The Rise of the Golden Idol Review

In The Rise of the Golden Idol, a mysterious affliction is sweeping across a city, leaving its victims with distinctive marks upon their eyes. A construction foreman is crushed in an accident caused by hasty carelessness. Sometime later, a corrupt official holds a press conference to discuss these events, and later still, players can connect these and other incidents to a vast and chilling conspiracy. Developer Color Gray Games and publisher Playstack have created yet another thrilling puzzle game with bewildering scenarios and a colorful cast of characters brought together by a suspenseful plot that will bring out your inner detective.

While this title is a sequel to The Case of the Golden Idol, the events of this story take place much later. Time has passed, and the world has reached the modern era, with television, flying vehicles, and an obsession with a sport known as Peil. Still, fans of the original game will enjoy the occasional fun, if superfluous, nod to the events of the first title. Regardless, The Rise of the Golden Idol masterfully presents its story in a series of non-linear incidents that slowly fill in the bigger picture of the Golden Idol’s continued misuse. Thankfully, this story feels like a natural extension of the plot laid out in the first game, with consistent world-building linking the pair of tales.

Within each stage, players are allowed to explore a freeze-frame of an incident, which can take the form of a murder, a press conference, or a commotion at a drive-in theater, among many others. Gathering clues in the form of words, players are then asked to deduce the proper information, which varies between stages. One may ask players to correctly infer which vehicle each construction worker was assigned to, while another could ask them to identify who bought which item at an auction. These puzzles are typically meant to aid players in filling out the larger mystery associated with each stage, where they can fill in empty spaces with the names and words they’ve learned within the case to identify exactly what happened.

Solving these cases is exciting, not only because it’s satisfying to watch the template light up with a successful guess but also because players are then given a little more context or another tidbit of information that draws the case into the larger narrative. Some stages are very obviously connected to the plot of the Golden Idol, while others feel like a lightbulb going off when the connections are revealed. Regardless, The Rise of the Golden Idol is at its best when players slowly uncover the big picture and when a new piece of information recontextualizes everything they know or think they know.

The original game featured a cartoony aesthetic, with characters sporting exaggerated features like a long face or wide jaw, but The Rise of the Golden Idol takes this a step further. While some key characters appear a little more grounded, the game ensures players can identify even the side characters by turning them somewhat into caricatures. You can’t forget the prisoner with the scar along his jaw or the officer with a very pointed nose. This results in a varied cast of characters, making puzzle-solving less daunting when it comes to identifying characters.

Unfortunately, while The Rise of the Golden Idol is fun when things are moving smoothly, the occasional hiccup can lead to frustration. With all the information available, some of the assumptions you’re meant to make can be skewed with a single errant detail, like a character speaking a line that appears to link them to another. When filling in a puzzle, you’re given one of three results.

A failure means you have three or more incorrect spots. A success means you’ve correctly guessed the whole thing while having only one or two wrong answers, which gives you an in-between result. Since it doesn’t identify which guesses are wrong, you can either clear the board and reexamine your clues or start swapping out the words to identify which ones are obviously correct and which were wrong.

This is helpful if you’ve nearly got it right, but when some puzzles ask for the same piece of information multiple times, getting it wrong once typically means you’ll end up with a failure, giving you little feedback on how to solve the puzzle. Of course, this means you should go back to the conspiracy board covered with pins and strings, but when you get a failure on an answer you’re confident about, it takes the wind out of your sails, and if you’re truly stuck, it can be hard to make progress.

To its credit, the hint system is fantastic, reminding players to reexamine their assumptions and double-check the answers they’ve input. After a few seconds on the hint screen and a suggested breathing exercise, they can access more explicit hints, which start as vague leading questions before giving a more direct hint. These guiding questions are appreciated since they give you a hint about how to solve the puzzle instead of just giving you the answer.

Ultimately, The Rise of the Golden Idol scratches a very specific puzzle-solving itch and provides plenty of “Eureka!” moments. When the plot starts to unfold, it becomes an exhilarating race to the end to uncover the final truth, provided you don’t lose focus and make too many mistakes.

The Rise of the Golden Idol is available now on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.