Crisol: Theater of Idols Review Summary

Immersive atmosphere and art: The game is praised for its rich and immersive atmosphere, detailed level design, and artistic style. The combination of eerie music, dark/religious ambiance, and meticulous sound design creates a unique and engaging experience.

Unique blood ammunition mechanic: The game features a unique and innovative mechanic where players use their blood (health) as ammunition. This adds a layer of tension and strategy to combat, as players must balance their health and ammunition carefully.

High-quality sound and voice acting: The game features excellent sound design and voice acting, which significantly enhance the overall experience. The Spanish voice acting, in particular, is highly praised for its quality and authenticity.

Inspired by popular games: The game draws clear inspiration from popular titles like BioShock, Resident Evil, and Bloodborne. This blend of influences creates a familiar yet fresh experience for fans of these genres.

Good value for money: The game is considered a great value for its price, offering a rich and engaging experience at an affordable cost. Many players feel that the game's quality and content justify its price point.

Performance and optimization issues: The game suffers from significant performance problems, including FPS drops, stuttering, and poor optimization. Players report experiencing low frame rates even on high-end hardware, and the game lacks support for performance-enhancing technologies like DLSS and FSR.

Lack of visual and technical polish: The game's graphics and visuals are considered subpar, with issues such as bland environments, repetitive props, and lack of support for modern visual technologies. The game also suffers from various graphical bugs and glitches.

Poor narrative and dialogue: The story and dialogue are criticized for being poorly written, corny, and over the top. The narrative lacks depth and context, making the plot confusing and unengaging.

Clunky and slow gameplay: Gameplay is described as clunky, slow, and linear, with issues such as slow character movement, lack of player agency, and monotonous mechanics. The game feels more like a walking simulator with little interaction or exploration.

Limited save and progression systems: Players report issues with saving progress, including lack of automatic saving, no save checkpoints, and lost upgrades. The game also suffers from slow pacing and grinding for upgrades feels pointless.

Influences from Bioshock and Resident Evil: The game draws significant inspiration from Bioshock and Resident Evil, blending elements from both series to create a familiar yet unique experience.

Linear and corridor-like level design: The game features linear progression with narrow rooms and streets, often criticized for its corridor-like and predictable level design.

Engaging puzzles and exploration: The game includes well-designed puzzles and encourages exploration, with hidden objects and interconnected areas to discover.

Unique enemy designs and behaviors: Enemies in the game have unique designs and behaviors, often requiring strategic approaches to defeat, adding depth to combat.

Criticized animations and interactions: The game has been criticized for its animations and limited interactions in scenarios, affecting the overall immersion and gameplay experience.

Lack of DLSS Support: Many players are disappointed by the lack of DLSS support, which affects performance and visual quality. This absence forces users to rely on other upscaling technologies like TSR and XESS, which may not perform as well.

Resolution and Display Support: There is a notable lack of support for various resolutions, including ultrawide displays and specific native resolutions. This limits the gaming experience for users with higher-end monitors.

Audio and Sound Design: There are occasional audio bugs and issues with sound design. These problems, while not game-breaking, can affect immersion and overall enjoyment.

Specific Hardware Performance: Performance varies widely across different hardware configurations. Some players report high FPS on older rigs, while others experience significant drops even on high-end hardware.

Game Freezes and Lags: The game experiences freezes and lags in specific areas, particularly during location transitions. These issues can disrupt gameplay and cause frustration.

Support Spanish industry: Players encourage supporting the Spanish gaming industry and Vermila Studios, noting the game's quality and the potential of the studio.

Recommended for horror fans: The game is highly recommended for fans of horror and unique settings, often compared favorably to titles like BioShock and Resident Evil.

Add task guidance: Some players suggest adding more guidance for tasks within the game to improve the overall experience.

Manage your expectations: Players recommend going into the game without high expectations to fully enjoy the experience.

Add graphical customization: There is a request for more customizable graphical options to enhance the gaming experience.

Steam Deck: The analysis of user feedback reveals several significant issues impacting the Steam Deck experience. Key themes include the necessity of using upscaling technologies for playable performance, control issues such as input lag and awkward camera movements, performance issues like low framerate, and limitations in customizable settings. These issues collectively contribute to a less than optimal gaming experience, requiring users to make adjustments and compromises to enjoy the game.

Support for indie studios: Players appreciate the game and want to show support for indie game studios.

Positive feedback from Spain: A user from Spain gave the game a perfect score, indicating high satisfaction.