I am very glad that detective games, if we can count that as its own genre, continue to exist.
Exist but also innovate.

It is very easy to compare this title to Return of the Obra Dinn, which is a blessing and a curse.
It’s a blessing because Obra Dinn is a classic, a cult favourite and the type of game there isn’t much of so the people who want it, and I include myself among them, need whatever version of it they can get.
However the curse comes along because the comparisons mean that this will always feel “less than”, it will always be compared and it feels almost impossible to rate it purely on its own merits.

Less than greatness though is barely an insult though and Golden Idol at least tries to do things differently.
You’re not a character directly in a story but one piecing it together. You are just figuring who people are out, although a major factor, but finding evidence and words to piece together their stories.
Golden Idol is also quite funny, seeing these 18th century idiots fight, backstab, lie and deceive each other inks a wonderful tale that is ludicrous but also quite interesting.
As the game moves forwards through the different scenes you start seeing returning faces or notice connections from chapters prior and it does a good job to paint the world but also start you thinking about where it may end.

Sadly though not all chapters are created equal and some of them feel less of an advancement and more just, well, more.

I can’t help but continue to go back to the Obra Dinn comparisons and it pains me to be so blunt about what is a good game but it doesn’t have one factor of that comparison where it wins.
The comedy helps to keep them apart but boiling it down they’re too similar and Golden Idol is just not as good.
If it were just a case of aesthetics I couldn’t rate it so lowly, but the biggest and hardest thing to explain is the game “felt” much worse.
You’re not a detective as such in Golden Idol and honestly I think it hinders it, major parts of the puzzle I found I didn’t solve with detective-like logic but just plain grammar.
I want to feel like I’m a detective with these games, not that I’m looking back at one of these backloggd reviews and noticing I skipped a word or completely misspelt something.

As I said earlier though, the game is good and if you want a bit more of that Obra Dinn type of game in your life then grab this. There’s also recently been some DLC too.

Reviewed on May 19, 2023


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