After finishing Return of the Obra Dinn I was looking for a deduction-based puzzle game in the same vein and stumbled across The Case of the Golden Idol by indie developer Color Gray Games. This is an absolute gem, with an engaging story revealed through polished investigation mechanics and a delightful art style reminiscent of 1990's adventure games.
The gameplay feels extremely innovative. Each of the twelve cases (eighteen if you include the DLC, which you should play) consists of "exploring" and "thinking" modes. The former plays like a point-and-click adventure game—the player explores a murder scene and identifies clues (some relevant, others not) which are captured as key words in a tray at the bottom of the screen. During the subsequent "thinking" mode, you actually solve the case, piecing together what occurred by filling blank spots in an incomplete description of the events, Mad-Lib style, with the available key words.
I found the difficulty of these puzzles to be just right and never used the available hints during my play-through. I was occasionally stumped at times, especially by the more challenging DLC cases, but usually found that by taking a step back and reexamining my assumptions I was able to tease out the solution. That said, I did have to brute force one or two tricky puzzles where the leap from clues to answer was just too great or a bit of questionable English got in the way of the developers' intention. Thankfully, the game validates if most (two or fewer) or all words in a section of narrative are correct, which felt more forgiving than Obra Dinn's "three identities" rule.
I also enjoyed the game's story, which follows an eccentric cast of characters vying for control of the titular golden idol, a supernatural relic that can perform magical feats. These characters are brought to life in an unique art style that looks like it was created in MS Paint; the presentation might be off-putting at first, but the detailed tableaus and amusing, looping animations quickly grew on me. The soundtrack by composer Kyle Misko is moody and atmospheric, but also surprisingly whimsical at times given the grisly murders that occur.
Overall, I really enjoyed my 12 hours or so with The Case of the Golden Idol. I've come to appreciate shorter, authored experiences that can be finished in just a few days and this certainly checks those boxes.
The gameplay feels extremely innovative. Each of the twelve cases (eighteen if you include the DLC, which you should play) consists of "exploring" and "thinking" modes. The former plays like a point-and-click adventure game—the player explores a murder scene and identifies clues (some relevant, others not) which are captured as key words in a tray at the bottom of the screen. During the subsequent "thinking" mode, you actually solve the case, piecing together what occurred by filling blank spots in an incomplete description of the events, Mad-Lib style, with the available key words.
I found the difficulty of these puzzles to be just right and never used the available hints during my play-through. I was occasionally stumped at times, especially by the more challenging DLC cases, but usually found that by taking a step back and reexamining my assumptions I was able to tease out the solution. That said, I did have to brute force one or two tricky puzzles where the leap from clues to answer was just too great or a bit of questionable English got in the way of the developers' intention. Thankfully, the game validates if most (two or fewer) or all words in a section of narrative are correct, which felt more forgiving than Obra Dinn's "three identities" rule.
I also enjoyed the game's story, which follows an eccentric cast of characters vying for control of the titular golden idol, a supernatural relic that can perform magical feats. These characters are brought to life in an unique art style that looks like it was created in MS Paint; the presentation might be off-putting at first, but the detailed tableaus and amusing, looping animations quickly grew on me. The soundtrack by composer Kyle Misko is moody and atmospheric, but also surprisingly whimsical at times given the grisly murders that occur.
Overall, I really enjoyed my 12 hours or so with The Case of the Golden Idol. I've come to appreciate shorter, authored experiences that can be finished in just a few days and this certainly checks those boxes.