Crisol: Theater of Idols starts with a thunderous bang. A flame-wreathed mask stares you down as the voice of the Sun booms out, bidding you to seek a cathedral on an island where His rays can no longer penetrate, and snuff out a growing force trapped there before it can break free. After this divine message, our player character, Gabriel, wakes up on the shores of Tormentosa, where something has clearly gone very, very wrong.
Every gun you pick up on your journey morphs into a gilded gold weapon fit for a holy warrior, but demands your life energy to reload with spikes that pierce Gabriel’s arteries in several brutal reload animations that make you squirm when you first perform them. Luckily, you can also absorb the blood of the numerous corpses that litter the dilapidated streets of this island, from humans to chickens to some… odder beasts that may have you doing a double take.
Shooting up enemies and reloading your armaments with your own blood is a very cool survival horror mechanic the game sets up, but diehard fans of the genre may want to tune up the difficulty to really feel the tension this element can convey. I played through Crisol on the regular, or “Penitent” difficulty, and once I had gathered a few guns and upgrades, I was pretty much unstoppable. I don’t mind that the game leans more into fulfilling a power fantasy, but don’t get carried away, because the heavy guns will claim huge chunks of health.
Trials in Tormentosa
Crisol proudly wears its inspirations from games like BioShock on its bloodstained sleeves, but still leaves a unique mark on the First-Person Horror genre. The game establishes a fascinating world and unique mythology I would love to revisit, but I paradoxically didn’t connect much with Gabriel, or many of the characters he encountered. One strong exception is this game’s merchant, La Plañidera, a chain-smoking witch whom I loved circling back to for upgrades.
The game hits a great stride when you’re charting out the different sectors of Tormentosa through its four chapters, ducking into well-curated haunted house dungeons that hold quest objectives, throw some fun puzzles your way, and show glimpses into past tragedies on the island. When you’re in motion, trying to make space from the jaggedly advancing automaton enemies (known as Astillados), or scrounging for a note to get a hint for a tough puzzle, Crisol really shines.
I loved the variety of puzzles in the game. I was worried that we would just be fetching keys, levers, and other items to remove obstructions in your path, but Vermila did not rest on their laurels and designed a lot of fun brain teasers that don’t feel out of place in the world. There were a few moments where I had to bust out my notebook, but I was never stumped for a frustratingly long time on any one puzzle.
Dolores is Coming
Elements like the stealth encounters featuring the game’s take on a Nemesis-like invincible foe, Dolores, and the too-frequent radio dialogues with allies and enemy NPCs, stick out as bland against the rest of this appealing package. I hoped the Dolores segments would expand beyond what I played in the preview, but I didn’t find that to be the case.
Gameplay usually consists of waiting for Dolores to do a lap elsewhere in the arena while you creep between hiding spots to complete an environmental puzzle like cranking open a gate or shutting off breaker boxes, so pools of water in your way are no longer electrified by stray wires. Dolores never really clicks into something truly frightening, and the attempts to throw standard enemies into the mix don’t help much.
Each chapter closes with an animated sequence giving you more context to Dolores’ pursuit of you, and the Sun’s motivations for sending you to Tormentosa. I liked learning about her more through the game, and Dolores’ design is great, but her behavior was too stiff and wonky to feel like a true threat.
While there were some speed bumps in this haunted house ride, I ended Crisol pleased with the experience. I rolled credits at 13 hours played with a few collectibles still undiscovered. The puzzling, visual flair, exploration, and enemy skirmishes were bright highlights of the game. It’s a very confident and impressive debut by Vermila, and I’ll certainly have them on my radar going forward.
Crisol: Theater of Idols is available on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox now.
Disclosure: I was provided with an early Steam Code for this review by Blumhouse Games/fortyseven communications.
Image Credits: Vermila Studios/Blumhouse Games
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