Crisol: Theater of Idols

Crisol inherits some gameplay mechanics from previous classics, but it manages to build its own identity and lore. Specially recommended if you enjoy spanish culture... or if you are a veteran from the PS3-360 golden era.

Crisol: Theater of Idols is a striking Spanish horror game that blends BioShock-inspired design with religious symbolism and Andalusian folklore, delivering a tense and oppressive atmosphere from start to finish. Its bold blood-as-ammo mechanic and strong artistic direction make it a memorable, if demanding, narrative-driven experience at a surprisingly accessible price.

Vermila Studios shows a clear awareness of its resources, delivering a compact, cohesive experience with a strong and distinct identity. Crisol doesn’t hide its influences, but it never feels overshadowed by them. Instead, it builds its own universe and leaves the impression that this is just the beginning of something bigger. Crisol: Theater of Idols is a bold proposal that ultimately leaves us wanting more.

With such an affordable price (€17.49), replayability options with different difficulty levels, collectables and challenging achievements (such as completing the game in less than three hours), I can't help but recommend Crisol. It's a game that reimagines Spanish history and folklore, constantly reminding you of this with the names of the characters and visual information, as well as its aesthetic and sound design, but in terms of gameplay, it doesn't matter where you're from, because you'll find a first-person action title that's well worth considering.

With clear inspirations from predecessors in the genre, Crisol: Theater of Idols is a solid debut from Vermila Studios under Blumhouse Games. While it doesn't quite reach its max potential in the end, it's absolutely worth your time for a weekend playthrough.

If you can forgive the over-reliance on certain tropes and endure some short spells of tedium, this is a genuinely grisly, surprisingly deep hybrid of survival horror and FPS. [Issue#421, p.114]

Crisol: Theater of Idols deliver a tedious and buggy experience that lacks the understanding of what makes their references so incredible.

Crisol: Theater of Idols me ha dejado muy buenas sensaciones. Me parece bastante original, sobre todo por cómo utiliza la sangre como recurso, ya que no solo sirve para sobrevivir sino también para atacar, lo que hace que cada combate tenga tensión y te obligue a pensar antes de **** que más me ha gustado es su ambientación: es oscura, inquietante y muy cuidada, con ese estilo religioso y perturbador que lo hace destacar. En general, creo que tiene muchísimo potencial. Si mantiene ese nivel en la jugabilidad y la historia, puede convertirse en un juego muy top dentro del género.

Très mal optimisé au début, grâce à des patchs cela va mieux maintenant et le jeu devient plus sympa..

This game impressed me since I saw the first trailers: the atmosphere and the weapons made me get really interested about trying this game. For the positives: this game has a great atmosphere, original and well made; the whole scenario is really pretty and it shows that the developers wanted to put their own personal spanish touch into it. Also the weapons are fabolous, they look really cool and they're reloading animations are one of the best and most original I've ever seen in a videogame. The game mechanic based around your life being converted in bullets is pretty cool and original. For the negatives: I played on normal as I usually do because I like to experience games the way devs intended it, and it was way too easy; As pretty as they are I played 80% of this game using only the basic gun, because all the enemies are super weak and almost always placed super far from you. There is a knife to do parries, but you barely even do them since most enemies can be killed with some basic aim: the knife breaks after some uses so there's a mechanic where you can sharpen the knife again costing you 1 gas tank; I finished this game with 13 gas tanks in my inventory. The other guns are useful during the few bossfights in the game and in the last part of the game, during the 80% of the games you basically only use your starting gun, that deals big damage and cost a lot less blood than the other guns. Also a big downside of this game is the fact that, despite being so pretty, not a single one of these weapons (except the sniper rifle) have the option to aim down sight. Another thing I didn't like about the game is that it should be a scary survival horror game, but it isn't, the monsters aren't scary, even when they appear out of no where they're more annyoing than scary. Even the big scary monster, Dolores, isn't freightening at all: it should be the Nemesis/Mister X of this game, the extremely dangerous enemy that you have to avoid and can't kill until a proper boss fight gives you that chance. There's a problem: she's not scary at all, just a big boring pain, you just wait for her to go away and then you do whatever puzzle you have to do to reach the next area. The story isn't anything great either: despite the big reveal at the end there's nothing really impressive about it. It's an alright story, very forgettable, but still decently appealing to make you want to finish the game, but nothing I will remeber in the future. The graphics aren't particularly impressing either, not that I expected a lot from and indie game. To finish this off this game has lots of potentials and creative elements, but lacks some good design of the enemy encounters, weapon balance and some better story. I think that this developers can make something even better in the future. For its price it's still an enjoyable game for a few hours and worth playing.

Es macht keinen Spaß. Angeblich soll es sich bei Bioshock und Resident Evil bedient haben, aber es scheint, als hätte es nur die schlechten Teile übernommen.

Es un juego carismático, no lo niego. Como también que muestra un estilo artístico singular. Hasta aquí lo bueno, porque adolece de fallos de gunplay que desmotivan continuar: el poco impacto de armas no es gratificante, el balance de estas tampoco hace que sea "negocio" usar alguna distinta de la pistola que, siendo de tan poco poder, el número de disparos necesarios para acabar con un "madero" andante es el mismo; los combates son muy parecidos excepto el final. Muros invisibles, hitboxes, movimientos limitados, poca (o ninguna) posibilidad de exploración, Dolores es un estorbo, fácilmente burlable... Es más fácil encontrarle carencias que virtudes. Pero destacan que es español y cuesta poco. Vaya criterio tienen.