The Case of the Golden Idol effortlessly became one of my most beloved games of all time. Developed by Color Gray Games and inspired by Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn, the game presents itself as a simplistic affair. The introductory tutorial case, “An Abrupt Termination of Contract,” leads you in innocently enough.
In a frozen portrait, you see an active murder take place. One man has pushed another off a cliff, and it’s up to you to piece together what happened. Names and locations have to be found — with the motive of the crime seemingly left for you to speculate yourself. You click on objects, gather your information, and fill out a Mad Libs-style series of prompts. Simple, eh?
Well, in The Case of the Golden Idol‘s simplicity lies a complex gut punch of a deduction system. “I’m just clicking around and gathering straightforward information — what’s the big deal?” The game teaches you a lesson early on that it reinforces more and more as the cases progress. If you’re only utilizing the information that’s explicitly handed to you, you’re never going to uncover the game’s many mysteries.
‘the case of the golden idol’ destroyed my goblin gamer brain in the best possible way
I vividly remember going into The Case of the Golden Idol with the utmost confidence. If I love nothing else, I adore a good brain teaser. Riddles, word games, puzzle boxes, logic puzzles — love ’em all. I wouldn’t call myself a “smart” person by any metric. However, I’d like to think I’m, at least, mentally capable. However, Idol humbled me. Idol made me realize how gaming had flattened my brain’s intellect-storing ridges. Not that video games are stupid, but it’s rare when a game challenges you like The Case of the Golden Idol will.
“This Guy pushed That Guy, easy!” I said. But it turns out This Guy had a contract with That Guy. And in that contract were specified terms on how the two would split the treasure in their knapsacks. Also in those knapsacks were personal items, pointing toward which bag belonged to which Guy. And one Guy had a map, and I had to figure out which island within an archipelago the two were on. The “simplicity,” it turns out, was a small snowball, and each new discovery and piece of information became the steep slope that made the snowball into an eventual snow-asteroid.
With each case, The Case of the Golden Idol kept reminding me: “You’re not thinking big enough. Look deeper. Think through everything you’ve collected up until now.” The environments held clues the game doesn’t even directly mention! Even better, some “clues” are red herrings meant to throw you off! Some clues are pertinent to only one scene, some clues broaden what you know about an individual character, and some clues contribute to the massive conspiracy corkboard you’ll build with each tantalizing layer you peel back.
the most satisfying of mysteries
The Case of the Golden Idol didn’t hold my hand. It didn’t condescendingly pat me on the head and tell me what a good job I did for putting the ball through the circular hole. Often, it would tell me to pump the brakes, go back to an earlier case, and with the added knowledge I had, connect that previous puzzle piece to this current one to form a new connection.
It’s why I’m so disappointed that The Rise of the Golden Idol didn’t quite receive the flowers the first game did. Unfortunately, the “novelty” of the inaugural entry had faded as the sequel, mechanically, didn’t exactly “reinvent the wheel.” However, Rise is just as great as Case — if not more so! Both games achieve something very few detective games do: they tricked me into thinking I was just as quick-witted and sharp as Sherlock Holmes. That’s a priceless experience you cherish for the rest of your life!
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The post ‘The Case of the Golden Idol’ Perfected The Detective Genre appeared first on VICE.
