The Rise of the Golden Idol makes an incredible puzzle recreation even higher

The Case of the Golden Idol was a rewarding sequence of point-and-click homicide mysteries that turned one in every of my favourite video games of 2022. And whereas I felt there was extra story to discover concerning the titular golden idol, I wasn’t certain if a possible sequel might stay as much as its intelligent puzzles and interesting, slowly unfolding story. Seems, I had nothing to worry: The Rise of the Golden Idol, the newly launched sequel, simply surpasses the unique by enhancing on nearly all the pieces.

At its core, Rise is a really related recreation to Case. The brand new recreation takes place within the Seventies, round 200 years after the occasions of the unique, and every of Rise’s circumstances drops you into a particular second in time, sometimes throughout or shortly after a homicide. You’re tasked with fixing what’s happening. To determine that out, you first should click on across the scene to find related phrases and names that get saved in a menu. Then you definitely use these phrases to resolve puzzles inside the case, just like the names of the people in a scene, an outline of how the homicide occurred, and even issues like how you can interpret components of a dance or who gained a recreation present. 

It’s a intelligent system. Clicking round to gather the entire phrases forces you to scrutinize all the pieces that’s happening, and having to fill within the blanks means you actually have to consider how components of the scene is perhaps related. I’ve come to think about it like an elaborate jigsaw puzzle: whereas the scattered components might seem to be lots to tie collectively, as you slowly remedy the disparate components of the puzzles inside circumstances, it’s simpler to determine how they join.

There are extra layers, too, as you need to remedy puzzles encompassing the occasions of total chapters, which usually have three or 4 circumstances inside them, to have the ability to transfer on to the following one. A number of recurring characters will pop up throughout chapters, which means the sport is ready to inform a holistic story by forcing you to grasp their actions throughout a bunch of various scenes. (You don’t must have performed Case to grasp the occasions of Rise, although there are a number of tidbits that will likely be acquainted to followers of the primary recreation.)

The system isn’t good. Like with Case, in case you’re off the mark after you’ve slotted in phrases for a particular puzzle, Rise will let you know in case your guess is wrong or in case you have two or fewer phrases within the flawed place. Often, figuring out that I used to be shut meant I might reexamine my assumptions and tweak a number of phrases to get issues proper. However as I additionally did with Case, if I couldn’t determine the 2 or fewer incorrect phrases alone, I might simply brute-force a bunch of guesses till I received issues proper. 

Rise has some powerful puzzles, however up to now, I’ve been capable of remedy all of them with out turning to a web-based information like I needed to do with the ultimate few circumstances of Case. Rise additionally has an improved trace system that provides as much as three hints for a particular a part of a case, and sometimes, checking these pointed me in the appropriate route after I was caught. I’d additionally advocate having pen and paper helpful to jot down issues down, particularly as a result of some circumstances scatter particulars throughout a number of areas. And in case you can play with another person, that helps, too — my spouse noticed a bunch of issues that I fully missed.

I’ll warn you that the sport could be grotesque. Case typically erred on the aspect of creepy with its old-school pixel artwork model, however Rise seems to be extra like a portray, and which means you’ll be seeing barely extra sensible lifeless our bodies. Scenes and characters transfer briefly loops, which makes them really feel alive but in addition means you’ll see sure uncomfortable actions again and again. The primary case opens with a person actively strangling any individual else; one other exhibits an individual getting electrocuted. When you have a worry of birds, there’s one case you’re actually not going to love. However like scary film, these twisted scenes are a part of what makes the sport compelling. Each time I began a brand new case, I used to be at all times desirous to see what horrible issues I’d come throughout.

I’m not fairly completed with Rise. After greater than 15 hours, I’m on one of many final of the sport’s 20 circumstances, and this one is taking me a few days to muddle by way of. I believe the eventual thrill of figuring all of it out will likely be well worth the ache, although, as there’s nothing higher than that lightbulb second of slotting the ultimate phrase into the appropriate place of the puzzle. And even after I’m completed with all 20 circumstances, there will likely be to look ahead to subsequent yr — maybe there’s much more that we don’t know concerning the mysterious golden idol.

The Rise of the Golden Idol is now obtainable for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Swap, and on cellular with a Netflix subscription.