Slept on this for a while because I didn't care for the art style (and still don't-- sorry!) but as someone who loved Obra Dinn I FEASTED with this. Never needed to use hints, though I did game the word system a bit when I was close to an answer.

Having a bunch of small mostly self-contained cases was a smart move and made for a more satisfying experience than one really big mystery. It also allows for fun storytelling, again compared to Obra Dinn which sort of peters out at the end.

It's also nice how the game mixes things up with the sort of info you're supposed to piece together, though by the end (and in the DLC) you're mostly solving narrative mad-libs, which isn't as fun in my opinion. Personal favorite was the dinner case, which hits a sweet spot in terms of complexity and variety.

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.

Foi mais divertido do que eu pensava que ia ser. Os puzzles são bem simples no começo, por mais que requeiram você ter uma boa memória e isso no final se pega ainda mais, já que ele meio que te obriga a reviver vários dos casos e conflitos que você já havia visto antes no jogo.

O jogo claramente se passa numa Inglaterra pós Revolução Gloriosa, nítido nos pequenos detalhes políticos do jogo que vão desde a aristocracia até a anocracia, o jogo discute até mesmo, do jeito dele, coligações políticas em um sistema parlamentar e é muito bem escrito, por mais incrível que pareça.

É um point-and-click de dedução mais díficil do que eu imaginei que seria, mas não foi um bicho de sete cabeças, só o suficiente pra me deixar presa em um caso só por uns 15 minutos, mas é perfeitamente encaixado e coeso com os detalhes e pequenas dicas que ele te apresentou antes, até acho que ele pega um pouco na sua mão as vezes mas nada que deixe muito fácil ou simples, só o suficiente.

Com certeza vou comprar quando entrar em promoção, meus perdões eternos pros dev por eu ter zerado piratex. 🙏🙏

This was quite good. An Obra Dinn-inspired series of murder mysteries where you collect clues and fill in some notebooks.

It's good. I wish it were better as this 'genre' of sorts is very sorely lacking in any quality games. Part of that is because of how hard they are to write. It's not easy to be as clever as you need to be to pull of this sort of thing. And at times, particularly in the DLC, Golden Idol grates at that edge of cleverness. Eschewing clever tales for unnecessary complexity and contrivances. Replacing interesting outcomes with silly exercises in difficulty.

All-in-all though the game is rarely more than modestly challenging. The story is fairly convoluted but followable and interesting enough. The art style is very charming and the gameplay itself is quite good. I'd like to see some refinements in the sequel, like keeping a notebook with known information or even player typed notes instead of having to flip back to previous scenarios (a mild version of this sort of QoL upgrade is seen in the final DLC).

But there's just enough content to spend the bulk of a weekend playing and just enough intrigue and novelty to engage you the whole way through. It's fun, worth a pickup on sale and definitely worth your time to play it

The effect when you slot all the clues in place is one of the best things in gaming.

The bottom bar turns green, a nice charm plays and the used up clues disappear from the row of collected things in a classic power-point inspired fizz fade.

So understated and yet deeply motivating and reaffirming. Genius.