When I played The Case of the Golden Idol in 2022, my only complaint was that, after four hours of playtime, I only wanted more. Well, I’m four hours into its anticipated sequel, The Rise of the Golden Idol and I’m not even halfway through. Here are my thoughts so far.
Immediately, The Rise of the Golden Idol takes on a completely different tone to its predecessor. Set hundreds of years after the events of The Case of the Golden Idol, the sequel mostly takes place in the 1970s so far. Gone are the chirpy, medieval soundtracks, bright colours and cartoon-like illustrations. The Rise of the Golden Idol does a fantastic job of setting an entirely different tone to reflect the dawn of the modern age. The soundtrack is more ambient, almost apocalyptic, and the artstyle is more detailed, taking on a more painted look as opposed to the vibrant sketches in the previous game. But it does this while still maintaining a recognisable appearance. The future looks and feels more bleak, but I love the change in tone.
Story-wise, much like a lot of the scenarios in The Case of the Golden Idol, it’s not immediately clear how these stories involve the titular golden idol, but once the pieces start to come together it feels immensely satisfying. Lazarus Herst’s story of how he acquired the golden idol and in turn, immortality and power, is a historic event that most now believe to be mostly fiction as the fabled golden idol was never found.
Much like its predecessor, The Rise of the Golden Idol starts with a series of scenarios within each chapter. They seem unrelated until you reach the end of said chapter and must summarise what’s happened both throughout the scenarious and off screen using the clues dotted around. A lot of these clues may have not have made sense when you first saw them in the scenario, but once you reach the end of the chapter and start to piece together the full story, it clicks.
While the mechanics are mostly the same, there are some slight improvements. We still use point-and-click mechanics to search each scene to gather key words which we will then use to fill out the blanks in a summary of the scene to show that we have worked out what’s happened and understand the context. There is also still optional puzzles in most scenarios, usually consisting of naming each individual or maybe naming who’s cell is which in a scenario set in a prison.
The difference is that now, rather than having a ‘thinking’ screen which shows all the gathered words, puzzles and chapter summary in one place, we have tabs at the bottom of the page which open a small window which overlays the scenario. This makes looking back and fourth between what we’re trying to work out and the scenario much easier. At the end of each scenario, we will also receive information to give further context to the wider goings on between the scenes to help us fill out the summary for the chapter, such as a detective’s notes or a cutscene of an event that’s happened in between scenarios.
If I was to nitpick the game so far, I would say that the little arrows highlighting the interactable people and objects in each scene can be really hard to spot which defeats their purpose. But this is the only piece of negative feedback that I have so far and it’s so minor that it’s hardly worthy mentioning.
I can safely say that The Rise of the Golden Idol has so far gripped me in the same way The Case of the Golden Idol did and I hope it maintains this interest throughout.
Jess is playing The Rise of the Golden Idol on PC with a review code.
