The Case of the Golden Idol

PuzzleGoogle PlayApp Store

7.2~~/10~~

Our score

★ 4.7·10K+ installs

Reviewed by Editorial Team, ScoredApps editorial · updated 2026-09-21

Screenshots

A word-bag puzzle with a man in a wig and a dressing gown, verbs like hunting and dining to place

A crime scene in a study with a rolled document, a key and a knife to inspect

The identity board with portraits and a list of names to assign

A map of an estate with a fill-in-the-blank about camping between Roma and Xenopolis

A note reading nobody catch a thing and nobody move, with a magnifying glass

Chapter 2, The Cursed Inheritance — a drawing room with a hanging scene and Roman-numeral clues

About The Case of the Golden Idol

The Case of the Golden Idol is Color Gray's deduction game — twelve frozen crime scenes across the 18th century, each a tableau you scour for names, objects and motives, then fill into a sentence of blanks — plus two expansions, in one $6.99 unlock after two free chapters. Playstack put it on iOS and Android in February 2026 after its Netflix and Game Pass runs; no ads, nothing else to buy. The reviews argue only about airplane-mode saves and hand-holding.

Game information

DeveloperPlaystack Ltd

Version1.17 (Android) · 1.16 (iOS)

Size222 MB (Android) · 260 MB (iOS)

Price / In-appFree

Contains adsNo

In-app purchasesYes

Content rating13+

Requires (Android)Android 8.0+

Requires (iOS)iOS 16.0+

Offline modeUnreliable — saves reset in airplane mode, per an August 2026 review

Interface languagesEN

Store rating4.7 from 89 ratings

Installs10K+

Updated by developer2026-06-12

Data checked2026-09-21

Specs come from the official store listings and were last checked on 2026-09-21. Developers change pricing and requirements — check the store page before installing.

Golden Idol Review: Twelve Murders, One $6.99 Unlock, a Save Bug in Airplane Mode

A Frozen Scene, a Bag of Words, and the Sentence That Explains It

Each case is a moment stopped: a body, a room, the people in it, the objects in their pockets. You scour the scene, collect words — names, verbs, items — and drop them into the blanks of a statement that explains who did what to whom, with the game confirming only when the whole thing is right. Twelve scenarios follow the Golden Idol across forty years of the 18th century, and the two expansions add six more cases. Color Gray Games' original won its awards on PC in 2022; the App Store reviews are players who met it elsewhere — a March 12, 2026 Play review with six votes knows it from Netflix and Game Pass and calls the clues logical and the solutions satisfying; an April 10 review admires how the difficulty scales, doable without hints but never a sprint. An August 10 five-star took months, left cursing and came back. Rated Teen and 13+, English only.

Hidden Price, Airplane-Mode Resets, and the Hand on Your Shoulder

The complaints are about the wrapper. The most-voted Google Play review, February 18 with nine votes, came in knowing it was a paid game and had to install it to learn the price — 11.29 Canadian dollars — and asks Playstack to be upfront; a March 7 App Store one-star bought the full game, left for a while and was asked to buy it again. Saves are the second thread: an August 23 four-star finds that opening the game in airplane mode resets progress and nothing done offline is kept, several times over; a July 11 Play two-star froze on the interface and lost its save on reinstall. The one design criticism, a May 4 three-star, is that every clue is marked before you explore, so the hand-holding leaves nothing to chew on. Ratings: 4.7 from 90 on the App Store, 4.4 from 296 on Play with 10,000-plus installs.

Two Free Chapters, $6.99 for Twelve Cases and Six More, No Ads

The economy is a demo and a price: the first two chapters are free, and Unlock Full Game at $6.99 on the App Store — Google Play lists $2.99 to $8.99 by region — buys all twelve scenarios and the six bonus cases of both expansions, with no ads and, the listing stresses, no extra in-app purchases. Apple's tracking list is Identifiers not linked to you; Google's data-safety card lists App activity and Device IDs collected. The install is 260 MB on iOS 16 or newer, Android 8.0 or newer; version 1.16 on iOS and 1.17 on Android date from June 12. Playstack answers Play reviews by name and points bug reports to its support address. Prices are regional.

Pros

Twelve deduction tableaux plus six expansion cases, all in one unlock
Clues that are logical and solutions that satisfy, per a Game Pass veteran
Difficulty that scales without hints — months of cursing for one August reviewer
Two free chapters, then $6.99, no ads, nothing else to buy
260 MB and a distinctive art style that fits the narrative

Cons

Progress reset and not saved in airplane mode, per an August 2026 review
A lock-out after purchase that asks buyers to buy again, per two reviews
Every clue pre-marked, which one reviewer calls hand-holding
The price hidden inside the app until you install

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Verdict

A 7.2: an award-winning deduction game delivered complete for $6.99 with nothing else to sell, and a port with two bugs that matter — saves that vanish in airplane mode and a lock-out after paying. Take it if you want Obra Dinn-style reasoning in short cases on a phone and play online. Skip it until the save bug is fixed if you play on flights, or if pre-marked clues sound too gentle.

Gameplay8Fill-in-the-blanks deduction that reviewers rank among the best of its kind; guided for some tastes.

Controls7Tap, drag words, zoom — well adapted to iOS, per a July review; freezes for one Android player.

Replay value5One solution per case, though an August reviewer replayed it to understand the story.

Graphics & sound7Deliberately ugly, oddly perfect pixel tableaux that reviewers say fit the story.

Monetisation8A fair unlock with everything included, undermined by a hidden price and a re-purchase glitch.

7.2out of 10 · weighted average of the five scores above

Frequently asked questions

Can you play The Case of the Golden Idol offline?

Not reliably, per an August 2026 App Store review: opened in airplane mode the game reset to the start and would not save anything done offline, several times. The game itself needs nothing online — no ads, no multiplayer — so this reads as a save-sync bug rather than a design; play with a connection until Playstack fixes it.

Is The Case of the Golden Idol free?

The first two chapters are. Unlock Full Game costs $6.99 on the App Store — Google Play shows $2.99 to $8.99 by region, and a Canadian reviewer paid 11.29 dollars — and includes all twelve cases plus the six from The Spider of Lanka and The Lemurian Vampire. No ads, no other purchases. Prices vary by region.

What phone do you need for The Case of the Golden Idol?

iOS 16 or newer with 260 MB free, or Android 8.0 or newer. It is a static-scene puzzle game and performance is not a theme in reviews, though a July 2026 Android player froze on the interface and an August iOS player crashed after the tutorial.

Can you play The Case of the Golden Idol with friends?

Not through the app — it is single-player with no co-op or sharing feature — but it is a natural pass-the-phone game: a March 2026 reviewer plays it while the family watches the main screen, and deduction games reward a second pair of eyes on the scene.

How long is The Case of the Golden Idol?

Decent length, per a February 2026 review — twelve cases of ten to forty minutes each depending on how stuck you get, plus six expansion cases. An August reviewer took months with breaks; an April reviewer paced it deliberately. Expect five to ten hours for the lot.