The Rise of the Golden Idol is a 2024 puzzle video game developed by Color Gray Games and published by Playstack for PC and console and Netflix Games for mobile platforms. It is the sequel to the 2022 game The Case of the Golden Idol. The game received generally positive reviews.
Gameplay
Similar to The Case of the Golden Idol, The Rise of the Golden Idol is a puzzle video game in which players are presented with interactive scenes frozen in a point in time that depicts a murder or similar event. To complete a scene, players must interact with character dialog, objects, and texts in the scene to identify relevant keywords. These keywords are used to identify characters and complete sentences that describe the events depicted in the scene and the actions and motives of the characters. Expanding on the first game, each chapter in the game itself has one or more overarching narrative blocks that connects the event of each scene in that chapter and from earlier chapters that the player must solve to progress.[1]
Plot
The game follows the events of its predecessor, The Case of the Golden Idol, which concerned the supernatural powers of the Golden Idol, a relic of the Lemurian empire, and its use and misuse by figures in the eighteenth Century. The Rise of the Golden Idol is set in the 1970s, long after the historical use of the Golden Idol has fallen into myth. During this time, the Idol has been sold as a trinket and left over the centuries on a shelf.
Initial cases in the game take place in 1977; Oriel Toussaint, a patient at an insane asylum, escapes after choking a guard to death. Meanwhile, police investigate a series of deaths named 'Red Curse', due to the blood-red eyes of the victims, believed to be related to drug misuse. Isaac Nowak, a prestigious academic discovered dead, is subject to a police cover-up to conceal the association between his case and the Red Curse.
Cases in the subsequent chapters are presented in loose chronological order. In the years prior, spiritualist Tesa Nevari, founder of the Harmony Foundation, has been able to gather parts of the Idol with the aid of an accomplice that she helped to escape prison before killing him herself. She attempts to reconstruct the Idol and use as part of a dubious practice to help devotees of the Harmony Foundation find enlightenment, but the Idol does not function as it was not properly assembled. The OPIG Corporation, which had hired Tesa as a contractor, is disappointed with her work and proceed to seize the Harmony Foundation and its equipment, including the pieces of the Idol. With aid of Oriel as a historian, a group of scientists within OPIG realize how they could properly reconstruct the Idol. While the other members of the team are hesistant about using it, another member, Eugene Marmot, sneaks into the lab and triggers one of the Idol's abilities, setting himself on fire. Because of his initiative, Eugene is made head of the research group, and rehires Tesa to aid in investigation the other functions of the Idol. The other team members, including Maria Westlake, Tim Spender, and Jack Nowak, are troubled by Eugene's leadership, given his somewhat dimwitted attitude.
By 1977, the OPIG group discover the Idol's ability to transmit memories between people and by accident further learn they could transfer one set of memories to many through a video broadcast. Jack and Oriel work with a Lemurian museum curator to test the device using an ancient Lemurian data disc; while they discover that the Idol can store one's memories to the disc and transmit some of the memories to a different user, Jack inadvertently gives Oriel the complete memories of Echo Secunda, a Lemurian, that was stored on the disc, wiping out Oriel's own persona; Echo, now in Oriel's body, flees into the strange world.
Believing they have figured out how to use the Idol properly, Eugene suggests that they use this to send a subliminal ad for their beverage product during a major upcoming televised game. Tesa speaks out and is fired, leading her to create a new cult, the Empathy Warriors, to protest OPIG's activities. The Idol is assembled into a device that Eugene names the I.D.O.L. Jack is distressed with this trivial use of the I.D.O.L. From the incident with Oriel, Jack has refined the means to use the I.D.O.L. to fully transfer the identity of one person to another; the process leaves the original host body lifeless and turns their eyes red. Jack attempts several tests with homeless people at the local docks, leading to other bodies being found associated with the Red Death. He makes plans to sabotage the OPIG's plan with his own more loftier goal, by transmitting the mind of his uncle Isaac Nowak to the viewing audience as to make everyone a genius and improve the world; he is responsible for Isaac's death after capturing his memories on a data disc.
OPIG is informed that the military sees a potential use for the I.D.O.L.'s abilities, and consider the upcoming match a proper demonstration. On the day of the match, Jack prepares to use the I.D.O.L. at the local television station. Due to Marie and Tim's influence, Eugene is trapped on the roof and worried that the I.D.O.L.'s test will go badly, disconnects the video broadcast signal just before Jack sends out Isaac's memories; as such, only Jack is affected and becomes Isaac. Tesa's group invade the television station and destroy the I.D.O.L. In the aftermath, Eugene remains head of the speculative investment department while Marie and Tim are fired; Jack, now as Isaac, struggles with his identity, and Oriel, as Echo, maintains a low profile to avoid being found.
The Rise of the Golden Idol received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregatorMetacritic,[5] with the game receiving praise for its complex puzzle design, detective gameplay, and narrative.[15][16][17][18][19][20]
^Rattray, Tim (11 November 2024). "The Rise of the Golden Idol". RPGFan. RPGFan. Archived from the original on 3 December 2024. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
