14 DAY TRIAL // Eight men have entered a room to play their favorite card game. Only two are still standing and ready to walk out the door, although one of them is bleeding and the other might have bigger trouble waiting for him in the future. And I’m stuck trying to find out who murdered who and what weapons were used.
I have already figured out the power of the cards featured in pajack. This, in turn, with some corroborating details, will lead to the identities of all those involved, although I suspect at two guys aren’t who they claim. Then, it should be simple to play the sequence of attacks and death in my head and figure out everything I need to get to the second scenario.
And if I have a hard time figuring out all elements of the solution, I can always try to see the hints. The title is smart enough not to spell out the solution, making players engage with an unappealing mini-game before pointing them in the general direction of the truth.
Golden Idol Mysteries: The Spider of Lanka is developed by Color Gray Games and published by Playstack. This is the first piece of downloadable content for the deduction title. It introduces three new cases for players to solve, using the same core mechanics as The Case of the Golden Idol.
The DLC takes players to the fictional nation of Lanka in 1741, which is one year before the start of the events depicted in the main narrative. The new scenarios are designed to expand on the lore and are constructed in such a way that even those who have not finished the core story can play them.
The mechanics are the same. Players will look at a static scene featuring a cast of characters and some significant violence. They can click on highlighted objects and persons to get more details about them and gather keywords spread around.
Then, using them, gamers will have to identify everyone who’s part of the scene, complete a series of phrases, and deal with other puzzles. For each, The Spider of Lanka allows for unlimited tries. It’s possible but hard to brute force certain elements of a scene.
But it’s a better idea to get a hint, a simple word-matching process that does not reveal solutions. It only points players in the right direction. There’s still plenty of work to do before it becomes clear who everyone is and what exactly happened.
The Spider of Lanka is a very fun puzzle experience, as was the main game. Make sure to make mental notes of the small details that can reveal the bigger clues. And don’t be afraid to walk away from a puzzle and let your brain work on it while doing something else. Solving all the puzzles associated with a scenario is incredibly satisfying.
Golden Idol Mysteries: The Spider of Lanka doesn’t fundamentally tweak the graphical approach of The Case of the Golden Idol. All the deaths are grisly but the colors are bright and the art style is filled with small, interesting details. The game’s universe uses real-world influences but pushes everything in weird and interesting directions. The soundtrack is a great companion as players gather clues and then try to solve the puzzles.
Conclusion
Everyone else should pick up the base game. The Case of the Golden Idol is a carefully crafted game that blends theme, mechanics, and presentation in interesting ways. The Spider of Lanka is a little conservative when it comes to mechanical innovation but, otherwise, it offers the same level of quality and the same delightful weirdness.
A review key was provided by the publisher
