

Fans of the action genre will find plenty to enjoy in Crisol: Theater of Idols.
84
Verdict
87%
Steam
80
IGDB
Verdict score based on confidence-adjusted Steam reviews?
Very Positive Steam reviews (87% positive)
No significant drawbacks reported
Crisol: Theater of Idols is a first-person survival horror video game developed by Vermila Studios and published by Blumhouse Games for PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S.

Runs well on modern hardware.
System Requirements
Minimum
And He Wandered the Earth
Complete the prologue on any difficulty.
73.5%
unlocked
Chipped Away
Defeat an enemy with the knife.
63.9%
unlocked
Carnival Trickster
Win at all carnival games.
60.5%
unlocked
Forbidden Love
Complete chapter I on any difficulty.
41.3%
unlocked
Idol of the Century
Defeat 100 enemies.
36.7%
unlocked
Dyna-mighty
Detonate a stick of dynamite from an Astillado.
34.8%
unlocked
The Promised Prince
Complete chapter II on any difficulty.
32%
unlocked
Phlebotomist
Fully upgrade the syringe satchel.
30%
unlocked
Two for One
Defeat two enemies with one shot.
29.4%
unlocked
Ironclad
Fully upgrade a weapon.
28.5%
unlocked
Steamdeck Hotfix
We’ve fixed the issue that caused the data layers not to load correctly when loading a save. Everything should now work properly.Thank you for your pa
Море волнуется раз: Обзор Crisol: Theater of Idols
Пока весь мир сходил с ума от Resident Evil Requiem, я проходил Crisol: Theater of Idols от испанской студии Vermila. Это новый проект от издательског
Ultrawide screen is fixed!
Hi everyone, we’ve fixed the ultrawide screen support for 3440 × 1440 resolutions.Please take a look and let us know if everything is now working as e
Ultrawide screen support issues
It seems some players are reporting that the 3440x1440 resolution option does not appear in the settings menu, although the game still correctly uses
PATCH 1.1 NOW LIVE
PATCH – UPDATE NOTESHi everyone,In this patch, our main focus has been fixing critical bugs across PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X. We've also been able to
Updated 1d ago
And He Wandered the Earth
Complete the prologue on any difficulty.
73.5%
unlocked
Chipped Away
Defeat an enemy with the knife.
63.9%
unlocked
Carnival Trickster
Win at all carnival games.
60.5%
unlocked
Forbidden Love
Complete chapter I on any difficulty.
41.3%
unlocked
Idol of the Century
Defeat 100 enemies.
36.7%
unlocked
Dyna-mighty
Detonate a stick of dynamite from an Astillado.
34.8%
unlocked
The Promised Prince
Complete chapter II on any difficulty.
32%
unlocked
Phlebotomist
Fully upgrade the syringe satchel.
30%
unlocked
Two for One
Defeat two enemies with one shot.
29.4%
unlocked
Ironclad
Fully upgrade a weapon.
28.5%
unlocked
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Player thoughts from Verdict.games members will appear here.
