The Case of the Golden Idol | A Pixel Study

[adaur]

Call it a gift. Call it a talent. Basically, call it what you want, the result will be the same: since my early childhood, I have worked and perfected this deduction ability which has earned me, over time, the nickname "the detective of Malakoff".

I look at you, for example, my dear @Devsome. With a simple glance, I can assure you with certainty that you drive a used car and that you go to the gym twice a week. The equation is simple if you focus your attention. Look at the shape of your left shoe: it sags slightly at the tertius, a sign that you often press a clutch pedal. Like all bikers, I deduce that you spend most of your time in the vehicle you actually use to get around, which is a used car, probably a Citroën Saxo.



As for your muscular physique, it simply stems from the shine of your skull. Such a shine can only come from a misplaced coquetry. This coquetry, inevitably, will have led you to choose the path of implants, by planning a trip to Turkey. In order to become familiar with the language, you will have ended up regularly attending the kebabs of the region. From then on, in order to get rid of the excess fatty tissue, you had no choice but to join a gym, from where you got your advantageous and curly appearance. There is nothing more here than careful observation and logic, applied with the rigor of science.

Obra Dinn, Obra Da, life goes on, bra. Now let's get to the subject at hand. The Case of the Golden Idol, the "new game by Lucas Pope". A simple deduction allows us to erase the first mistake: the game, in fact, is not by Lucas Pope at all, but by a Latvian team, as shown by a careful observation of the game credits, the names of which, for the most part, are unpronounceable, which is traditional among Latvians. Your mistake is legitimate though. Here is a team that, without pretending to be the author of Return of the Obra Dinn, wanted to, at least, pay tribute to the most interesting investigation game of the last ten years.

Where Obra Dinn, at times, proved frustratingly large, Golden Idol takes care to mark out the course in small segments.

How can we draw this conclusion? It is quite simple: the principle is exactly the same. In paintings frozen in two dimensions, we must observe, connect and understand the elements that make up the scene, before drawing an explanation. A man holds a book in his hand; a document informs us that James Turner inherited a book: the man holding the book is called James Turner. Now all we have to do is write this deduction in the paper provided, add all the missing information, and move on to the next table of the ten or so available once everything is validated. There's nothing else to do but fill in the blanks of a notebook with deductions born of observation and logic in increasingly twisted stories.

IDOL, LIDO, maybe a dancer? Let's go a little further. At first glance, the game is a sequel to Return of the Obra Dinn, where the three-dimensional set has been replaced by a succession of frozen paintings. This may seem anecdotal - an inexperienced investigator will pass by without paying attention - but it actually makes a big difference. Where Obra Dinn was, at times, frustratingly broad, Golden Idol takes care to break the journey into smaller segments that, when placed in sequence, are much more digestible. Instead of laboriously unraveling all the threads of a vast investigation, the detective here moves forward in stages and steadily progresses before the grand finale.



A word now, if you will, about the difficulty. In some aspects, Golden Idol is more complex, more obscure than its elder brother. In order to get through the last few scenes, you will have to unravel the main part of the plot by guessing and fill in the blanks with a little imagination, try, make mistakes, take another track. For the less rigorous mind, this difficulty can be confusing. Rest assured: because of its structure, Golden Idol is also, in some ways, a little easier.

The Latvian tone. You see, the presence of these tables, which I mentioned earlier, allows the player to validate his hypotheses much more often. Sometimes, it will be enough to grope a little and use brute force so that an element that was resisting to the mind will end up being validated, thanks to a stroke of luck. If you get stuck, the game also offers a system of clues to untangle the last knots.



The only conclusion, now that all these elements are laid down, and you will certainly agree, is as simple as a child's smile. A Latvian studio, a country with a Lutheran majority, wanted to pay tribute to a Lucas Pope game. It follows, and it is observation and logic that dictates this conclusion, that Golden Idol is a sequel that does not say its name, and that finds just enough new ideas to satisfy all those who had already been embarked on the journey of the Obra Dinn, without falling into the easy copy. Elementary, my @Devsome







Following the footsteps of Return of the Obra Dinn, The Case of the Golden Idol is almost as good as its predecessor, without the surprise of the mechanics, since it is, overall, the same minimalist investigation game, but with a division into tables which makes the progression more rewarding. And you, what do you think?