Final yr I used to be enamored with The Case of the Golden Idol, a thriller detective sport that threw all typical conventions of the style out the window and introduced such a singular method in gameplay and storytelling that I regarded it very extremely. Naturally, when builders Coloration Grey Video games introduced a follow-up I used to be instantly on board. Whereas Rise of the Golden Idol refreshes its visible fashion and provides a brand new layer on high of the unique, the freshness has come off barely. For these returning for extra Golden Idol, you’ll get precisely what you need, however don’t anticipate numerous new improvements.
For many who missed out, in Rise of the Golden Idol you play as an all-powerful “detective.” In a way it’s just like Return of the Obra Dinn, the place you might be merely introduced a scene and tasked with discovering out who the folks concerned are, what particularly occurred and the way they’re all associated. These vivid tableaus are nonetheless the spotlight and contain some wild scenes the place characters are being killed, set on fireplace, caught in fights or generally simply merely cleansing up their backyard. As you dig deeper into these scenes, you discover particular phrases, names and verbs that you may enter in an summary. Each scene is accomplished as soon as you determine what occurred to who. Optionally you’ll be able to determine who all of the concerned individuals are and their inside motivations for his or her actions. It turns into a detective sport the place all of the clues are all the time proper in entrance of you, however the sport is generally happening inside your head as you place collectively the person clues.
Rise units itself other than Case as it’s a sequel that takes place between the Sixties and Seventies of its fictional universe. The throughline remains to be its mysterious Golden Idol, an object of energy with a bloody historical past. You’ll hint how the item was re-discovered and what the folks in control of many cults, clans and firms do to get their arms on its energy. Most notable is its new construction. Not like Case, the place the story was advised principally chronologically by means of its scenes, Rise skips and jumps by means of the many years, making their bigger connections really feel extra obtuse and hidden from the participant. New characters and their involvement with the Golden Idol change into more durable to hint as in a single scene you might be within the late ‘70s, however the subsequent one takes place a decade earlier. The sport is split into particular chapters that inform a bigger a part of the story, the scenes inside these chapters may be wildly totally different from each other. Every chapter ends with a assessment the place you tie the tales along with the clues you’ve gained on the finish of every state of affairs.
That is the place Rise misplaced me a bit of bit with its narrative. I believe the brilliance of the unique sport was that you may clearly see how the facility buildings shifted across the discovering and recovering of the Golden Idol. However with its time jumps backwards and forwards, Rise made it very exhausting for me to maintain observe of its total story. Compounded with the truth that the gameplay hasn’t actually modified between Case and Rise, and I needed to actually push myself to maintain engaged with the sport. The issue additionally wildly varies, with some eventualities being fairly simple, whereas others throughout the similar chapter may very well be an actual spike find the best phrases and clues to maintain observe of who’s who.
Lastly, the Change controls simply didn’t fairly really feel proper in docked mode. Transferring the cursor to pick and swap phrases was a bit sluggish, and utilizing the D-pad grew to become very tedious as generally it will skip over sure interactive choices. The lists of phrases can change into very lengthy and may be exhausting to navigate, particularly when you could flip to the following web page of phrases by shifting the cursor all the way in which to the second tab after which shifting it again up once more to pick the primary phrase. With a sport devoted to putting phrases within the right place, it did change into a little bit of trouble at instances and become slight frustration.
Rise of the Golden Idol retains numerous the nice design and gameplay from Case of the Golden Idol. Its new graphical fashion is a welcome change and makes the world really feel much more vibrant and energetic. But it surely additionally falters beneath its personal weight, with a much more complexly woven narrative that jumps time intervals and had me struggling to maintain up with its story and problem. The shortage of an actual gameplay innovation made me discover the repetitive nature of Rise of the Golden Idol. Whereas I’m positive that followers will nonetheless eat up what’s being served right here, I did need to push myself at instances to stay with the sport to its ending. There’s loads to get pleasure from right here, however the good pacing, focus and storytelling from Case of the Golden Idol looms massive over its sequel. It’s a disgrace it doesn’t dwell as much as that potential, whereas nonetheless reinforcing the nice concepts which can be the inspiration of the gameplay. Let’s hope the Golden Idol exhibits up as soon as extra sooner or later to deliver each types collectively for a spectacular conclusion.
