The sequel to one of the best murder mystery games ever is only a month away, and there's a new demo out now

A police man next to a gun
(Image credit: Color Gray Games)

Grisly, innovative, and fascinating, The Case of the Golden Idol is one of my favorite mystery games of all time. The individual murders you have to solve are incredibly satisfying as you pore over all the details, search the crime scenes for clues, and even lift items right from the suspects' pockets, and the overarching story of the mysterious relics that links all these murders together is worthy of its own page-turning novel.

And now a sequel is afoot! The Rise of the Golden Idol transports us into the gritty 1970s for another round of gruesome crimes, and we don't have much longer to wait to get our hands bloody. Color Gray Games and publisher Playstack have announced a release date, and it's barely a month away: The Rise of the Golden Idol releases on November 12. Here's a trailer for a glimpse of the baffling crimes that await you.

The Rise of the Golden Idol - Official Release Date Trailer - YouTube The Rise of the Golden Idol - Official Release Date Trailer - YouTube
Watch On

As a famous detective likes to say… just one more thing. There's also a new "extended" demo out right now on Steam so you can start solving your first couple of cases. The new demo includes everything from the original demo, plus an additional murder to puzzle over. I know what I'm doing on my lunch break today, how about you?

This is a little awkward after I just said one more thing, but… just another one more thing: the original game has just been updated with a new UI and hint system and Steam Deck support. If you've never played The Case of the Golden Idol, this seems like a great time to give it a go.  

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

Read more
Some suspicious looking characters
If you love mystery novels and detective shows, The Rise of the Golden Idol is the perfect game for you
Close up of three people at a Christmas party in The Roottrees are Dead, with picture in picture close ups of each individual's head.
The Roottrees are Dead review
A newspaper front page showing the headline "The Roottrees are Dead" with a photo of three sisters.
The best part of this brilliant detective game is going back to a time when searching the internet was a huge pain... uh, for different reasons than it is now
A map of an alien planet
Track down a missing person in this 'Geoguessr-inspired detective game' set on an alien planet
A cartoon nun looks shocked and scared, bathed in green light.
The new game from the Blasphemous devs is like if Commandos was a metroidvania set in a Spanish monastery, and also the Green Beret kept losing his mind
An ominous man holds his finger over a book, eyes closed, while an eye floats above a pyramid behind him.
If you've ever wished Phoenix Wright was a witcher then do I have the game for you
Latest in Puzzle
A sign reads "HATRED IS POWER"
A demo for a lost videogame based on George Orwell's 1984 has emerged from the memory hole
London Bridge during snowfall
This is the coolest pricing gimmick I've ever seen: the temperature in London determines the price of this videogame
Today's Wordle being played on a phone
Today's Wordle answer for Friday, March 14
Wordle today puzzle on a smartphone
Today's Wordle answer for Thursday, March 13
Wordle today puzzle on a smartphone
Today's Wordle answer for Wednesday, March 12
Today's Wordle being played on a phone
Today's Wordle answer for Tuesday, March 11
Latest in News
Silent Hill f transmission trailer screenshots
'We've been keeping fans waiting for an awfully long time': We finally got to see more of Silent Hill f and boy, does it look great
A goblin with sharp teeth, wearing goggles, lets out a mischievous cackle in WoW's latest patch: Undermine(d).
The hooligan hacker guild that tore up WoW's newest raid (twice) just posted video evidence of the whole thing, and it's got me feeling weirdly nostalgic
A pasta "display" on a table showing the word "keep" surrounded by fruit. Obviously.
Penne for your thoughts: This pasta display can show three individual frames and it's trying its best, okay
Intel engineers inspect a lithography machine
Finally some good vibes from Intel as stock jumps 15% on new CEO hire and Arizona fab celebrates 'Eagle has landed' moment for its 18A node
Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale, who played femshep, 'saw no line' before she recorded them for Bioware's flagship trilogy: 'It was all cold reading on the spot'
A side by side comparison of two Asus Q-Release systems, with the original design on the top and the bottom showing the apparently new design.
Asus appears to have quietly changed the design of its Q-Release PCIe slot after claims of potential GPU pin damage