Games that truly earn their "mystery" label are few and far between. Though its aspirations are a bit smaller in comparison, The Case of the Golden Idol carves a humble niche for itself among genre trailblazers like The Return of the Obra Dinn and Outer Wilds.

Caught somewhere between a point-and-click adventure, a deductive logic puzzler and a Mad Libs book, Golden Idol represents a more casual approach to mystery game design. It's a tad on the easy side, but a compelling story and a unique art style keep things from getting dull. The game's tight runtime - 4 hours, split over 11 chapters - also works in its favor, creating a highly bingeable loop of solving "just one more" case.

My only complaint is that I wish there were more content. I'd love to see a few more difficult cases, or some sort of narrative device to encourage revisiting older cases.

The Case of the Golden Idol is a solid new entry in the mystery genre and an excellent first showing from Color Gray Games. Highly recommended.

Bummer about this one. The writing and acting are decent, and the production quality is leaps and bounds ahead of Her Story, but a few baffling design choices really hamper the experience. Painfully long clips (7+ minutes) and manual rewind/fastforward buttons make navigating the game's FMV content a slow and tedious exercise. The lengthy view times coupled with the awkward silences inherent to one-sided video calls make for some unfortunately sleep-inducing gameplay.

Though it's a bit disappointing, Telling Lies might be worth playing if you're desperate for more mystery/detective style games. It's not all bad, it's just... not very good.

Really clever little puzzler. I wasn't expecting much, but I tore through the whole thing in one sitting. Don't let the FMV turn you off - if you're a fan of the burgeoning "mystery" genre (Return of the Obra Dinn, Outer Wilds, etc.) this will be right up your alley.

It's a great story built around an innovative gameplay mechanic at a bargain-bin price. Total slam dunk. Try to go in as blind as possible.

I first downloaded SpaceChem in high school and, overnight, became a diehard Zachtronics fan. Their games have been waypoints in my life, marking how much I've grown and learned over the years and reaffirming my love for programming. Playing Last Call BBS felt like saying goodbye to an old friend once and for all, but I loved every second of it.

It's no use trying to touch on each game in Last Call, there's too much to cover. What I will say is this: though I had my favorites (ChipWizard Pro, 20th Century Foodcourt), every game here displays Zachtronics' complete and utter mastery of the genre. Playing Last Call BBS is like taking a crash course in puzzle design - six games, six unique styles, six incredible examples of why these guys are the best in the biz. That's not even touching on the always-excellent solitaire variants or the overall theming of the game, which ties the whole thing together in a charming and loving homage to a bygone era of computing.

Try as I might, I can't be upset with Last Call BBS as a farewell to Zachtronics. It is a truly complete package; a monument to everything Zach Barth and co. have given us over the years. I'll miss their games dearly, but sometimes it pays to go out on top.