The end result of The Rise of the Golden Idol is one of great success. In the midst of a multitude of puzzles and point-and-click gameplay is a gem that is worthy of the best thinky game of 2024.
Earlier this year, I came across the term, “Thinky games,” something describing games where the player is tested via their wits and logic rather than dexterity, patience (for the grind), and coordination. Portal and World of Goo can be considered thinky games, as can Fez, The Witness, and Into the Breach. Ah, we mustn’t forget Return of the Obra Djinn and its detective-based gameplay loop of solving the mysterious deaths of a ship’s crew.
Color Gray Games has made a fantastic thinky game prior to 2024 – The Case of the Golden Idol. This specimen of a thinky game earned acclaim in 2022 for how it meshed puzzles, point-and-click simplicity, and a cheeky perspective all wrapped up in a set of elaborate detective cases. Now, we have a sequel, albeit taking place long after The Case of the Golden Idol, and it contains all of the fixins’ of a stellar thinky game.
The Rise of the Golden Idol is broken up into five chapters, each containing four discrete scenarios to solve. A scenario begins with a brief animation on loop with small question marks dotting the screen. Upon inspection, I am given a hodgepodge of words and phrases that correlate with what I am inspecting. After identifying all of the words and phrases in the room, I am to piece together what went wrong, who’s at fault, and what things mean in the grander sense. Rather than clicking through waterfalls of dialogue, I am to click through windows to get a clearer picture of what’s happening (or has just happened) on my screen.
This gameplay loop is disguised as a point-and-clicker, but it ends up functioning in more creative ways almost like putting together IKEA furniture. Err, that’s not a good description. It’s like putting together a gigantic 1000-piece puzzle in the sense that the screen is full of discrete clues. Solving one smaller puzzle ultimately helps solve another puzzle a few minutes later, even though it didn’t seem like either puzzle had anything to do with each other. For instance, one auction-based puzzle involved a time skip and had me guess who purchased which items by examining how much money was left in each bidder’s pocket at the end of the auction. Another had me decode a hidden message by using colors found in a journal at the end of the room.
In practice, though, The Rise of the Golden Idol ends up being quite difficult and potentially overwhelming. At the start of the review period, I was battling a nasty cold that left me with a migraine. The first two chapters felt overwhelming because of how many names, phrases, and verbs filled my little word menu that I was to use to solve every level’s puzzle. It wasn’t until I had two or less incorrect words placed in the menu where I was given an inkling of a hint from the game that I was on the right track. Once I had gotten that notification, I could start testing different combinations if I wanted to brute force my way through…
…but usually, the answer was right in front me. I just needed to breathe and look at the screen after a moment of reprieve.
The Rise of the Golden Idol is tough, yes, but it’s not unfair. The greatest challenge was always filtering out fluff to get one mini puzzle solved, then things became easier. When I was truly stumped, I could resort to using the game’s “Hint” system that gave me an opportunity to breathe and access up to three hints that pointed me toward the answer. I won’t lie – I used the hints a few times because of how often I overthought some clues that had simple answers.
I have not yet played 2022’s The Case of the Golden Idol, but I was able to get by in Rise just fine. Color Gray Games did their best in allowing players to jump in blind without needing to get up to speed on the past, present, and future of the Golden Idol itself, but longtime fans will be treated with several Easter eggs in the later chapters of Rise. Either way, it takes place long after the events of Case and involves a new set of recurring characters (whose appearances change throughout the story). Rise’s story, which is told across many scenes that seemingly have little to do with each other…until they collide, manifests as a layered yet non-linear tale with an idol (of some sort) being the core driver of characters’ actions.
Nothing is pretty in The Rise of the Golden Idol, perhaps by design. Its characters are captured in their most grotesque state, some freshly slain in acts of retribution or mania. In painting every scenario as a gruesome loop of chaos, violence, and greed, characters are frozen in time only to be remembered by evil (or perhaps, unethical?) decisions. Proceeding through the chapters took me one step further into darker territory, reminding me of the lengths some choose to go out of self-interest. As such, every single case’s image was burned into my memory long after I had “solved” it.
The other result of Rise’s dark vividness is how it warrants a content warning. The Rise of the Golden Idol is not for the faint of heart nor is it a point-and-clicky title like Freddy the Fish. The tutorial case illustrated an animated loop of one person strangling another with a belt, setting the stage for a game that got progressively darker with each new scene.
After seven hours and a handful of hints, the conclusion of The Rise of the Golden Idol is in sight. Sure, at this point I could have done a quick Google search to brute force my way through the game’s mystery just to see it through to the end, but there’s little joy in spoiling the mind-numbingly difficult puzzles. I mentioned earlier in this review that Rise is difficult – it’s delightfully difficult. It pressed me into using logic, deductive reasoning, and my memory to put strings of clues together into rebuilding crime scenes out of seemingly nothing. It avoids overstaying its welcome through its five short chapters (20 scenes, total!) while also giving the player enough space and time to think through each and every clue. If it takes you 20 hours to get through Rise, that’s okay. Patience pays off in spades every time the correct sound effect plays.
If the base game leaves you begging for more, I bring good news: Additional DLC chapters are on the way and are slated to release in 2025. Color Gray Games provided a living roadmap on their Steam with upcoming dates (subject to change) for its four future chapters. Now that I’m at the end of Rise, I’m so excited for what Color Gray Games has in store for us!
The end result of The Rise of the Golden Idol is one of great success. In the midst of a multitude of puzzles and point-and-click gameplay is a gem that is worthy of the best thinky game of 2024.
