Case of the Golden Idol (Computer)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): October 13, 2022
- Publisher: Playstack
- Developer: Color Gray Games
- Genres: Puzzle, mystery
Game Features:
One of the biggest rules for making a story engaging is "show, don't tell," and it's one that detective video games often have a hard time following. The reason for that is pretty obvious: if they show you what happened, there's no mystery to solve. Think about games like Phoenix Wright or Danganronpa or L.A. Noire; they all follow the same structure of railroading you on a long, tedious investigation that teases out hints and possible motivations for the criminal. But it all feels like a necessary evil to reach the action - a courtroom scene or an interrogation - where you actually get to see what happens next.
Case of the Golden Idol doesn't structure itself like other detective games. Opening a case will drop you - with no context - into a frozen snapshot of a scene moments after a murder has taken place, and you're free to click around and explore at your discretion. Since time stands still, you can't interact with any of the characters, but it also means nobody can stop you from seeing every nook and cranny of the environment, searching their pockets or hearing what they're saying at the moment of the murder. It feels less like you're playing a detective and more like you, the player, simply are one.
Like most detective games, the gameplay is split into two sides: exploration and thinking. However, unlike previously-mentioned games, it isn't a hard split between one section and another. As you explore, clicking on certain items or people will put keywords into a word bank at the bottom of your screen. Whenever you want, you can tab over to the thinking page, where you'll be asked to fill in the blanks on the details of the case. There will be a few different sections: one that lays out the series of events with words blanked out, one to assign names to portraits of everyone involved, and then a few miscellaneous sections that will differ from case-to-case. This can be anything from piecing together the rules of a card game gone wrong to determining the seating arrangement at a dinner party where a drink was poisoned.
It's an ingenious setup that solves many of the "tell, don't show" problems I have with other detective games. You're not seeing the murder itself, but seeing people arguing, or pleading for their lives, or trying to escape in the aftermath of a murder lends an urgency to the scene that's otherwise lacking. You're still piecing together what happened, but you feel more directly connected to events.
It also fixes some pacing issues by being so much more open-ended. Exploring and clue-gathering is no longer a railroaded exposition dump; instead of being dripfed information, you're left completely on your own to figure things out, and can stop at any time to work on the thinking page whenever you feel you've made a connection. The exploration is so much more exciting not only because you can set your own pace for it, but because it's immediately connected to the puzzle-solving. More compelling exploration segments will inevitably lead to more interest in the overall mystery, which makes it easier to justify more complex murders.
This structure also deeply impacts the way the narrative plays out. First of all, it doesn't feel anything like a detective story. It takes place in the 18th century and tracks a powerful artifact over the course of about 50 years as it's passed around a variety of seemingly unconnected groups and social classes. Because there's virtually no story development outside of solving cases (between the base game and DLC, there's maybe a minute of cutscenes, and what they reveal often isn't obvious until later), being plopped into a new scenario, with no idea how close you are to the previous one chronologically or geographically, can be a bit confusing. While you're filling in the details of that specific murder, you'll also be trying to figure out how everything connects and what's happened since the last event you were shown. Letting an audience piece together a twist is effective in any medium, but combining the shock of a big twist with the satisfaction of finally solving a difficult puzzle really elevates the material. That's not to say that the story would be bad without that delivery method, however. The political intrigue and desperate bids for power fit the epic scope of the story, and for a game with such little direct dialogue the characters are distinct, memorable and even sympathetic.
That deeper investment in the story is vital because the lack of handholding can sometimes make cases feel overwhelming. While the keywords are tracked for you in your word bank, nothing that won't be filling in the blanks will be saved (and, of course, there are plenty of red herring words that are saved but won't be used). This means you'll inevitably find various notes, maps, or charts that hold vital clues, that you'll need to remember on your own. It also may not be entirely necessary, but it's often helpful to refer back to older cases to remind yourself of certain details. Fortunately, it's very easy to dart around the map or quickly refer back to an older case without losing any progress, but it's up to you to know when to do it. I often found myself scanning a scene once through, and then repeating the earliest steps of the investigation with new context before I had any hope of knowing what was going on. It can be a lengthy process, but it never feels tedious. The total independence in exploring makes finding the solution so much more rewarding.
The first DLC expansion, "The Spider of Lanka," released today and meets the lofty standard set by the base game. It doesn't revolutionize the formula, but it doesn't need to. While it lacks the epic scope of the original game, only running at about 2 hours, it still manages to be compelling through the same tight connection to its gameplay. It also is largely disconnected from the base game's story, so you don't need to worry about remembering the intricacies of that story to solve what happens here.
Case of the Golden Idol is an intelligent game that holds equal respect for its audience's intelligence. It takes an innovative, unique approach to detective gameplay, and trusts its audience with not just non-linear investigation, but allows you real autonomy in your approach.
Verdict
- Unique twist on detective gameplay
- Well-written and engaging script, enhanced through the gameplay
- Excellently paced, fitting plenty into a 6 hour game
- Remembering where every single piece of information is located can be an annoyance at times