[h1]Spanish Resident Evil Village[/h1] Another gem I encountered during Steam Nextfest last year. Although it was a pretty short demo, the presentation impressed me greatly. I even describe it as "Spanish Bioshock" on the other website. Now the full game is out, so my opinion shifts. Crisol: Theater of Idol is more akin to Resident Evil, especially 7 and Village, in terms of level structures and designs. The Spanish aesthetic creates a really strong vibe. The quality, however, is on the lower side in comparison to the latter. The core features show promise, but a lot of them lack evolution; enemies show decent resilience, but lacking variety makes late-game encounters stale and predictable. Flawed as it may be, for such an affordable price tag, this game is still worth your time. And for a debut work, the studio's future is bright and promising. [h2]Things I Like About Crisol: Theater of Idol:[/h2] [list] [*][b]Art Style:[/b] This isn't my first time experiencing this type of dark Spanish art style thanks to Blasphemous, and I remain fascinated by it. Something about the Spanish Romantic touch helps the game's artwork stand out from the usual gloomy Catholic design. The strong religious approach in statues and architecture, the Mediterranean coastal city-inspired levels, and the twisted divine/folklore figures in every enemy design all come together to create such a fantastic and memorable presentation. [*][b]Other Complements:[/b] [olist] [*]The animation of your blood transforming ordinary firearms into divine weaponry is really satisfying to watch. [*]The reload animations will make you flinch too. [*]Again, you can easily get your value back for this price tag. [/olist] [/list] [h2]Things I Like And Dislike About Crisol: Theater of Idol:[/h2] [list] [*][b]Blood As Ammunition:[/b] Your health pool is also your ammo pool. This design immediately brings an interesting interaction to the table. Since the gunplay is relatively slow compared to other shooters, there are many things you should keep in mind. You need to pay attention to your current weapon's health-to-ammo ratio. You need to maintain a comfortable distance between you and the enemies to safely reload. And of course, you need to manage your health and the blood supplies nearby to keep up the fight. It is a unique approach to handling management elements in survival horror, but there is a problem. Since your blood is universal ammunition, certain guns easily overshadow the others. There is no reason to use the pistol when the SMG has similar damage and a higher fire rate; there is no reason to use the shotgun when the rifle has similar damage output, is way more accurate, and has a bigger magazine. Other survival horror games often use ammo type and limited inventory to balance things out. The dev tries to use varied health drain values and different reload speeds to counter the issue, but sadly these are not enough. [*][b]Levels:[/b] The level design in general is pretty good. The looping map approach always makes sure you can see where you are going and where you will loop back. There are an abundance of nooks and crannies you can explore for extra loot. Two hidden collectibles are placed around Tormentosa, awaiting a pair of keen eyes and good hearing to seek them out. Chapter 1 is probably the best contender for all these features. It has a looping map you can backtrack to collect. It has, in my opinion, the best puzzles and a few scares in the game. Unfortunately, the same doesn't apply to the other two chapters. The quality of Chapter 2 and 3 drops for both puzzles and level designs. For some reason, the dev suddenly decides to lock up certain areas after you complete the sequence. There's no way for you to go back except to reload the save file or create a new game. [*][b]Enemies:[/b] I like how resilient these wooden puppet monsters are. Every part of their bodies is breakable, but they will not go down easily. Even if you manage to break them in half, they can still crawl towards you or even move without the upper parts of the body. The design philosophy is very similar to Necromorph, and I love it. It adds a layer of strategical thinking to the combat: if you have enough firepower, go for the torso for easy finishing; otherwise, break one of the limbs to make them significantly less threatening. The only problem with enemy design is that there is just not enough variety. You are going to see the same three models of puppet throughout the game, without any move set difference or any enhanced versions. There are other enemy types, but they either don't pose too much threat or appear way too late. [/list] [h2]Things I Dislike About Crisol: Theater of Idol:[/h2] [list] [*][b]Forced Stealth And Bad Stalker:[/b] Throughout the game you will be chased by Dolores, the giant skeletal monster donned in fanatical armor, and you need to hide around since she is invincible. This is easily the worst part of the game, not beca
The game is -so- close to being decent it's a shame. A gorgeous looking Bioshock-like game that seems to have learned all of the wrong lessons from older titles. The combat is abysmal, even with leveled up weapons, you're stuck mostly using a frankly awful pistol most of the time, which not only feels weak, but enemies don't really react to shots. It's either you break their head plate, or you kill them, otherwise, you might as well be painting dots on the enemies. You're slow, and there's really no getting around it, the majority of the time you're just going to be wandering around at a snail's pace, having missed a turn, then having to spend 20 minutes backtracking to where you might have missed a door. Then there's the story, the actual plot and themes and aesthetic? Fantastic, unfortunately you're stopped every 10 minutes with a radio call that prevents you from doing anything while your character argues over the phone with a girl that feels like she isn't even from this game, let alone the century the game takes place in.
