In 2022’sThe guinea pig of the Golden Idol , I ’m sleuth my way through a series of murders perpetrate by cunning killers . In its next chapter , The Rise of the Golden Idol , I ’m dealing with morons .
Color Gray Games ’ stick sequel retains all the same hooks that made its predecessor a breakout success . It ’s a brainydeduction gamewhere players have to piece together the details of helter-skelter crime scenes by regain key words and slot them into a Mad Libs - trend explanation . The difference is n’t just visual though;The Rise of the Golden Idoltwists that core idea into a 1970s comedy of error about people toy around with power they ca n’t possibly understand . It all makes for a hysterical sequel that one - ups its already telling predecessor , even if it ’s still beholden to the same foundational flaws .
The idol returns
The Rise of the Golden Idolwastes no sentence in get its groove back . Right from the jump , I ’m dropped into a wide-eyed murder aspect as one unidentified fictional character strangles another . I clack around the screen to retrieve clue , document , physical object , and more , which then become words I can work with . From there , I need to figure out exactly what go on , identify everyone in the scene , and put the words I have into an “ consequence ” piece of paper that at last explains what happened . That formula was a comforting evolution ofReturn of the Obra Dinn ’s excellent deduction hook , and it still feel just as great to crack a typeface here .
That formula does still have its shortcomings , though , which stay here . The pith problem I had withThe Case of the Golden Idolin 2022 was that some of its more obtuse puzzle could be too easily brutish forced . When the going away gets sturdy , the consequence sheets can often be derive simply by reading into the grammar of the Mad Lib . Rather than figuring out what happened in a fit , you may reverse engineer an solvent by figuring out the only verb that could possibly exploit in a outer space . It ’s a handy crosscut , but one that makes it too soft for players to misapprehend what ’s happening or how they ’re opine to study cue . That persists here , with some puzzles even being particularly perplexing because they rely on disconnected grammar that does n’t quite make sense .
Color Gray Games did seem to recognize that shortcoming , though , and has worked to lessen it here . puzzler are no longer just about figuring out names or plopping Holy Writ into an events sheet . Most casing regain inventive new ways to get players to piece clues together that are n’t just built around words . In one standout chapter , I ’m dropped in an aviary full of rampage wench . One of my tasks is to figure out what exactly exacerbate each bird by dragging pictures into a storage-battery grid . Another has me figuring out a subliminal message hidden in a dance by using a al-Qur’an of body language clues . Puzzles like that take the Golden Idol formula to unexampled meridian rather than just repeating its greatest hits .
To complement that , The Rise of the Golden Idolsports a brand - new visual style , which trades in its predecessor ’s oldschool pixel art for a more illustrative feeling . These mostly static prospect ( they have just a touch of animation to them ) have style more personality as a result and can better convey movement within a prospect . That ’s necessary for case like one that has participant adjudicate to figure out a isolated aim ’s rampage trajectory through a suburban panorama , making for a more visual puzzle game .
What I screw more than any of that , though , is the whole step and story this sentence around . I wo n’t get into specifics as I would n’t dare rob you of any euphoric “ aha ” moment , butThe rising of the Golden Idolis downright hysterical compared to its predecessor . The story moves from the 18th hundred to the seventies , go on the titular Golden Idol ’s path through change hand . This time , though , I ’m not just tracking the slaying tied to the gimmick ; I ’m explore the incompetency surround them .
The tale , told through 20 weave cases across five chapters and modification , present me to bumbling scientists and young - historic period hippie cults that sweep paths with the gimmick . Everyone wants to harness its power for their own purpose , but there ’s one problem : Nobody can figure out how the heck to use it . That kicks off a series of unpredictable misadventure that are a genuine delight to uncover . The fun comes from watch a chaotic scene , seek to figure out what happened , and learning that the answer is way dumber than anything you could have imagined .
More than it is a detective game , The acclivity of the Golden Idolexcels as a slapstick comedy about human hubris and all the ways it can backlash spectacularly .
The Rise of the Golden Idolwas tested on personal computer with a computer code provided by the publisher .
