Last year, I had the great opportunity to review Color Gray Games’ sleeper hit The Case of the Golden Idol which completely took me by surprise and even bagged a rare 10/10 score from myself. It’s safe to say that I was ecstatic when Color Gray Games suddenly announced a DLC, Golden Idol Mysteries: The Spider of Lanka, last week that would be dropping a mere week later. It’s safe to say that I dropped everything, cancelled my order of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and told my friends and family that I had the plague so wouldn’t be able to leave my flat over the weekend.
The Spider of Lanka is a prequel DLC to The Case of the Golden Idol and features three cases. Set one year before Case 1 in The Case of the Golden Idol, this DLC takes place in the Kingdom of Lanka. Similar to The Case of the Golden Idol, each of the three cases in The Spider of Lanka feature recurring characters who are part of a wider narrative which eventually leads us to the starting scenario of the base game. This time, the repeating theme comes in the form of the Kerra family who are present in three murder scenes.
Once again, the player must search each scene using point-and-click mechanics to find the available clues and then fill in the gaps of the case summary to deduce what has happened. Additional puzzles include identifying each person in the scenario as well as extra things to do which can further the player’s understanding of the case.
What I liked the most about The Spider of Lanka DLC is that it doesn’t just piggy back off The Case of the Golden Idol’s story; the infamous Golden Idol is mentioned, but it’s not the core aspect of the DLC’s story. The Spider of Lanka is about a treasonous plot that stems from a simple game of cards and, although this DLC is only made up of three levels, it’s still told tremendously well for the little content there is and Color Gray Games’ excellent storytelling once again pulled me in for an enjoyable afternoon.
Having completed The Spider of Lanka in just under three hours, the only reason this DLC isn’t a 10/10 is that it was just a tad too short. The bright side is that the ‘Golden Idol Mysteries’ title alludes to multiple DLC instalments which I more than welcome as I could play 100 hours of this style of puzzle solving.
But just because The Spider of Lanka is short, doesn’t mean it wasn’t challenging. Remember, it’s only three levels long, so that would be an hour per level. Realistically, most of this time was spent on Case 2 which was definitely one of the most challenging cases of the series. Not only did it involve some heavy brain work to simply figure out what had happened in the scene, but the level also required an understanding of Vijaya’s culture, geography and customs to solve.
With the new Southern Asian-inspired setting comes a new style of soundtrack, which parts from the more mediaeval English vibe of the base game and opts for sounds that better suit the setting. The level design is just as impressive as the base game, especially when we open up to Case 2 and Case 3 which are set in much larger areas that have multiple levels.
Overall, The Spider of Lanka DLC is a brilliant introduction to what I can assume is going to be a series of DLC entries to the Golden Idol Mysteries. As mentioned before, I could play these scenarios for ever and never get tired of them.
Jess played the Golden Idol Mysteries: The Spider of Lanka on PC with a code provided by the developer.
Thumbs up.