The Case of the Golden Idol (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.0.4 Update + DLC

The Case of the Golden Idol is a 2022 adventure and puzzle video game developed by Color Gray Games and published by Playstack for macOS and Windows. The game depicts a narrative spanning 40 years in the 18th century, in which players collect clues to piece together concepts, characters, and evidence to provide context to the story.

The game was developed by Latvian independent developers Ernests and Andrejs Kļaviņš, who aimed to create a detective game influenced by the visual presentation of 1990s adventure games. The Case of the Golden Idol was similarly inspired by the design of the 2018 game Return of the Obra Dinn by Lucas Pope, with the game receiving similar comparisons from reviewers.

Upon release, the game received praise for its use of deduction to present its narrative, and distinctive visual presentation, and received accolades as one of the best games of 2022 for its narrative and design. Following release, two expansions to the game, The Spider of Lanka and The Lemurian Vampire, were released as downloadable content in May and August 2023.

Immerse yourself in a novel detective experience, where unfettered thinking and exploration reign. Probe into a dozen eerie and macabre demises, constructing your hypotheses. Select the prime suspect, infer the driving force, and unveil the unsettling verity. Step into the role of an 18th-century sleuth, delving into the enigma encompassing twelve uncanny fatalities spanning four decades, intricately intertwined. Disclose the actual culprits amidst this expansive tale, exposing their sinister motivations.

GAMEPLAY

The Case of the Golden Idol is a detective-based puzzle game in which the player connects the details of the narrative from eleven cases, placing the player at or shortly after where a central character in the narrative has met their death. Each level represents a frozen point in time, represented by the looped animation of its characters. Players resolve chapters through two modes of gameplay.

With the overarching objective of correctly identifying the details of the events in the chapter. In ‘Exploring’ mode, the game resembles a point-and-click adventure game where an environment is presented frozen at a point in time. Players can investigate the scene by clicking on characters, objects, or documents to collect keywords of interest, such as names, places, verbs, and items, that are collected at the bottom of the screen.

Whilst the events on screen are frozen in time, players are freely able to navigate between rooms, open the contents of containers, and see what items and documents a character has on their person, as well as any words that they have said. In ‘Thinking’ mode, words of interest are used to piece together a narrative of what has occurred, through filling in blank slots against an incomplete description of events and characters.

Parts of the ‘Thinking’ mode will differ depending on the chapter, in some cases requiring players to identify full names of characters, and in others specifying situational characteristics such as the titles of Brotherhood members, or the occupants of certain rooms.  To assist the player, slots are completed in segments, with the player being notified when the words in that segment are either entirely correct, in which case the segment is locked in, or when the segment has more or less than two incorrect words allocated.

PLOT

The Case of the Golden Idol tells the story of the titular Golden Idol, a relic with supernatural powers, as it travels over time through the hands of the Cloudsley family to the criminal underworld, esoteric secret societies, and the political and aristocratic class. The game is organized into four chapters, spanning fifty years. In 1742, Albert Cloudsley acquires the Golden Idol on an expedition after pushing his partner, Dr. Oberon Geller, off a cliff. In 1786, his descendant, Sebastian Cloudsley, died accidentally.

His will passes the Idol to a stranger to the family, Willard Wright.  It is later revealed that Sebastian and Wright are members of The Brotherhood, a secret society. The Cloudsley family conspires to return the Idol to their possession, and Willard Wright is murdered, returning the Idol to the elderly Edmund Cloudsley. The Brotherhood unsuccessfully attempts to poison Edmund, and he goes into hiding to experiment with the Idol’s powers. He discovers that the Idol can transfer properties such as matter, temperature, and even age, between two objects. Ultimately, a band of thieves – led by Brotherhood cultist Walter Keene – storm Edmund’s cabin, but they are subdued by a trap.

Sometime later, Walter Keene returns to the Brotherhood to endorse a new inductee, Lazarus Herst, into the cult. Lazarus hides the Idol inside the staff to perform the “miracle” of walking on air and is crowned as their leader. Meanwhile, the other Brotherhood members successfully take out their opponents in parliament by murdering one and framing the other at a countryside salon. Years later, the Brotherhood, restyled as the “Order Party”, took power in the country. Citizens are ranked by virtuous behavior. Using the Idol, Lazarus takes youth away from those of low rank and bestows it upon those of high rank.

They plan to overthrow the King, who does not recognize their authority. Before they can do so, Lazarus Herst is lured back to the Cloudsley manor by his old love but is blasted by a cannon. Infighting erupts between the remaining Brotherhood members, and the Idol is ultimately broken. In the epilogue, it is revealed that, after capturing Walter Keene in the cabin, Edmund demonstrated the Idol’s powers and convinced Keene to his side. Edmund faked his death, sapped the youth from a beggar outside, and made himself young again, taking the name Lazarus Herst. He planned to use the idol to gain power and build an ideal society, uniting the threads of the game’s story.