Crisol: Theater of Idols Review – Dolls, Devotion, and Draining Firepower

Crisol: Theater of Idols Review

Crisol: Theater of Idols is the kind of shooter/action adventure you don’t see much anymore. It’s deliberately paced and relies on setting and atmosphere far more than weapons or gadgets, though it does have one central hook around that. I won’t pretend it isn’t a bit frustrating on occasion. But still, Crisol: Theater of Idols stands out in a sea of generic titles.

Sun and Sea

Crisol: Theater of Idols takes place on the island of Tormentosa, a stand-in for mid-20th-century Spain. You play as Gabriel, a follower of the Sun God. Said Sun God has disappeared from the world, leaving behind murderous Astiados, doll-like creatures that die in a flutter of flames. Ultimately, the game is about the conflict between the worshippers of the Sun God and members of the Sea Cult.

Crisol has strong BioShock or, more recently, Lies of P vibes, with its mechanical monstrosities and ambiguous setting. There’s a lot of explicit and more subtle environmental storytelling going on. The world design is much more expansive than the game’s generally dark and claustrophobic spaces suggest. Every nook and cranny is filled with stuff, though sadly, most of the world is non-interactive. Still, the level of detail is impressive. There’s a great deal of art and design that suggests religious fanaticism and early 20th-century Spain. The only things that bring the world design down a notch are the gamey elements like exploding red barrels and signposted climbing spots.

Generally speaking, Crisol: Theater of Idols leads protagonist Gabe along a fairly linear path, with piles of crates and furniture or other objects blocking alternative routes. Sometimes progress is blocked by puzzles, which may or may not torpedo the game’s momentum, depending on your talent for solving them. The puzzles are relatively logical and generally strike a decent balance between simple and frustrating. Puzzle-adverse shooter fans, be warned: the puzzles are generally not optional.

Bloody Weapons

All that creepy atmosphere aside, combat is still a major component of Crisol: Theater of Idols, and it’s a mixed bag. It starts with a strong hook: your weapons are powered by your blood, but filling your weapons drains your health. There are a few weapons in games like Elden Ring that follow this principle, but the idea hasn’t been explored much in shooters. Topping off your drained supply means drinking the blood of dead animals or finding convenient syringes out in the world.

You never amass much of an arsenal outside a pistol, a shotgun, and a knife. The basic weapons gain power and handleability via upgrades paid for by silver collected during exploration. There are also some ability upgrades for Gabe, but this isn’t an RPG with a towering upgrade tree. Until Gabe starts to upgrade his weapons, they’re painfully and wildly inaccurate. You’ll waste a lot of blood ammo shooting at nothing but air next to a foe. Like the weapons, enemy variety is limited. But those dolls-come-to-life are unnerving at the very least and are hard to take down. There are a few boss-type enemies as well.

Funny Bad or Just Bad

Crisol: Theater of Idols includes some pretty awful and situationally inappropriate voice acting. It could be intentional. After all, the story and setting are over-the-top drenched in gothic darkness, and the enemies are creepy doll statues. If they’re deliberately stilted and the line readings are a choice, they really clash with the mood and visuals.

Coming off a game like Nioh 3 with its hypermobile characters, movement in Crisol: Theater of Idols feels slow, deliberate, and not quite dialed in. This limited range of movement becomes especially frustrating with packs of enemies in small spaces. But whether a feature or a bug, movement and shooting in Crisol: Theater of Idols needs a tweak or two and a bit more polish.

Despite some of its frustrations and limitations, I mostly liked what Crisol: Theater of Idols is going for. The world is thoroughly conceived, impressively full of surreal detail and dark atmosphere. The game has at least one interesting combat trick to mess with, too. A sequel or big update might smooth out some rough mechanics, but as it stands, Crisol: Theater of Idols is worth a look for fans of first-person shooters or action-adventure games with puzzles, mysteries, and exploration.

***PC code provided by the publisher for review***