The Case of the Golden Idol – Every Level Ranked (Including DLC)

“The Case of the Golden Idol” is one of those detective / mystery / deduction games that has to be played to be believed – a bit like “Return of the Obra Dinn”. Without going into too many spoilers, the idea is that you’re following the journey of a mysterious object while solving frozen-in-time deaths during the precise moment they occur. If that sounds weird, just wait until you actually play it!

With the final DLC now released, I can rank all seventeen mind-bending levels / cases / dioramas from least favourite to favourite. For the sake of brevity, I’ve labelled each level (or whatever they’re called) with a code. The three possible codes are:

• The Case of the Golden Idol (i.e. main game) = CGI
• The Spider of Lanka (DLC) = TSOL
• The Lemurian Vampire (DLC) = TLV

So “CGI-2” would mean the second level of the main game, and “TLV-3” means the third level of the Lemurian Vampire DLC. Hopefully that makes sense! Oh, and beware of some SPOILERS ahead – I recommend going into the game blind if you can.

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

Meh

17 – The Untimely Passing of a Rural Gentleman (CGI-2)

“The Case of the Golden Idol” gets off to a relatively slow start with little mystery, but I can forgive the first level for being a tutorial. The second level, however, has no excuse.

It’s my least favourite level of them all due to the simple puzzles and limited scope. Case 3 is much more interesting, so they should’ve just skipped to that.

OK

16 – An Abrupt Termination of Contract (CGI-1)

It’s the first level of the game, doubling as both a Golden Idol origin story and a tutorial. It’s fine.

You hardly have to think to work out the solution, and the limited location doesn’t help either.

15 – The Crowning Celebration by the Lighthouse (CGI-8)

From the third case onwards the main game goes from insane diorama to insane diorama, so Case 8’s “The Crowning Celebration by the Lighthouse” sticks out like a sore thumb.

It’s disappointingly shallow and over far too quickly compared to the other late-game cases, and the mystery isn’t that interesting to begin with.

14 – The Unfortunate Accident at the Raja’s Court (TSOL-2)

All six cases across the two DLCs were pretty good, but the second case of The Spider of Lanka took the wind out of my sails.

It felt like the information wasn’t clearly conveyed, and the central ritual that’s key to solving the case was confusing as hell and had some unnecessarily challenging puzzles attached.

Good

13 – The Murder at the Little Mermaid (CGI-4)

The Case of the Golden Idol was really starting to pick up the pace by this point, and “The Murder at the Little Mermaid” was a fascinating continuation of events.

Willard Wright meets his end in gruesome fashion, and I love both the card game name deductions and the escaped convict red herring.

12 – The Enigmatic Expiration in a Harmonious Island Commune (TLV-1)

The Lemurian Vampire DLC took a big left-turn and focused on a “Harmonious Island Commune”, and for the most part I think that was a good choice.

We don’t get the full breadth of the new setting straight away, but the worldbuilding and set-ups to later mysteries are handled well.

11 – The Dramatic Departure of an Outsider (CGI-3)

Case 3 was when “The Case of the Golden Idol” began to truly shine.

The image of the man on fire is as horrifying as it is intriguing, and both the idol and familial drama plotlines had me hooked for the rest of the story.

Great

10 – The Explosive Events in the Forest Cabin (CGI-6)

I love the various factions in play that all yearn for the golden idol’s powers, and I also really like how “The Explosive Events in the Forest Cabin” portrayed said powers.

The flying bodies in the explosion is one of the most visually-striking dioramas in the game, and the environmental clues – like the man knocked out over the fake corpse and Edmund Cloudsley hiding in a box – got my mind racing.

9 – The Overly Enthusiastic Card Game Tournament in the Yellow Lily (TSOL-1)

I kept an open mind for the first case of the first DLC, but the bloodbath in the “Yellow Lily” still took me by surprise.

It’s a lot of fun to deduce who killed whom with what weapon and in what order, and I was excited to see where the DLC’s story would go.

8 – The Interrupted Weekend at the Doctor’s Salon (CGI-9)

Most chapters of “The Case of the Golden Idol” involve some sort of supernatural aspect, so it was nice to return to a classic whodunnit mystery.

“The Interrupted Weekend at the Doctor’s Salon” is exactly the kind of Cluedo or Poirot chapter I wanted, and correlating the multiple alibis proved to be quite the challenge.

7 – The Less Than Amicable Departure of Two Explorers (TLV-3)

The final chapter of the final DLC, “The Less Than Amicable Departure of Two Explorers” bridges the gap between these prologue cases and the main game.

While it maybe wasn’t as explosive as I wanted the final case to be, it was cool to unravel some threads among all three Lemurian Vampire cases to work out which character had deeper motives than they were letting on.

6 – The Intoxicating Dinner Party (CGI-5)

A similar whodunnit to the one at the Doctor’s Salon, except I think “The Intoxicating Dinner Party” does it better across the board.

You’re still trying to work out the characters’ names, occupations and motivations in these early cases, and the conspiracy behind the scenes blew my mind.

5 – The Triumph of Order (CGI-10)

The cultist plotline that I loved so much came to its peak in “The Triumph of Order”, where we got to see the pinnacle of the new regime’s cruelty.

Working out their various rules and regulations was a lot of fun, and calculating the total merit gains or losses got my mathematical brain thinking.

4 – In the Web of the Spider (TSOL-3)

The “Spider of Lanka” DLC had a solid start and a middling second chapter, but they really nailed the finale with “In the Web of the Spider”.

You’re bombarded with information from multiple dioramas, and yet it’s all well thought-out and engaging. Some of the big reveals may have been obvious in hindsight, but in the moment my mind was whirring.

Amazing

3 – The Strange Practices of a Secretive Society (CGI-7)

The mysticism of the titular Golden Idol was a cool sub-plot, but the plotline I got into most was easily the whole cultist / secret society aspect.

“The Strange Practices of a Secretive Society” was when this plot reached the forefront, and I was immediately hooked into working out their odd rituals and heirarchy.

2 – The Slight Delay in the Peaceful March to the King’s Castle (CGI-11)

The final chapter of the main game, and the culmination of ten cases-worth of storytelling and mystery.

There are three distinct murders to solve in this one, with each being in-depth enough to warrant a chapter of their own. By the time I worked out the Edmund Cloudsley twist and the credits rolled, my mind was blown.

1 – The Lemurian Vampire Strikes (TLV-2)

I wasn’t expecting much from the second case of “The Lemurian Vampire”, but “The Lemurian Vampire Strikes” ended up being my favourite mystery of the lot.

You have to work out who brought which gift to the murdered prince, as well as uncover the various schemes in play and plans either hatching or in motion. When you add to that the looming presence of the vampire in the tower, you get a case that I couldn’t stop thinking about.

Aaaand that’s my list! You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: