Satisfying deduction puzzles
Mentioned in ~2 in 3 positive reviews
“Puzzles and narrative are masterfully entwined and there are multiple eureka! moments that feel really rewarding and satisfying.”
Steam review · 6.1 h played ↗
The Case of the Golden Idol
Worth buying? What 280 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 280 Steam reviews actually say.
Overwhelmingly PositiveOverwhelmingly Positive · 98%Color Gray Games2022Mystery · Detective · Investigation
$17.99
Open on Steam ↗US Steam price, checked 3 h ago
The verdict
A tightly designed deduction puzzler with a gripping interconnected story, but short and sometimes obtuse late on. Skip it if you want Obra Dinn-level depth or dislike fill-in-the-blank puzzles.
Great for
Fans of Obra Dinn-style deduction who enjoy note-taking and piecing a story together slowly
Main risk
Short playtime for the price, with late puzzles that can feel like guesswork
What changed in the last 30 days
37 recent reviews
Recent positive share dipped to 93%. The one recent negative sample complains about hint-gating and value, but evidence for a clear cause is thin.
37 recent reviews
What players love
Intriguing interconnected story
Mentioned in ~1 in 2 positive reviews
“It's also cool how the various chapters fold back into each other and provide meta-clues for the overarching story.”
Steam review · 7.4 h played ↗
Great music and distinctive art
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews
“the music is some of the best I've ever heard in any game”
Steam review · 10.5 h played ↗
Fair, well-balanced difficulty curve
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“the game is difficult enough to be challenging but not so convoluted that it's frustrating, and it does a good job of ramping up the difficulty through each stage.”
Steam review · 8.5 h played ↗
DLCs add strong prequel content
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“And don't skip the DLCs, especially Spider of Lanka.”
Steam review · 7.7 h played ↗
What players complain about
Worse than Obra Dinn / shallow gameplay
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“If Obra Dinn is how you're setting your expectations as well, you will be disappointed!”
Steam review · 7.1 h played ↗
Late puzzles are obtuse or require guessing
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“towards the end, there are so many moving parts that you practically need to make wild assumptions.”
Steam review · 4.2 h played ↗
Too short for the price
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“it's just so insanely short.”
Steam review · 9.6 h played ↗
Weak or unsatisfying story
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“You finish the game knowing about as much about the idol as when you started.”
Steam review · 5.2 h played ↗
Ugly art and poor controller/Redux UI
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“the recently released "Redux" UI is unconscionably bad.”
Steam review · 12.9 h played ↗
Save loss and port bugs
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 negative reviews
“After 6 hours of play, I lost all of my saving from chapter 1 to 10.”
Steam review · 7 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: VerifiedController support2 GB
Minimum
OSWindows 7
Processor1.7 GHz Dual Core
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsIntel HD Graphics 3000
Storage2 GB available space
OSWindows 7
Processor1.7 GHz Dual Core
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsIntel HD Graphics 3000
Storage2 GB available space
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