Adventure Gamers - Forums

I’ve been planning to play this game for quite a while, so I guess now is a good time to start. Like others in the voting thread I may want to play this game at exactly my own tempo, but let’s see how things feel when the playthrough begins to move forward. Either way I’ll probably pop by with comments when chronologically appropriate.

The game is installed and running. Tried playing with a controller emulating an Xbox pad at first. Everything worked fine except for the most essential function, the action button (left-click). I would guess the best way to play this is with the mouse/keyboard anyway, so.

I managed to misread your directions @Karlok and played the complete Complications in the family chapter (all three parts). I’m very intrigued! Love the mechanics of putting things together and the presentation overall is great. I found myself talking out loud when reasoning and considering. I’m already sensing this will be a game that will rank very high among my favorite games. I have really tiny quibbles regarding a couple of the clues though, but I’ll get back to those later.

I’d already played the first 2 parts in the demo but it was a while ago so I’ve uninstalled the demo & bought the full game + the extra content. I replayed those first 2 parts & am ready to move on.

In Chapter 2 I couldn’t find any reference to where Sebastian Cloudsley was Lord of? I guessed but did I miss something? 

Thanks Karlok, I thought I was being observant when I got the horse but obviously not enough!

Karlok - 21 May 2023 09:17 AM

@Veovis: I’m interested in your quibbles. (I have some too, they will keep.)

One of the clues regarding the dining attire in part 2 was a bit silly. Who has a painting on the wall of themselves eating duck roast alone? Was we even to believe that painting is of Sebastian in his dining attire eating duck the day before he died (as indicated in the diary)? In that case it’s even sillier.

The other tiny quibble is a bit premature since it concerns part 3. One part of the puzzle is about deciding which is which of the Pear twins. The puzzle is cleverly clued by the list of chores on the stable door + the date on Edmund’s paper + the horse brush on the burning person. The burning man must be James Pear. But they spoil the satisfaction of solving that somewhat by having the guy next to the burning man carrying a knife with a capital “A” (for Adam) carved in it. We already know he is a Pear brother since he carries the book with “property of the Pear family” or something along those lines written on it. So already from the knife on one twin + the horse brush on the other we really know which twin is which. I thought the writing/puzzle construction was a bit “meh” there.

Also, on the technical side, It’s a tiny bit annoying that the cursor often is “dead” after backing out of interactive/close-up screens. I have to move the cursor around for a bit before it starts registering interactive spots again. Very minor thing but still.

I played the first 2 parts of the first chapter and i do like the format of the gameplay. Its something new and refreshing. Also its fun playing detective and linking evidence. My only concern so far is that you can try all the words you find to the scenarios and you can complete the scenario this way but i guess its just a tutorial chapter and things gonna be harder.

Veovis - 21 May 2023 11:22 AM

One of the clues regarding the dining attire in part 2 was a bit silly. Who has a painting on the wall of themselves eating duck roast alone?

I don’t get your objection to it Veovis to be quite honest so sorry to disagree. It’s a portrait of the guy doing what he enjoys i.e eating duck roast & why not? Portraits generally just depict the subject alone. There’s no way it could have been painted the day before he died & so I would conclude that he ate duck a lot but obviously the purpose of the portrait was to help identify one of the jackets

Wife and i played the demo. We both thought it was ok, but nothing great. Interesting concept but not enough to hook us. But have fun on the playthrough

Locked and loaded. Played through all 3 cases of the first Chapter simply because I played the first two in the demo, and I couldn’t help myself but to add a bit of new experience - sorry, Karlok, I will stay with the pace from now on!
I really enjoyed it, just like I enjoyed the demo before, AND I’m happy that I played that extra bit, because it definitely got a tad more complex and, therefore, a tad more interesting, so I can see the potential of how these cases can get more tangled. I sure hope they do.

For now, I’m playing with highlights on, because I’m not a huge fan of pixel hunting (and as per developers - that’s what turning off that function will add to a game), plus I don’t necessarily think that this will add the kind of difficulty I’m hoping for - the “thinking” kind, but I do see how it can add to overall slower progress.

I also think that not every game is supposed to be this great challenge (and I remember Obra Dinn being quite challenging in some parts), some games meant to be entertaining more than brain-breaking, and maybe The Case of Golden Idol will be just that. Either way, I’m still happy I’ve made this purchase.

I hope we’ll go at a quick pace

Karlok - 22 May 2023 06:59 AM

But on the whole I found it helpful that there are often several clues to identify people and understand what’s going on. It also adds flesh to the bare bones.

I can see that, and this may be something I may appreciate later on in the game. But the “overclueing” in chapter 3 surprised me a bit since I had anticipated (and wished for I guess) the same hard level sudoku-ish approach to puzzle design as in the obvious inspiration for this game, Return of the Obra Dinn. But I realise we’re only at the beginning of the game of course.

Absolutely agree about that help the game gives you regarding how close you are to the solution. Should definitely at least be possible to turn off.

I found the combination of the interface & the graphical style in The Return of the Obra Dinn, as brilliant as I thought it was, too whizzy for me to progress very far. So, the approach to puzzle design in The Case of the Golden Idol, which I much prefer from an interface & graphical style perspective, is still very much a novelty to me! 

I’ve finished playing part 3 of Chapter 1 & although the clues I know are there I did end up guessing in places so I appreciated the ‘over-cluing’. 
I also appreciate being able to revisit different parts to see what clues I missed.

I do like that the game lets you know how close to a solution you are but I would agree that it should be optional. Yes, I was tempted to brute force too but also to re-explore to see what I’d missed.

Yes, it does look like the game is going to get more intricate & I’ve already got into the habit of taking notes!

I’m loving this so far & can’t wait to play on…….