Color Gray Games: The Case of the Golden Idol | Review

The Case of the Golden Idol Review: Step into the shoes of an 18th century detective and uncover the mystery behind twelve strange deaths spanning 50 years, all somehow connected. Unmask the true killers in this sprawling narrative and discover their devious motives.

Time Played: ~5 hours
Console: PC / Nintendo Switch / Steam / Playstation / Xbox / Mobile
Recommended For: Fans of Return of the Obra Dinn

The Case of the Golden Idol is a pixel art detective game by Color Gray Games, where you are invited to figure out what is happening in a number of different scenarios, piecing together the wider story. The game combines mystery solving with investigation and deduction in quite a unique way, leading to a complex narrative.

Murder & Conspiracy

The game throws you right into the midst of a gruesome murder, where you must piece together the who, the what and the why based on what you can see in the scene before you, as well as what each character is saying and things they may have in their possession. Some of these characters crop up numerous times through the game, though it isn’t immediately obvious where in the timeline we are. 

The mysteries themselves aren’t always straight forward, and do require you to think through the entire scenario, with a couple of leaps in logic here and there. The interface does its best to help though, breaking the mystery down into manageable sections, and giving a clear indication of whether you are right, wrong, or only missing a couple of answers.

The mystery of the artifact

The story itself is mysterious and mystical – the “Golden Idol” in question being a magical statue from the fictional country of “Lemuria”, that can give or remove years from someone’s life. The story follows the idol’s progression from discovery, to being used, stolen and lost by a range of characters over a number of years, and even a devoted cult that springs up around the idol’s powers. 

Unfortunately, the story lost me at points – the transition between different chapters not being the smoothest, and it took me quite a while to realise the characters were often repeated, and the time wasn’t necessarily linear. I also didn’t realise, until close to the end, that you are allowed, and encouraged, to jump into past chapters to identify characters and piece together the overall story.

The Case of the Golden Idol: The Final Verdict

I thought this game had fantastic potential, and the frequent “a-ha!” moments felt very satisfying, but there were just as many moments where I resorted to online walkthroughs when the leap was a bit too far, and the hint system too vague.

Ultimately, I would recommend this game for fellow puzzlers, but advise you to look beyond the strange art style and clunky interface. Take plenty of notes, and don’t forget to go back into completed scenarios to refresh your memory.

That being said, I still played the sequel, which I enjoyed a lot more…

You can find out all about The Case of the Golden Idol and download it on a platform of your choice by heading to their website here.