Crisol: Theatre of Idols PS5 Review 8.5/10 “A Bloody Good Start for Vermila Studio” 🪆🩸 @CrisolGame @VermilaStudios #IndieGame #GameDev

When viewing the trailer for Crisol: Theatre of Idols it was immediately obvious where a lot of inspiration had come from it. looked like a mix of Bioshock and Resident Evil, which are two of my favourite game series, so I was very excited to see whether it could live up to its lofty inspirations, or would it be a pale imitation? 

Especially as this is the first game by the studio. I think they hit it out of the park, a slam dunk, a hole in one.. and that's all the sports metaphors I know. For a first outing I think it’s fantastic. Crisol knows what it wants to achieve, it is a love letter to the horror games that inspired it, and whilst it may not reinvent the horror game wheel, it has wonderful art design and a cool new mechanic that makes the game a delight to play.

You play as Gabriel, a soldier who is a believer in the Sun God, who is now at war with the Sea God and its followers. Gabriel arrive on the island Tormentosa sworn by his firm duty to successfully complete his mission and help the Sun God reign supreme. Gabriel also - like Randy Orton - hears voices in his head which are not always too pleasant to him but push him along to complete his goal no matter what, trying to make sure he doesn't ever question his loyalty to his Sun God. The plot is interesting enough and sets up the stakes and why your here, it goes along at a nice pace, and I found it enjoyable enough, though it isn't particularly going to live long in the memory.

What will live long in my memory is the wonderful art style and world design, everything looks amazing; opulent settings filled with gold, cobbled streets of towns now ruined, everything is well designed and interesting to look at, I spent a lot of time just enjoying the atmosphere and taking in the sights the locations held, you go to various places that all feel different and all capture much different vibes.

The Sun God in his wisdom gives you a power, he turns any weapon you hold into a very stylish and magnificent golden version of your regular firearms, but it does come with a slight downside… you now need to fill it with your blood for it to work, always a catch with these things. It is a fantastic mechanic; having to choose between filling your weapons or keeping your health at a decent level, it does become at times a real internal debate. 

You do have a knife to fall back on, but even that blunts over time and needs to be resharpened (A small note before I move on - I really loved the animations for reloading, they are well thought out, each weapon has a different way of taking your blood, and each is very appropriate for the weapon - and looks very nasty). So, the guns are great - but how does combat handle? 

I think this may be a bit hit or miss with some people, I personally find it a hit - but can see the flaws. When you first get your pistol, it feels weak, unwieldy, and stiff, now I don’t mind it as you can upgrade your guns, and after upgrading them they did feel better so that's a big plus as sometimes in other titles upgrading your weapons does not really feel like they are much different at all, but here in Crisol - it does. 

The next thing I think will maybe give some people slight pause are the enemies. It won’t be the design of the enemies that are the issue, because they are amazing; the puppets are a great enemy visually and their movements - stumbling about with sudden bursts - are terrific but they can feel a bit underpowered, you never feel like you are being surrounded as you do in Bioshock or Resident Evil for example, they stumble towards you in small numbers and you will find yourself walking backwards slightly as you gun them down, this becomes even easier in big open streets, in the areas where you are confined – such as small corridors in buildings - it works better.

As the game progresses the enemies you deal with become higher in number and more varied, they are also in better positions, so much like the unwieldiness of the weapons - this improves as you make your way further through Crisol. Throughout your time with the game you will also get to hunt for collectables and do various things to enhance your inventory and skills, there is even a section where you get to play carnival games - even a servant of the Sun God gets to relax and enjoy himself! You win tickets that can be exchanged for prizes, it’s a fun addition and something to break up the horror. 

One thing I think this experience didn’t need was to be chased by a larger enemy, personally I think this needs to be dropped - it isn't particularly exciting here and I don’t think it adds much to the whole experience. At this point I’d be happy if most horror titles would drop tedious chase sequences and come up with something else.

The sound design is something else I have high praise for; the music feels a bit understated but I liked that as it gave way to the sound design which is simply perfect, the constant creaks and moans throughout made you really pause for thought, is it just the creaky floor boards, or is it a puppet enemy hidden in the shadows? It kept me on edge throughout.

There are little flaws that do stop the game hitting full marks, a spattering of jank does run throughout your playtime, also there is one puzzle (which I won’t spoil here) - if you think you have the right answer, quit and try it again and it should work, hopefully it will be patched soon, though it did end up being funny to me, as after trying it for an hour, I went on YouTube to find a Spanish man streaming Crisol who happened to be at that exact section, after 15 minutes of running back and forth and scrolling through notes, he let out an anguished scream and suddenly quit the stream, I felt like we were kindred spirits. The puzzles in general are OK, nothing mind-blowing and stuff you would have seen over and over if you’d played horror games before.

SUMMARY
I had a lot of fun with Crisol: Theatre of Idols, I played for 12 hours and enjoyed every second of it, it does a good job adding little tweaks and quirks to established horror formula. Combat may be the thing that some people don’t find as satisfying as it can be, but I enjoyed it enough to highly recommend this title. I don’t usually talk about price, but for what Crisol: Theatre of Idols is currently priced at - you get a lot of bang for your buck.