Not many people have heard of The Rise of the Golden Idol, but it’s one of my favorite games this year, and it has just released the final DLC titled “The Curse of the Last Reaper.” It features four new vignettes about the mysterious voyage of this eponymous ship.
What Makes Rise of the Golden Idol Good?
Aside from the many AAA titles that came out this year, like Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Silent Hill f, and Ghost of Yotei, The Rise of the Golden Idol has been one of my favorite underrated indie gems. For those unaware, it’s a point-and-click puzzle game where gameplay mainly involves deductive reasoning and a whole lot of squeezing out brain power. It’s one of those games that’s ideal to play with a notepad in hand, or a friend beside you to keep track of any details you might have missed.
The goal of The Rise of the Golden Idol is to identify the facts in each of its vignettes and find out the hidden truth behind each episode. Things like identifying which names belong to NPCs or what murder weapon is being used to murder the victim are common cases. While it may go overboard and complex at times, the formula remains the same: Figure out the what, where, when, and why of each scenario.
Players fascinated with experimental puzzle indie games like Outer Wilds or Dogubomb’s Blue Prince will find something worth enjoying with Rise of the Golden Idol. It’s a game that slowly unravels itself once you piece together many of its secrets, and before you even know it, you’ll become a master of deductive reasoning just like Sherlock Holmes.
Part of the reason why I’ve always wanted to talk about this game is how overlooked it all is. Puzzle games don’t always hit mainstream unless they’re from big studios, and Rise of the Golden Idol is the kind of game that thrives on its small community.
The Final Update for an Underrated Gem
It’s clear that Rise of the Golden Idol's target audience is the kind that enjoys the satisfying delights of a well-made puzzle game, and even better, you won't see the extent of online vitriol you normally see on their Review page.
Since the game came out in November of last year, I've been occasionally checking for Rise of the Golden Idol updates after I finished playing their third DLC, The Lemurian Phoenix, which came out on July 16. Including ‘The Voyage of the Last Reaper,’ the number of DLCs for Rise of the Golden Idol is now four, making it the final DLC for the game. What’s even better is that the final DLC pays homage to Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn, which is the primary inspiration behind the series.
While this may sound like good news as the game has officially ended its lifecycle, it’s going to be a bittersweet moment for me as this will be the final Rise of the Golden Idol content we’ll have. The game’s two Latvian creators, Andrejs and Erndests Klavin, have explicitly stated in an interview with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier that this will be their final Golden Idol game.
This stings because the Golden Idol series has always been one of my comfort games. The sheer satisfaction I get after solving a bizarre murder mystery or identifying the correct names for its characters will be missed, but at least I can still vicariously capture that experience by watching other people play the game.
It truly is the end of an era. On a more positive note, I’m looking forward to whatever Andrejs and Erndests Klavin cook up next.
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