It’s always nice to see studios take chances with old genres. Sometimes it is with mechanics. Sometimes it is with a story. Sometimes it’s both. And this particular review falls into that last category.
Crisol: Theater of Idols, from developer Vermila Studios and publisher Blumhouse Games, is set in a reimagined Spain, where religious factions are at war. The game puts the player in the role of Gabriel, a serious and highly religious soldier who is hellbent on taking down demonic baddies that will certainly make life hell for the world.
The gameplay for Crisol: Theater of Idols, on the surface, is what you should expect from a first-person shooter. It features familiar controls, expected linear restrictions, and works how a game in this genre has worked for decades. It’s a first-person shooter experience at its core.
Now, where the game separates from the rest in the genre lies in a few areas. The first area that players will notice is its mechanics. The game has a gorgeous set of weaponry for Gabriel, and the main gun he totes uses his blood for ammo. This means that if players are stacked with health, then they can consistently reload their gun with blood and be ready for action. That is a huge positive, as it doesn’t require the player to worry about finding ammo. In a way, there is an ammo search during the game, as Gabriel can draw blood from fallen humans and animals, but this mechanic really affects shooting decision-making. Don’t get me wrong, having a scarce amount of ammo on a character creates interesting strategy about what enemy players should or shouldn’t use the ammo on, but it’s annoying as hell.
Well, Crisol: Theater of Idols takes this same mechanic and strategic route, but in a different way. As previously mentioned, the character uses their own blood to reload their gun. This forces the player to balance their health with their ammo, which isn’t as easy sounds. While I personally love this idea, I think that it drags down the game just a bit. At times, it feels like the gameplay is running through mud and bland when health is low, and Gabriel’s gun is almost out of ammo. In a way, it’s more of a heavy distraction from the actual gameplay, and an element that I know was made this way purposely, to work against the player and add some stress/intrigue into the FPS process.
I commend the developers for stepping out of the typical FPS box, but the mechanic is a distraction from how much fun the gameplay is in Crisol: Theater of Idols. And the gameplay is a hoot for many reasons, which brings me to the second separator – the story.
Typically, an FPS experience isn’t led by any deep or overbearing storyline. Stories in this genre generally give just enough reason to point and shoot. If you need an example, please see any Call of Duty game for details. With Crisol: Theater of Idols, the story comes in thick and with incredibly defined and developed characters. I enjoyed playing as Gabriel and his plight to rid the world of wrongs in the name of the Sun God.
In addition, the world that Gabriel resides within, the redefined Spain, even in its limited space, and it was quite limited, had plenty of background and world-building to it. The structures, the residents that resided in it, every enemy that occupied it, all of it worked and helped prop up the world that the devs were trying to construct. The world in the game sits somewhere between modern ideals and a steampunk theme. It reminded me a lot of the very first BioShock, where it was caught between time periods, but strangely enough, it works.
What also helps the world-building are the stunning visuals, and this is the third separator from FPS games, which are well done and creepy as shit. The enemies are absolutely unnerving and look like religious monsters that have been pulled from good and brought down to whatever hell was below them. The enemy models are creative, grotesque at times, with a Silent Hill-type vibe, but gorgeous overall. The NPC characters fall into the same category, as they’re caught between time periods but live a modern life.
Now, staying with enemies, there are a variety of common enemies that find their way to Gabriel during action sequences, while the bosses are the main show. The common enemies come in a variety of flavors, and the action can be quite hot and heavy at times. Shooting the enemies can feel like a wild chore when a player isn’t ready for it. Taking down enemies involved finding the right place on their bodies to shoot them. This played hand-in-hand with the problem of ammo conservation, which created a minor amount of stress and some quick decision-making. I do appreciate that the devs did not make the process of enemy elimination quick or easy, but rather thoughtful and methodical.
I realize that those thoughts compete with my minor complaint of blood and ammo, but if you’re going to make things strategically more complicated, then make the player think about how they use their ammo, as well as where players use it on the enemy. I’m still not in love with the blood mechanics, but I thought less of it once the game and its enemies got rolling. The inclusion of secondary weaponry helps to tone that annoyance down a bit.
As for the difficulty of the game, it comes down to whether players can handle the blood ammo and how it functions. For players who adore challenges and want to be somewhat slow and methodical with their ammo and selecting which enemies to use it on, they’re going to be in heaven. It does present a good challenge during the gameplay and can give you some Resident Evil vibes to it with a hefty helping of Dark Souls sadistic-ness. For those who don’t take to it? Well, they will probably find this game hard to handle. Pick your path, players.
Overall, the gameplay in Crisol: Theater of Idols is good, the environments and characters are fantastic, and the story is cool and memorable, as it is horrifying. The mechanics that Vermila Studios took a chance on work to an extent, and I wish more developers tried new things like this out, even if they don’t stick the landing completely. It helps to keep a worn-out genre fresh.
On that note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Crisol: Theater of Idols, from developer Vermila Studios and publisher Blumhouse Games, is a good game that brings a gorgeous, yet horrifying world to life in a reimagined Spain. The game introduces some interesting mechanics that players will either love or have a tough time with, which may affect their gameplay experience. Still, it’s a solid game that, at the very least, tries to take a different FPS route.
