The case of the golden idol was a rewarding series of point-and-click murder mysteries that became one of my favorite games of 2022. And while I felt there was more story to explore about the titular golden idol, I wasn't sure if a possible sequel could be in the cards. at the height. to its clever puzzles and fascinating slowly unfolding story. It turns out that he had nothing to fear: The rise of the golden idolThe newly released sequel easily surpasses the original by improving almost everything.
In essence, Raise It is a game very similar to Case. The new game takes place in the 1970s, about 200 years after the events of the original, and each of RaiseThe cases take you to a specific moment in time, usually during or shortly after a murder. You are tasked with solving what is happening. To solve it, you must first click on the scene to discover relevant words and names that are saved in a menu. You then use those words to solve puzzles within the case, such as the names of people in a scene, a description of how the murder occurred, or even things like how to perform parts of a dance or who won a game show.
It is an intelligent system. Clicking to collect all the words forces you to scrutinize everything that's happening, and having to fill in the blanks means you really have to think about how the elements of the scene might connect. I've come to think of it as an elaborate puzzle: while the scattered elements may seem like a lot to put together, as you slowly solve the disparate puzzle elements within the cases, it becomes easier to figure out how they connect.
There are also more layers, as you have to solve puzzles that span the events of entire chapters, which usually have three or four cases within them, in order to move on to the next. Some recurring characters will appear throughout the chapters, meaning the game can tell a holistic story by forcing you to understand their actions in a bunch of different scenes. (It is not necessary to have played Case to understand the events of Raise(although there are some details that will be familiar to fans of the first game).
The system is not perfect. as with CaseIf you are out of place after you have placed words for a specific puzzle, Raise will tell you if your guess is wrong or if you have two or fewer words in the wrong place. Knowing it was close usually meant I could reexamine my assumptions and tweak a few words to get things right. But as I also did with Caseif I couldn't figure out the two or fewer wrong words on my own, I just did a bunch of brute force guessing until I got it right.
Raise It has some difficult puzzles, but so far I've been able to solve them all without resorting to an online guide like I had to do with the last few cases of Case. Raise It also has an improved clue system that offers up to three clues for a specific part of a case, and checking them often pointed me in the right direction when I was stuck. I would also recommend having a pen and paper handy to write things down, especially since some cases scatter the details into several areas. And if you can play with someone else, that helps too – my wife saw a lot of things that I completely missed.
Image: Playstack / Color Gray Games
I warn you that the game can be grotesque. Case It generally erred on the side of creepy with its old-school pixel art style, but Raise It looks more like a painting, and that means you'll see slightly more realistic corpses. Scenes and characters move in short loops, which makes them feel alive, but also means you'll see certain awkward movements over and over again. The first case begins with a man actively strangling another person; another shows a person being electrocuted. If you are afraid of birds, there is one case that you are really not going to like. But like a good horror movie, those twisted scenes are part of what makes the game appealing. Every time I started a new case, I was always eager to see what terrible things I would encounter.
I'm not quite finished Raise. After more than 15 hours, I'm on one of the last 20 cases in the game, and this one is taking me a couple of days to get through. However, I think the final thrill of solving it all will be worth it, as there's nothing better than that light-bulb moment of placing the last word in the right place in the puzzle. And even when I finish with the 20 cases, there will be four DLC packs We look forward to next year; Maybe there is more we don't know about the mysterious golden idol.
The rise of the golden idol is now available for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices with a Netflix subscription.
