The Case of the Golden Idol, our favorite story of 2022 (opens in new tab) and my personal favorite detective game, will return with three more cases to solve in its expansion, The Spider of Lanka, on May 4. Master detective Chris Livingston sleuthed out the expansion last week (opens in new tab), but now we have the full details.
The 18th century setting and off-kilter pixel art of The Case of the Golden Idol remain, but The Spider of Lanka’s story travels back one year before the original, decades-long murder mystery starts. Returning characters Albert Cloudsley and Oberon Geller are on a trip to the Kingdom of Lanka, a fictional location set in South Asia.
The Spider of Lanka will cover 50 years of “betrayal, greed, ambition, and death,” according to developer Color Gray Games. You’ll be tasked with combing through detailed scenes and playing murder Mad Libs with characters, objects, and text to piece together what happened and how it led to the strange events of the original story.
The screenshots (below) and trailer show some of the locations you’ll have to pick apart, including a courtyard, a throne room, and a dockyard. And just like before, each solved mystery will fit into a larger narrative about the titular golden idol, a powerful, magical artifact that people are willing to kill for.
In our The Case of the Golden Idol review (opens in new tab), Chris called it “one of the most novel and challenging mystery games I’ve played in years,” and he was right. Filling in the blanks and solving each murder isn’t enough. You need a sharp understanding of the characters, their relationships, and their motives for it all to make sense. It’s a rabbit hole of a detective story with delicious revelations, and these three new scenarios sound like a feast.
The Spider of Lanka will launch on May 4 on Steam (opens in new tab) for $5.99 and will require the base game to access it. If you haven’t played it, I’d suggest giving the free demo a shot.
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