The Case of the Golden Idol

... this is THE game. You can only watch to solve the mystery, but everything is connected and you must pay a lot of attention to details and deductions.

Do you like exploring an environment, finding clues, examining evidence, interviewing suspects, and getting immersed in the story as an investigator? Well this game takes all that away and merely gives you a series of static scenes with retro graphics where you don't know anyone's names and click on objects to get clues. You then quite literally fill in the blanks by dragging words to the prompts and that's it. The scenarios tie together and tell a story but I lost interest pretty quickly after 4 or 5 scenarios. No action, just logic. The kind of game you would play in DOS in junior high to work your logic and deduction skills, with none of the thrill of a video game. You don't move around, you don't really interact with anything, you are looking from the outside and are far removed from the story. The game is pure logic and deduction, which means it can be really frustrating - as in you have to make some leaps and make some assumptions that sometimes made me shake my head. The scenarios get more and more complicated, to the point where you have dozens and dozens of clues to sort through on your own and misleading you to make the wrong deduction. It's annoying flipping between Thinking Mode and Exploring Mode, so you're constantly going back and forth between modes just to make sense and organize the clues to solve it. I tried writing things down and that helped a bit, but it's pretty dull and lifeless and abstract. Maybe there is a way to have the Exploring mode and Thinking mode run simultaneously on two screens, but I'm not sure. This game is probably really popular/liked because it's a new type of mystery game and has retro-style graphics, but I guess I'm old fashioned in that I like my Sherlock Holmes, Tex Murphy, Crimson Manor type games that have a more engaging interface, interesting characters and fun puzzles. If you love logic and deduction but aren't keen on investigation and interactive gameplay, then you might like it.

it fun

Scratches that return of the obra dinn itch while still being unique

This game is an incredible game and deserves your time. It evokes classic point and clicks with an excellent story and interconnected scenarios to dive into and solve.