The Rise of the Golden Idol to get 4 DLCs

One of the best puzzle games of the last few years, alongside Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn, has to be Color Gray Games’ The Case of the Golden Idol. If I’d played it sooner, I might have even made it my game of the year if I was particularly annoyed at Elden Ring that day. Well, this week the sequel releases, in fact, it is tomorrow. However, Color Gray Games has provided an update on what to look forward to beyond the release, and maybe when you can stare at a bunch of missing words wondering whodunit with the [blank] [blank] in the [blank].

So starting tomorrow, the 12th of November, The Rise of the Golden Idol will be released on Steam at 10 AM PST. That’s 6 PM GMT, 1 PM for New York, and the rest you can figure out. However, the intended Switch release has been delayed a couple of days due to, according to the post on Steam, “an unexpected delay in a few territories.” The Switch release of The Rise of the Golden Idol will now be the 14th of November, once again at 10 AM PST, and you know the rest. All for the price of $19.99 (or regional equivalent).

None of that is the part where a woman is strutting around in velour tracksuit pants with the word “Juicy” on the cheeks. Was that even around in the 70s? It doesn’t matter. The juicy part is that in 2025, there are four DLCs coming to The Rise of the Golden Idol, according to the just-released roadmap. Though, as the nice German Shepard says, “This is a living roadmap, and may change in response to development priorities.”

These DLCs are supposed to be standalone stories that are being told in the universe of the Golden Idol, according to the announcement. Which goes on to say: “Similar to the DLC released for The Case of the Golden Idol, these are optional side content and are not required to conclude the story in The Rise of the Golden Idol. Rather, these are for fans who want more puzzles, more characters, and more mysteries to solve. Each of the four Investigations chapters will include at least four new cases to solve. On top of the base game’s 20 scenarios – that is a lot of sleuthing.”

The first DLC (providing everything goes well on launch) is set to release in Q1 2025. Titled “The Sins of the New Wells,” there is a short description teasing the cases you’ll partake in during this DLC: “Follow Detective Roy Samson through four brand new cases of his dealings with an organized crime syndicate plaguing the city. Drugs, death, and ancient Lemurian magic will make headlines in The Sins of New Wells.” I know it is a wild guess, but I think Roy might just be the cop in the key art with the sideburns. That or the other one with a mustache that gets you arrested now.

While there are dates for the following DLCs, there aren’t descriptions there, sadly. DLC 2 and 3 will release in Q2 (spring/early summer) of 2025, with DLC 4 releasing in Q3 (summer) of 2025. All of these will be promptly placed on my wishlist as soon as they are available, and very soon The Rise of the Golden Idol will be going straight into my library with many hours to solve all 20 cases. You can wishlist now or pick up The Rise of the Golden Idol on Steam tomorrow, with the Switch release on Thursday.