the form of optional scrolls that can range from suspect lists that make you match names to faces and who sat in which spot at a dinner party. Despite having to repeat the suspect list in every puzzle, it helps you in memorizing who is who and connecting motives that may have been established a few puzzles ago. The final scroll is a fill-in-the-blank paragraph that details who was killed, who killed them, and how they were killed. The Case of the GI does a good job of piecing the puzzle together instead of chucking you in the deep end.
However, if you do get stuck, the game provides three hints in each scroll, which allows the game to not feel so unforgiving in making silly mistakes or misreads. The game progresses to bigger spectacles, and the information and suspects provided start to pile up, so don’t be ashamed to whip out a little notepad if the information seems like a lot; I don’t think I would have made it through the late-game math sums if I didn’t have one…

The Case of the Golden Idol isn’t free of all frustration, though. There was one particular puzzle (mentioned by a few other reviewers) whose solution was weirdly out of my reach of comprehension, and even after I had (sadly) brute-forced my way through, I still didn’t really understand what happened. And I also found the last case to be quite daunting and a bit overbearing. With this in mind, the game is probably best played in short sessions. A puzzle at the end of the day is low commitment but enjoyable without your head getting scrambled in late-game puzzles. Despite playing this on PC, seeing that it is on mobile seems the best way to go with its touchscreen and portability. But don’t get me wrong; playing on PC was cozy enough, and sifting through information was much easier.

In its initial release, The Case of the Golden Idol’s UI was a bit too overbearing for my liking. You had your main screen with the diorama, but then all scrolls were combined onto one screen with the fill-in-the-gap keywords at the bottom. Despite being nowhere near game-ruining, compared to the overhaul its UI had in the Redux update in 2024, it’s more digestible for the player. Optional scrolls are now their own little menu, and keywords are bolder and more in focus. Interactable evidence is also easier to spot, as instead of flashing red dots, they are separated into question marks and check marks, signaling if you have missed something. Small details, but welcome ones.

The Case of the Golden is short in its run-time, about 4-6 hours if you take your time and are not a puzzle veteran, but I encourage everyone to take their time with this title. Grab a cuppa and solve a puzzle one rainy night, but don’t feel obliged to marathon it as it risks a scrambled brain. Despite the grandma-esque feel of a puzzle point-and-click murder mystery, I was delightfully enthralled in this genre and this game. It’s equally intrinsic and charming in appearance, narrative, and mechanics and can surprise you with how it provides a break between these big 40-hour titles. The puzzle genre is breaking out in the indie industry, and The Case of the Golden Idol is one of its best.

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