The Case of the Golden Idol

The last puzzle of the Lemurian Vampire DLC has a huge and very frustrating typo that makes the solution for the first scroll much harder to get. In these types of games, you want the player to be able to fill in the puzzle the second they put all the pieces together. The rest of the puzzles do a great job of that, this one is unnecessarily frustrating. On top of that, I spent a lot longer with scroll #4 than I needed to because I had the right answer but the game wanted me to phrase it in a different way. Besides that unfortunate bit of frustration near the end, this is a must play. It’s got one of the most engaging stories I’ve ever played with each chapter escalating it in a completely shocking way, and the puzzles all feel so satisfying to solve. I can’t wait to see where this franchise goes!

Golden Idol is an excellent game. An easy five! Unfortunately, there are a number of issues with this port. To begin, there were a number of problems with the in-game text (Strictly on English version; no idea if there are similar things in other languages). There were also a few spelling mistakes, which honestly didn’t matter much. Once or twice verb tenses were incorrect, leading me to rule out a word I shouldn’t. The worst mistake was the repeated misuse of (in addition to neglecting to use) the word “The” in the “A Long Time Ago” scroll in “The Less than Amicable Departure of Two Explorers” in “The Lemurian Vampire.” It essentially ruins the puzzle and means that the correct solution still reads as if it’s incorrect. These feel like they could be fixed without much effort. Given that one of the main ways the player interacts with the game is through text, mistakes here had the tendency to be extremely impactful. Aside from this, I encountered a few bugs in which I’d see placeholder strings like “Header Text”, or the different words would stick to the wrong spot of the screen, the game wouldn’t confirm or reject my submission, etc. In any of these instances, the solution was to restart the app, then play the offending case from the beginning. The game itself is great, so it’s disappointing that there are just a handful of bugs that *will* tarnish the player’s experience.

I cannot get enough of this continuing story, murder mystery, adventure, it just gets more intriguing with each chapter. The time period, the subject matter of secret societies, everything that results (in following chapters) because of treachery in the simplest form in the first chapter (tutorial)… I keep figuring things out by using logic and returning to earlier chapters to check on details…a true brain-teaser and giving me lots of reason to NOT be working! LOL It’s addictive because it’s so dang good. I’ve not even gotten to the 2nd or 3rd storylines, but I feel this is a massive success for game players, adventure & mystery enthusiasts, and so glad Netflix brought this to the iPad. I’d have gladly paid, after trying out the first episode…that’s why it’s so incredible…and definitely the best game Netflix has ever released. I sincerely hope that the developer and Netflix can make a deal for more stories in this vein. Love, love, loves it! In the words of Oliver Twist…”More, please!”