I’m really sorry to give Crisol: Theater of Idols a (qualified) thumbs-down, especially since [b]it’s so evident from the game’s visuals in particular that the developers put a lot of love and effort into it[/b]. But I keep seeing people compare this game to [i][url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/7670]Bioshock[/url][/i], and I feel I need to warn you that [b]if that’s what you’re looking for (or if you expect something even more imsim-y), you’re in for a bit of a disappointment[/b]. The [i]Bioshock[/i] comparison is really only skin-deep, as Crisol features a similar visual style (albeit with a strong [i][url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/774361]Blasphemous[/url][/i] ‘Spanish Catholicism’ theme) as well as some of its storytelling conceits, such as ghostly apparitions staging scenes from the past for you to witness. [b]In gameplay terms, Crisol is much more limited[/b], though, the more apt comparison probably being first-person survival horror games such as [i][url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574260]My Friendly Neighborhood[/url][/i]—which, honestly, is probably the better choice if you’re specifically looking for imsim-adjacent survival horror games. Similar to [i]My Friendly Neighborhood[/i], Crisol deliberately limits your movement options (no scaling or jumping chest-high obstacles unless they're painted yellow), but Crisol also feels much more linear, with most of its levels being labyrinths of medium-width hallways. This, in turn, leads to [b]much of the combat feeling like you’re playing a light gun game[/b], as you take pot shots at enemies slowly shambling towards you. Movement or clever positioning is almost completely unnecessary in these combat scenarios. And besides, you usually don’t have enough space for fancy manoeuvring, anyway. The fact that [b]you use your own health as ammunition[/b] may sound like an interesting gameplay idea, as you’d need to balance your health against your ammo usage. But since most combat situations are so static, [b]it really just feels like a momentary war of attrition[/b], with the next convenient healing opportunity usually just around the corner. On the flipside, Crisol also features [b]segments where you need to hide from or outrun an invincible boss monster[/b]. I get that this is kind of a staple of the survival horror genre, but [b]it feels really out of place in this game[/b]. Some survival horror games, like [i][url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2101960]Cronos: [strike]The Hands of Fate[/strike]The New Dawn[/url][/i], build a very deliberate gameplay feel by teaching you that you can reliably damage all enemies AND bosses with proper timing and resource usage. Others, like the [i][url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/883710]Resident Evil 2[/url][/i] remake, entice you to avoid confrontations wherever possible by teaching you that your ability to damage even standard enemies is highly unreliable at best, which meshes well with the idea of an invincible boss monster. Meanwhile, [b]Crisol gives you lots of powerful weapons with plenty of ammo and teaches you that killing standard enemies is pretty much the way to go[/b] (as you can reliably damage them, they don’t respawn and the narrow level design makes avoiding them impractical at best); [b]but it also wants you to play hide and seek with a boss monster that’s arbitrarily invincible[/b] (despite being shown to take damage from ordinary weapons in its introductory cutscene), [b]which makes these segments feel completely forced[/b]. They’re also often frustrating, like when you’re trying to solve an environmental puzzle and you have to regularly take time-outs to kite the boss monster away from the puzzle area so you have enough time to finish the necessary animations. It’s the same sudden shift in dynamic that made me bounce off [i][url= https://store.steampowered.com/app/2208350]Total Chaos[/url][/i], despite invincible boss monsters featuring not nearly as prominently in that game as they do in Crisol. If you don’t mind Crisol being not much of an immersive sim (or an imsim-adjacent shooter like [i]Bioshock[/i]), and if you don’t mind its [b]odd mix of pretty trivial standard enemies and arbitrarily overpowered boss monsters[/b], you might still enjoy this game, though strictly as a survival horror experience.
Reviews sourced from Steam. All reviews belong to their respective authors.
Data sourced from RAWG, Steam, IGDB, CheapShark, Wikipedia, HLTB, and GX Corner. Sources: rawg, steam, igdb, wikipedia.
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