The Rise of the Golden Idol review

Our VerdictA gritty detective adventure that’s nearly as clever and captivating as the original.

Our Verdict

A gritty detective adventure that’s nearly as clever and captivating as the original.

PC Gamer’s got your backOur experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you.Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware.

Imagine standing on the sidewalk in front of a block of apartments, but instead of seeing only closed doors and drawn curtains you can peer inside each room as if you had X-ray vision. In one apartment, a couple sits at a dinner table, but their body language suggests some awkwardness. Maybe it’s a first date? The wall of a second apartment is covered with notes, diagrams, and red string connecting them: the occupant is investigating something, but what?

Finally you spot what you’re here for: a dead body. A man lies on the floor of his apartment with a gun in his hand and a hole in his head, while in the laundry room someone else prepares to wash red stains off their shirt. That’s a bit suspicious, isn’t it?

In mystery adventure The Rise of the Golden Idol, it’s your job at grisly crime scenes like this to sort out not just what happened, but how it happened, and especiallywhyit happened. Just as in its prequel, The Case of the Golden Idol, the answers only come after exhaustively examining the scene, identifying the participants, and building a narrative of the events. Once again the cases are incredibly clever and solving them is almost always deeply satisfying, and each brings you a step closer to unraveling a central mystery that sprawls through the entire game.

Gold standard

(Image credit: Playstack)

A crime scene

200 years ago a strange and powerful artifact was found and immediately inspired people to start killing each other in order to possess it. That was the story in 2022’s excellent The Case of the Golden Idol, one of the most inventive and challenging detective games I’ve ever played. In the sequel, which doesn’t quite reach the original’s heights but is excellent as well, developer Color Gray Games drops us into the gritty 1970s, where the long lost Idol has once again resurfaced. As various parties try to unravel its powers and gain control of the relic, wouldn’t you know it? The bodies are stacking up again.

As in the first Golden Idol game, the scenes you examine in The Rise of the Golden Idol are frozen tableaus with just a bit of animation to suggest you’re watching one or two seconds of time on a loop: a scientist lurching across a laboratory in flames, or a two people jabbing accusatory fingers at each other during an argument. Clicking on points of interest in a scene reveals more details: a matchbook in someone’s pocket, a duty roster on a clipboard, a set of keys, a lipstick, a gun.

Each time you find something, you collect a few words: someone’s first or last name, nouns like “circuit box” or “bracelet,” verbs like “sabotaged” or “experimented.” Each word you collect can be dragged and dropped into blanks on your investigation sheets. For example:Chris Livingstonused abracelettosabotagethecircuit box. To solve a scene, you’ll need to correctly label each person in the scene with their full name, and use your word collection to assemble a narrative of events: murderous Mad Libs.

(Image credit: Playstack)

A crime scene

Anything can be a clue, even if a word isn’t associated with it. One mystery depicting the aftermath of a violent encounter in a house confounded me for a long while because even though I’d put nearly all the individual pieces together, I couldn’t figure out what actually kicked things off, the spark that ignited the conflict. Finally, I spotted it, a tiny detail on one character that I’d missed the first 10 times I’d looked at them. I won’t even spoil it because when it clicked into place suddenly everything else on the screen made perfect sense. The Rise of the Golden Idol is full of “A-ha!” moments like this, and I’m pretty sure I actually said it out loud when I finally solved this particular case.

It’s all connected to the Idol, even if it takes a while to see how.

C.S. Idol

(Image credit: Playstack)

A crime scene

I loved the art style of the original game, its deceptively crude pixel art that was still easily readable, its characters nearly grotesque but also somehow charming. In Rise of the Golden Idol the art is much more smooth, more like paintings than drawings, but it still retains the unusual, offbeat style of the original.

(Image credit: Playstack)

A crime scene

Like the original game, I don’t think The Rise of the Golden Idol completely nails the landing. It doesn’t give quite enough insight into the motivations of one of its main characters, and at the end of the story I reacted more with “Oh, okay” than “A-ha!” to one of the reveals. Each chapter also ends with a recap puzzle that gets longer and longer—sometimes they can require 30 or 40 words to be plugged in—and that starts to feel sluggish after the excitement of figuring out the scene preceding it.

But those minor beefs don’t stop The Rise of the Golden Idol from being an engrossing and satisfying detective game. If you loved the original Golden Idol, you’ll love this one almost as much, and if you haven’t played the first one, great news: there are now two grisly and gritty detective adventures waiting for you to solve them.

The Verdict87Read our review policyThe Rise of the Golden IdolA gritty detective adventure that’s nearly as clever and captivating as the original.

The Verdict

87Read our review policyThe Rise of the Golden IdolA gritty detective adventure that’s nearly as clever and captivating as the original.

87Read our review policy

The Rise of the Golden IdolA gritty detective adventure that’s nearly as clever and captivating as the original.

The Rise of the Golden Idol

A gritty detective adventure that’s nearly as clever and captivating as the original.

More about the rise of the golden idolIf you love mystery novels and detective shows, The Rise of the Golden Idol is the perfect game for youThe sequel to one of the best murder mystery games ever is only a month away, and there’s a new demo out nowLatestThe Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in AprilSee more latest►

More about the rise of the golden idol

If you love mystery novels and detective shows, The Rise of the Golden Idol is the perfect game for youThe sequel to one of the best murder mystery games ever is only a month away, and there’s a new demo out now

Some suspicious looking characters

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

A police man next to a gun

The sequel to one of the best murder mystery games ever is only a month away, and there’s a new demo out now

LatestThe Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in AprilSee more latest►

Latest

The Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in April

the last of us season 2 trailer

The Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in April

See more latest►

Most PopularTurtle Beach Stealth Pivot reviewIkea Matchspel gaming chair reviewASRock DeskMini X600 reviewZotac Zbox Magnus EN374070C reviewMinisforum AtomMan G7 Ti reviewSamsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra reviewNoctua NH-D15 G2 reviewGulikit KK3 Max reviewBallionaire reviewMarvel Rivals reviewBe Quiet! Dark Rock 5 review

Most Popular

Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot review

Ikea Matchspel gaming chair review

ASRock DeskMini X600 review

Zotac Zbox Magnus EN374070C review

Minisforum AtomMan G7 Ti review

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra review

Noctua NH-D15 G2 review

Gulikit KK3 Max review

Ballionaire review

Marvel Rivals review

Be Quiet! Dark Rock 5 review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Our Verdict#

Gold standard#

C.S. Idol#

Our Verdict

Gold standard

C.S. Idol