Golden Idol Investigations: The Curse of the Last Reaper (DLC) review

• Reviews by Sean Parker
• Published:

If this is way the Golden Idol series ends, it goes out with a killer piracy-themed bang

With two full-length Golden Idol games released, and now with enough DLC to add up to the size of approximately two more, we've been absolutely spoiled rotten with content for the series since it first hit the scene only three years ago.

The original game, The Case of the Golden Idol, remains my favorite of the bunch – an instant classic deduction game that's been hard to replicate. I wouldn't say it was completely lightning-in-a-bottle, because its expansions and sequel have been outstanding in many of the same ways, but that first game just had a certain alluring mystique that the rest couldn't quite match… until now. With the final installment of The Rise of the Golden Idol's DLC chapters, The Curse of the Last Reaper, consider that seemingly impossible feat very much accomplished, as it’s a triumph of ingenuity and a total return to form I didn't see coming.

While I've had lots of fun with each part of the Golden Idol Investigations spinoff DLC, a law of diminishing returns was certainly becoming evident. The magic seemed to be draining a bit in the previous outing, and I couldn't help but wonder if the developers were feeling ready to move on from this format altogether. With no announcement of a new Golden Idol game on the horizon, that still may be the case, so it's possible that this could be the last bow for the series. But should that indeed come to pass... well, what a tremendous exit.

First of all, how did it take this long for a series based on adventure, intrigue, exploration, ancient cultures, and forbidden artifacts to embrace the theme of piracy? Perhaps there was initial hesitancy to not overlap too much with the naval flavor of Return of the Obra Dinn, which the series drew so much inspiration from at the outset, but pairing up the Golden Idol gameplay with a motley crew of dastardly buccaneers is truly a match made in heaven.

This story involves twin timelines. One is set in 1797, following a doomed pirate gang as they deal with the fallout and strange powers of a highly bizarre (even by series standards!) holy item known as the "Whishbloom." The second storyline is set in 1932, when an expedition party goes off in search of a map to retrace the pirates' steps and seek their buried treasure. In a deft bit of writing, we follow the 1797 story in reverse order, while the 1932 plays out chronologically in tandem with it. All four of the lengthy scenes let you hop between the timelines at will, so we get to evaluate each stage of the pirate adventure as it’s unfolding (backwards), and then jump over to see its much-later aftermath in the same location.

Golden Idol Investigations: The Curse of the Last Reaper (DLC)

Genre:	Mystery
Presentation:	2D or 2.5D
Theme:	Crime solving, Historical, Pirates
Perspective:	First-Person
Graphic Style:	Stylized
Gameplay:	Investigative, Puzzle, Deduction
Control:	Point-and-click

Speaking of Obra Dinn, there’s a fantastic direct homage to it this time around. One case involves piecing together the full details of a mutiny at sea, requiring players to identify each crew member, how they died, and who was responsible. It's complex without being frustrating, extremely creative, and easily a highlight of the whole darn series. The other cases are no slouches either, opening with a gruesome and strange beast attack in a tavern and closing with the most tender moment of the entire saga. Thrilling, funny, and surprisingly touching, this expansion fires on every cylinder.

The difficulty here is really well-balanced, too. The first three cases are tough and lengthy, but still very fair. I only had to consult the in-game hints in the fourth and final case, though admittedly some parts were still a bit too difficult, and I had to look outside the game for a bit more guidance online. Thankfully, that was rare and didn't impact my enjoyment too much – a definite improvement over the previous DLC.

The art this time is a real treat. It's our first Rise of the Golden Idol DLC that isn't set in a more contemporary or far-future-feeling setting, and the artists really lean into that with a moody candlelit look in the nighttime scenes. The lighting on the characters is just gorgeous here. The environments get a similar amount of love, including an island housing some seriously surreal caverns, an expansive port town, and a lovingly detailed pirate ship. It all still features much of the same aesthetic established in Rise, but with the 18th century backdrop, it feels very much like a midpoint between that and The Case of the Golden Idol. The music follows suit, with a diverse array of ambient tracks that give much of the same tonal vibes of Case (and its superb DLC adventures, The Spider of Lanka and The Lemurian Vampire).

In fact, despite having Rise's interface, this feels way more like a lost third piece of DLC from the first game, even picking up on some of its narrative threads in startling and fantastic ways. Without giving anything away, the game can be quite subtle about the links, so if players don't have the original game’s events fresh in their memory, the significance of some of its returning characters will likely be lost on them. But even as a standalone story, played with zero knowledge of the rest of the series, The Curse of the Last Reaper totally excels.

The storytelling here is peak Golden Idol. There are so many devious characters this time around, and piecing together their conflicting plots to obtain the Whishbloom is a complete and utter joy. Each timeline has a fascinating cast, with the smaller six-man team in 1932 definitely having a bit more depth for each member. But even characters with barely any screen time feel richly detailed, cleverly fleshed out by the often humorous opportunities to see what's in their pockets. I laughed aloud when I found a boxing magazine in a brutish gangster's inventory, which included a questionnaire he'd filled out about his own self-assessed level of toughness, and revealed a great joke about him being really bad at addition.

This is one of those delightfully dark stories where just about everyone in the main cast – and I mean almost literally everyone – is a diabolically horrible person on some level. Just terrible, awful, evil, black-hearted fiends. As a result, their comeuppances feel highly satisfying and well-deserved. Some of them still get unexpectedly beautiful and bittersweet happy endings that they didn't really earn... and yet I'd never want to take that from them because it's all just too heartfelt and lovely. The fact that the game manages to pull that off while having some of the weirdest and most horrific moments in the series (and some of its funniest gallows humor) is a serious accomplishment deserving of the highest praise. It all adds up to a Grade-A expansion that feels both essential and revitalizing, cementing the series as one the best adventure franchises of the 2020s.

Final Verdict

The Curse of the Last Reaper is a pure delight for Golden Idol fans, even more so for anyone who’s been missing the Old World vibes of the original game. Absurdly creative in its design, brilliantly twisted in its storytelling, and utterly absorbing in its execution across the board, there's not a single dud scenario in the mix, and with equally gripping dual timelines, each case is stuffed to the brim with points of genuine interest without ever getting overwhelming. It's sad to think we may already be at the end of an era only three years after The Case of the Golden Idol's incredible debut, being unclear whether the series will ever set sail again. But if it doesn't... what a high point to bow out on, mateys.

Sean played The Curse of the Last Reaper on PC using a review code provided by the game's publisher.