If you love mystery novels and detective shows, The Rise of the Golden Idol is the perfect game for you

GamesAdventureThe Rise of the Golden IdolIf you love mystery novels and detective shows, The Rise of the Golden Idol is the perfect game for youWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Playstack)

Some suspicious looking characters

Personal Pick(Image credit: Future)In addition to our mainGame of the Year Awards 2024, each member of the PC Gamer team is shining a spotlight on a game they loved this year. We’ll post new personal picks, alongside our main awards, throughout the rest of the month.

Personal Pick

(Image credit: Future)In addition to our mainGame of the Year Awards 2024, each member of the PC Gamer team is shining a spotlight on a game they loved this year. We’ll post new personal picks, alongside our main awards, throughout the rest of the month.

(Image credit: Future)

GOTY 2024 Personal Picks

In addition to our mainGame of the Year Awards 2024, each member of the PC Gamer team is shining a spotlight on a game they loved this year. We’ll post new personal picks, alongside our main awards, throughout the rest of the month.

There you stand, examining a crime scene scattered with clues—an open safe, a blinking light on an answering machine, a passport burning in a fire pit. There’s also a rug that appears to have been pulled out of place, a torn curtain and a broken balcony railing, and, oh yeah, is that woman nonchalantly burying something in the yard? It’s all a wee bit suspicious.

In mystery adventure The Rise of the Golden Idol, figuring out whodunnit is just the beginning: you also need to figure out how they dunnit and most importantly,whythey dunnit. It’s the perfect game for anyone who loves mystery novels and detective shows, because even once you’ve collected all the evidence and identified all the suspects, you’ll still have to twist your brain into knots to put it all together so it makes sense—and each case you solve is just one small piece in a much larger and more ominous puzzle.

(Image credit: Playstack)

A bloody scene with injured police and a distraught woman and a man in a chair

What I love about The Rise of the Golden Idol is what I love about the first game: yes, there’s the intense satisfaction of gathering clues and identifying suspects and putting together the sequence of events that explain how a murder happened—but the cherry on top is thewhyof it all. The shadowy motives, the hidden agendas, and the slow reveal of secrets that eventually explain what’s really going on. The story of The Rise of the Golden Idol would fit perfectly into a mystery novel, and with more cases coming next year as DLC, I can’t wait to discover the next few chapters.

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