The sleeper hit and thrilling 2022 puzzle game The Case of the Golden Idol has just launched on the Switch. With it, comes one of the best mystery games of the last few years, using inventive investigative mechanics that feel refined and invigorating. While quickly apparent that it’s far from the best way to play the game, it is a more than ample excuse for newcomers (and hardcore revisiting fans) to experience one of 2022’s best.
The Case of the Golden Idol takes place across four chapters each with an accompanying three scenes to dissect. In each and every scene, there are twelve grisly and gruesome deaths to uncover. Head traumas, death by fire and the like. These events are frozen in time, requiring players to use context clues to piece together the occurrences. Just what are the names of each present person? What are their motivations? All these questions must be answered on a thinking panel before one can move on to the next scenario.
Players must click on highlighted objects or names in pieces of text, and then organise this information on the thinking panel to fully uncover just what happened there. This will require some guesswork for the less observant but for the studious feels like completing your own mystery board filled with red string connecting links. It’s easy how to see this game has been likened to Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn, but everything here feels more fleshed out and approachable. There’s less vague guesswork involved and throwing your head at the wall until something sticks. You’re never punished for incorrect decisions.
In clicking, navigating and reading some of this information, you’ll be a bit tested on the Switch’s handheld screen. Text can be a bit small and hard to read. Although, there are some conveniences in navigating between interactive objects via the use of the triggers and creating snapping points as an optional alternative to moving a cursor about. These conveniences remind me of the Switch port of The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow.
At the heart of the game lies the mystery of this illustrious Golden Idol and how it ties into each of these curious and grisly deaths. The adventure spans several decades (going even further in the recently released prequel DLC) and is a gripping, engaging story of intrigue.
While I didn’t experience The Case of the Golden Idol in its best form, I’m glad I’m finally checking it out. It is an incredible experience that comes highly recommended by me. You can check out The Case of the Golden Idol, along with its DLC The Spider of Lanka on Switch and PC now.
About the Author
Charlie Kelly
She/Her, They/Them
Charlie loves her video games as much as she loves dumb, charming JRPG protagonists: probably way too much. You can often catch her spending too much time being emotional over LGBT stories in games. She also thinks Yakuza 6 is the best one.
