Blumhouse Productions has made a name for itself as one of the premiere horror movie production companies, and in 2023, it turned its attention to video games. A year after it was formed, Blumhouse Games published its first game in Fear the Spotlight, a classic-style survival-horror game with a retro look inspired by the classics. Blumhouse Games has continued to release new titles since then, with its latest being Crisol: Theater of Idols. Whereas Fear the Spotlight was inspired by old-school Resident Evil and Silent Hill games, Crisol: Theater of Idols has a lot more in common with games like Resident Evil 4 and BioShock.
Crisol: Theater of Idols puts players in the role of Gabriel, who finds himself exploring a creepy, Spain-inspired fictional island full of deadly monsters, not unlike Leon S. Kennedy’s adventure in RE4. But instead of using a third-person, over-the-shoulder view like in Resident Evil 4, Crisol uses a first-person perspective and a general aesthetic that is like a bloodier take on BioShock‘s presentation. It’s a solid combination and works well for Crisol‘s action.
Crisol’s Combat Has Serious Resident Evil 4 Vibes
The most common enemies in Crisol are vicious doll-like statues that try to kill Gabriel with knives, pitchforks, crossbows, and other assorted weaponry. The first encounters with these creatures are unnerving, with these monsters able to do significant damage to Gabriel if they get close enough. Luckily, Gabriel has a powerful arsenal at his disposal that helps him put up a serious fight.
Crisol‘s combat is thrilling and offers more strategy than simply shooting the living statues wherever. If players have good enough aim, they can stun the statues by blowing off their heads, or they can shoot off their limbs to disarm them. One of my favorite moments in the game happened during one of my first combat encounters. I destroyed a monster from the waist up, and its legs fell to the ground. Assuming it was dead, I started exploring, only to realize I was taking damage. I whirled around to see the legs had gotten back up and were kicking me. These things do not let up, and new enemy variants introduced later on ensure that the fighting never gets dull.
Ammo conservation is a big part of many survival-horror games, and the same is true in Crisol, though the game offers a unique twist on the concept. The only way to kill the monsters on the island is by using magical weapons that are powered by Gabriel’s blood. Reloading means damaging Gabriel and taking a hit on health. This give-and-take adds yet another layer to Crisol‘s combat and makes it that much more interesting. Players can try to avoid enemies if they don’t want to lose any health, or they can go in guns blazing with fully loaded weapons at the risk of one stray hit taking them down for the count.
When they’re not killing enemies, Crisol players spend most of their time running through samey-looking environments in search of resources and key items to progress the plot. The problem is Crisol‘s level design is bloated, with many areas feeling too big with an overabundance of uninteresting linear hallways and a couple of sections that are easy to get lost in, even when using the map. Scaling things down a bit would have done wonders for Crisol‘s pacing.
As players explore Crisol‘s twisted world, they will occasionally come across a puzzle or two, in typical survival-horror fashion. I found Crisol‘s puzzles to strike the perfect balance, offering enough challenge to make them fun to solve without becoming obnoxious like what occasionally happens in survival-horror games.
Solving puzzles is usually required to progress the story, but there are optional ones that lead to health upgrades and money that can be spent with the game’s equivalent of Resident Evil 4‘s merchant. Money and other collectibles are used to upgrade Gabriel’s weapons and unlock perks that make getting through Crisol‘s more challenging sections a little easier. It may not be a terribly original concept, but it adds a satisfying sense of progression to the experience.
Crisol Has a Few Issues That Hold It Back From Greatness
Crisol genuinely does feel like a first-person take on Resident Evil 4 a lot of the time, with its merchant and action-focused take on survival-horror, but don’t expect nearly the same level of polish. Crisol looks good for the most part, but there is a certain amount of jank to the proceedings. I experienced occasional slowdown when enemies die (this might have been a purposeful choice, but it wasn’t a good one if so), and there were a couple of times that I got stuck walking slowly, as though I were aiming down the sights of my gun, even though I wasn’t. One of the more egregious glitches came when riding an elevator and Gabriel kept clipping through the roof.
Speaking of walking slowly, one of the most frustrating things about Crisol is its radio segments. At various points in the game, Gabriel has conversations with people on the radio that slow his walking speed to a crawl and make it so he can’t even pick anything up in the environment. There is an option to skip these talks, but then players will feel like they are missing out on story details, so it’s not ideal.
What’s also not ideal is Crisol‘s half-cocked attempt at a stalker enemy. Survival-horror games in the past have used recurring stalker enemies to great effect, with Nemesis from Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 2‘s Mr. X coming immediately to mind, but Crisol‘s take on it is disappointing. The creature that stalks Gabriel is huge and looks intimidating, but getting away from it means simply running for cover, waiting for it to lose interest, and then returning to whatever you were doing. At the absolute worst, Crisol‘s stalker enemy is a slight inconvenience, and it loses its scare factor after the first encounter.
Beating Crisol: Theater of Idols took about eight hours for my initial playthrough.
Crisol isn’t a perfect survival-horror game, but that’s not to say that it’s not a solid time overall. I really enjoyed Crisol‘s combat and though the levels are a little bloated, the game still delivers a fairly solid rendition of the classic survival-horror gameplay loop. Genre fans should definitely make sure to give it a look.
- Released
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February 10, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Suggestive Themes, Strong Language, Intense Violence
- Developer(s)
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Vermila Studios
- Publisher(s)
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Blumhouse Games
- Number of Players
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Single-player
- Solid survival-horror action
- Rewarding progression
- Puzzles that are just the right amount of challenging
- Creepy monster designs
- Lame stalker enemy
- Bloated levels
- Occasional jank
Crisol: Theater of Idols is out now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. Game Rant was provided with a PS5 code for this review.
