PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation 4/5, smartphones (via Netflix); Color Gray Games/Playstack
Solving these cases is extremely satisfying, but it’s the strangeness that makes the game so memorable
A ghoulish scene: a shadowy figure has just shoved someone into a high-voltage circuit box. The victim is stuck at the moment of death, sparks flying as their body convulses; downstairs, everyone is frozen in surprise at the moment the lights went off. Scrutinising this scene, you must determine who everyone is, where they are, why they are there, and of course, who committed this murder. You examine faces and objects, go through everyone’s pockets to see what they have on them, read notes and signs and letters for clues. Eventually you piece it together, filling in a report with missing words that explains exactly who, what, when, where and why.
Rise of the Golden Idol is an alternative-reality 1970s detective game where each individual scene, once solved, tells you something about a bigger mystery. It’s a sequel to The Case of the Golden Idol, set 300 years after that game’s age-of-exploration mystery, but following the trail of that same cursed object. Some of these scenes are relatively innocuous, even funny, like the drive-in cinema where an unexpected fire sends the cosplaying customers scrambling for the exit. Others are gruesome: in the opening case, a strangling plays out on an infinite loop like an Instagram boomerang story.
