Call of the Golden Valley

There aren't any puzzles that the game doesn't solve for you. You can't interact with items unless they're required for the current puzzle; most of the game is just walking between the handful of places you're allowed to visit.

For a first game from these developers, I was pretty impressed. I was drawn to the game for the "conspiracy" board, and it was pretty good. The puzzles weren't super difficult but did involve some thinking. I enjoyed the internet sleuthing part, it was really well done. That being said, the game is VERY short. A lot of strings were left untied and some questions never answered. I believe this is on purpose and relates to the ending. Although I enjoyed the game, the price is double what it should be and the screen tearing is still an issue. Overall I would recommend the game if you manage to find it on sale! I hope this studio releases another game!

Very reminiscent of the old Nancy Drew games. I had a lot of fun playing, took about 4 hours for the whole play through, and I intend to go achievement hunting in the future!

I finished Golden Valley in less than three hours and I wasn’t rushing. Something to consider when you’re looking at a $20 price tag. It worked great on a steam deck with minimal control fiddling and zero setting fiddling. The story was interesting and the game does a good job of weaving Australian lore into the plot. The game world is barren. You’ve got four buildings to go in and four people to talk to the whole game. The only moving parts are wombats and kangaroos meandering around. The voice acting was way out of this game’s league. A+. There are a lot of points where the developers could’ve built on their excellent writing work and made this an interesting detective game. Instead we got…this. They made the classic blunder of solving the mystery for you and dropping in some mini-games (that do absolutely nothing to serve the plot) to try to keep you interested. Two mazes, two scavenger hunts, zero deductions. lol. So if you’re looking to solve an actual mystery or to make any meaningful choices, this ain’t it. I’m recommending it though because I hit the credits and enjoyed the time I spent playing it. It just wasn’t what I thought I was buying and was absolutely not …

Some of the achievements are STILL glitched despite the update. Overall, a very simple quick detective game.

The Demo feels deceptive? The first puzzle is not a puzzle but following directions. Down a long road of loading time