mixed habitat & densely vegetated hiding places

The Case of the Golden Idol, from Latvian studio Color Gray, is an investigation puzzle game clearly inspired by Return of the Obra Dinn. As with Obra Dinn, you observe static death scenes in a historical fantasy setting, collect names and clues, and use a journal to fill in the blanks of who's who and what happened to them, gradually piecing together the story. I don't know what we're calling this genre, but I'm pleased that there are now multiple games in it!



Spanning several decades, the plot centers on the eponymous Golden Idol, which gives the holder power over life and death—if you know how to use it. Everyone wants it, and no one's motivations are pure. Though the scenes start out simple, the complexity ramps up quickly. I would say this is maybe a harder game than Obra Dinn, encompassing a wider variety of situations and puzzle types, and requiring you to verify more details about the characters' multilayered deceptions, double-crosses, and hidden agendas as you investigate everything from murders to occult rituals to political coups.



It's sort of a Ruritanian romance, taking place in made-up countries that are vague analogues of real ones. This allows for a freewheeling take on the 18th-century setting, using more fantasy worldbuilding as opposed to Obra Dinn's meticulous historicity. Again, I think this makes the game harder, because you can't rely as much on real world knowledge to interpret what's happening.

There is an in-game hint system of a sort. You can't just ask for a hint—first you have to earn it by matching people and objects to their names, demonstrating that you're at least paying attention. And even when you get the hints, they are limited in their subject matter and only offer nudges in the right direction. You can't just be like, I give up, tell me the answer. The game will not!



The aesthetic is the only aspect of the game I didn't care for. I found the grotesque art style offputting, and I didn't feel the soundtrack added anything (a lot of the time I didn't have my headphones on and didn't even notice). But for me, substance very much won out over style here—the puzzles gave my brain a wonderfully satisfying workout, and the plot's twists and turns were tough but fair. The base game took me about seven hours to complete, but I would have guessed it was more; it's not a long game but it's a dense game that challenges you at every step to think beyond a surface understanding of what you see.

Two DLCs have been released under the titles Golden Idol Mysteries: The Spider of Lanka and Golden Idol Mysteries: The Lemurian Vampire. These do not stand alone, but together comprise a prequel to the main story, adding a lot of context and greatly expanding the scope of the worldbuilding. They're short, but quite challenging, even exceeding the complexity level of the base game's final chapter. I completed the first in three hours and the second in two hours.

The base game is $17.99 USD on Steam and the two DLCs are $5.99 USD each, but you can get everything in a bundle at a slight discount of $26.97 USD. If you like deduction and logic puzzles, I highly recommend it. Arguably the price is a little high for the game's length, but it's Steam, so there's always a sale just around the corner. There's also a free demo which lets you play through a generous portion of the game and should make it obvious whether or not it's for you.