The Rise of the Golden Idol
Main game
4.14 average rating based on 92 ratings
- Developers
- Color Gray Games
- Publishers
- Netflix, Playstack
- Series
- The Golden Idol
- Events
- The PC Gaming Show 2024, The Game Awards 2023
- Platforms
- Android, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, iOS
- Genres
- Adventure, Indie, Point-and-click, Puzzle
- Themes
- Mystery, Thriller
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is The Rise of the Golden Idol?
Related Content
Come on brain, you can do this one too.
Great 20 new cases (not all of them equally great, but most are) in world inspired by the 70s, just 300 hundred years after the events of the previouse game. If you're here for more tests to your logical and analytical prowess, you'll find it. If you're here for more 'lore' about this world, it is also here. And there's also a great hint system in case you find yourself stuck.
A must play if you liked 'Case'. Read my full review in spanish here.
The artstyle will still keep some of you away. Yes, it is "ugly", but it gives the game a lot of personality.
Hilarious
5/5
Played on Macbook. 31 hours playtime. Played with fiance.
Hilarious game. Just as good as the first in terms of intricate scenarios to decipher. Interesting interplay between all the different vignettes is an extra layer of complexity which is welcome. The scenarious themselves might be on average a bit easier. The story is satisfying and hooked us both - and has an ending that made me laugh. Love this series.
Still great, even if it takes a while to fully get there
I wasn't as hooked as I was with the first one, and the reason is the scrambled timeline and increase of characters.
With the bigger scope comes a bigger cast and more confusing order of events, so I couldn't just focus on the few characters that continue from case to case, but after I got used to this and focused a bit more, the hooks were there again.
Each DLC is now also feeling like their own little full game tying loose ends, and They are amazing as well! They don't miss.
Gobelin_Powa's review of The Rise of the Golden Idol
9/10 Aller si je mets pas 10 c'est parce que je suis très pointilleux et que je reconnais que des fois la mécanique du texte à trous est frustrante car on a compris l'idée mais c'est pas exactement le mot attendu par les devs + une grosse erreur de trad française lors d'un niveau (message codé Alfred Weasley). Sinon c'est la suite du 1, même qualité, intrigue tout aussi géniale, c'est génial génial génial, quel pied !!!
A commendable if convoluted follow-up.
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version
The RISE of the Golden Idol is the quick follow up to The Case of the Golden Idol released in 2022. Where "Case" introduced developer Color Gray Games' formula of strange art, stranger story and deductive puzzle solving, "Rise" looks to do more of the same. But not necessarily more.
The recipe is the same here, and it mostly hits the mark. But maybe they added a little too much salt this time? A little too much MSG? Where the first game is a streamlined, fundamentally solid game - I found Rise to sometimes fall into the same traps a lot of puzzle sequels fall into, where in order to up the difficulty of a follow up, they just pile things on top of thjings and the solutions end up feeling convoluted because there is too muhc going on, making some puzzles feel less rewarding as a result.
Even still, the Golden Idol series has already cemented itself as one of the greats in the genre and should be immediately added to your library if you like puzzle games.
Ismija's review of The Rise of the Golden Idol
Way too chaotic, it gives you a headache.
Though I'm enjoying Rise of the Golden Idol, I have somewhat disliked how inconsequential so many of the scenes feel. In the prior game, most of the puzzles were revealing something about the plot of the Cloudsley family and the Idol. In Rise, so many of the puzzles kind of feel pointless - at one point, you solve the story of some people cheating in a talent show on TV. The next puzzle gives it some context, but for many of the puzzles, I can't help but feel like they don't interest me much. They may be well constructed logic puzzles, but they feel like filler episodes on a TV show.
The fourth Rise of the Golden Idol DLC was much better than the third one; maybe the best of the DLCs for Rise of the Golden Idol. It was extremely reminiscent of Return of the Obra Dinn, which I know was an inspiration generally for the whole Golden Idol series.
Now that the game + DLCs are done, I think that Rise of the Golden Idol as a whole is not quite as good as The Case of the Golden Idol. Still excellent and well worth playing, though, and I hope there's a third in the series coming.
Some of the best aspects of the sequel are the interface improvements that reduce clicking, a killer art style that keeps the weird feel from the first but sets it apart, and the way the story and especially the DLCs explore so many new types of ancient Lemurian technology.
I wish that the DLCs had tied into the base game a little more -- given how the base game story ends, I was expecting the DLCs to be a continuation of the story, but they are almost entirely self-contained.
The third Rise of the Golden Idol DLC was the weakest IMO, by a lot. Very easy and straightforward puzzles that didn't explore any new design space, unlike the previous DLCs and the base game, and it felt like there were a lot fewer "screens" across the scenarios, and a lot less story development. Just a lowered level of complexity across all axes, from design to story to art, like they were phoning it in.
Maybe it's a purposeful lull before the fourth and final additional scenario.
Good, but not as good as The Case of the Golden Idol. The plot became too convoluted.
Fun game, I just don't think I really needed another one of these. I enjoyed the puzzle style quite a bit in the first game, and am not sure if it got more complex, but I find the amount of info they dump on on you to sift through to be a little much—not only for the brain load of keeping track, but also just physically dealing with it in the game with all the different windows that you're opening and moving around to enter the info and keep track of things. Never was a fan of the art style in the first one, and this one also has that in a less appealing setting. Even the title of this game feels hard to remember as a less catchy play on that of the original game. But yeah they are good in general at designing puzzles with interesting misdirection and interlinked stories, I think I just want a different direction on their next game.
I feel clumsy playing this game. Something about the presentation is limiting my ability to interact and keep track of everything. I am playing on iPad with a Netflix subscription and I have heard the console or PC experience is better being able to keep certain windows open while solving it. Ultimately the puzzles are just not clicking with me and I find myself using more trial and error than should be required this early on.
Much improved interface design over the first one, without being different -- it's just a relief to not have to click on every word to add it to your dictionary.
I also really like that the early game incorporates the meta-scenario puzzles that only showed up in the later chapters and DLC of Case of the Golden Idol. After a couple chapters I am not sure that it is the same leap in "sequel-hood" as say between Myst and Riven, which is probably my go-to example for a sequel that most completely develops and improves upon the previous game's ideas, but simply having more cases in this overall anthology is so welcome. If they keep delivering puzzles like this, I will always play more; they're absolutely brilliant and satisfying in every way.
