Final impression - Crisol: Theater of Idols finds its strength in the lore of Tormentosa

For us at Gamereactor, the development story of Crisol: Theater of Idols and its upcoming release has a special significance, as we first took notice of its "rollercoaster of tension" back in 2023. The project, which is now being completed by some 25 people in Madrid, had just broken free from the clutches of the declining Embracer Group to seek a new publisher, and shortly afterwards it would be showcased in style as part of Blumhouse Games' horror catalogue. Fast forward to today, a few days after we visited the offices to try out a preview version around the first third of the game, and with little more than two weeks to go before its final release. It's now official: Crisol: Theater of Idols is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series on February 10, 2026.

Between the presentation by the Davids (co-founders Tornero and Carrasco) and the portion of the game I played afterwards, I was able to get a better idea of what to expect from the full adventure in a few days.

First of all, although the game has always been compared to Bioshock, I think it's important to point out that, while the atmosphere and environmental narrative are immediately reminiscent of Irrational's masterpiece, expectations should be kept in check and it would be a grave mistake to expect its scale or superpowers. Crisol's elaborate lore, mainly created by Tornero, is conveyed in a similar way, with dialogue scenes and a multitude of posters and references in the setting. But otherwise, this is a much more contained project, clearly indie in nature and scale, which, instead of endowing the player with special abilities, invents a very peculiar mechanic to reflect the scarcity typical of a survival horror.

And that is precisely what is most attractive about Crisol in terms of gameplay at the moment. Every time Gabriel Escudero, the protagonist, gets hold of a firearm, it automatically becomes a blood weapon. In our demo, which is unreleased and considerably more advanced than the one available to the public, I was able to try out the pistol, the shotgun, and get a sniper rifle, and they all transform in Gabriel's hands. From then on, the ammunition is directly linked to the health bar, so not only shooting, but also reloading, can have dire consequences. The latter caught me completely off guard and I died a couple of times against low-level enemies because I was vulnerably dry: I had to learn that I shouldn't reload frequently like in any other FPS.

To reload both health and weapons, therefore, you have to find blood in the form of Plasmarine syringes. As enemies give you essence to improve your character or coins (silver bulls) to spend at the Fair, the only alternative for feeding, which is also quite fresh, is to absorb the blood of corpses, whether they are other humans or one of the animals that are a mixture of farm and mutant sea creatures created by the artists.

Don't expect action galore either, as movement is deliberately slow and heavy. Perhaps too much so when aiming with the controller, and even though I increased the sensitivity several notches, I still felt that my mates playing with a keyboard and mouse had it easier. But that's part of the experience: it's not an action shooter. This is also reflected in the fact that there is a button dedicated to quick turning, as popularised by Resident Evil 4. If you encounter a danger head-on (e.g. a mine or a very ugly monster), you'll also have to internalise that it's better to turn quickly and run straight ahead, rather than trying to back away. Another ingredient to increase the tension.

Finally, the melee knife can be used to block or parry incoming attacks if you time it right, but in my game I mainly used it to finish off enemies and save bullets/blood. If you think they will keep stalking and hitting you even when they're decapitated or dismembered, it makes perfect sense.

The setting for this demo was a kind of haunted mine, Industrias Hierro. Honestly, after the studio's fascinating presentation and the juicy details they gave us about the game world of Crisol: Theater of Idols, this cold place of rain, brick, and metal may not have been the most suitable for showing off the fiction. Perhaps they chose it more for its level design, so that we could easily understand it.

The progress in the mine is quite linear, although you have to take a long detour to solve a series of simple puzzles involving valves that block access (and collect relics or vials of holy blood). Meanwhile, you are harassed by various types of enemies, from cherubs fluttering around you to a kind of recurring boss, as well as the most basic zombie-like 'dolls'.

The enemies in Crisol are called astilleros, old polychrome wooden statues. "They are neither mannequins nor animatronics," Tornero specified, and they are based on collections of figures found among the ruins of the Spanish Civil War. The truth is that they contribute a great deal to the personality of the project. The most terrifying one so far, the boss that haunted us in the demo, is the nowinfamous Dolores, "a virgin with a grotesque twist," a terrifying combination of bone, metal, and porcelain that will have a more concrete background in the game. Yes, that lady with the porcelain face who stars in the main artwork, and who chased us until she lifted us into the air and kissed us in a hide-and-seek section during the demo.

On my deadly walk through the Hermanos Hierro's mine, I discovered a little more about what is happening on the island of Tormentosa thanks to the memories of the workers who appeared before me as blurry figures. In terms of gameplay, I found this particular scenario to be not very interactive and its background music to be tiresome. I would also have liked a little more impact and recoil in the blood weapons, which, on the other hand, offer delightful reloading animations (basically, Gabriel must 'poke' the weapon to perform a transfusion of his blood).

What I mean is that, without having played the entire adventure, and as much as I am drawn to the main weapon mechanics of gold and blood (which is also a red and yellow reference to the Spanish flag), what stands out most to me and hooks me for now is the lore of Crisol: Theater of Idols. Its twisted and satirical way of representing'Hispania' and its Holy Week (here called Semana de Madera, or 'Wooden Week'), different from the acclaimed vision of Blasphemous. Its antagonistic Catholic interpretations with two opposing religions (the sun and the sea). Its stoic protagonist who brands others as heretics and finds his own Quixote/Virgil in Mediodía, a sort of female bullfighter who has been on the island for a long time.

I am eager to see and read more, to learn about the figure of the Plañidera (women who were hired to cry at wakes), to go to the Fair as a place of rest, recreation, and upgrades, or to discover how they have designed other fantastic animal fusions such as the ophio-taurus or the sea horse (literally a horse) and built the settings inspired by everyday streets and cathedrals in the Spanish geography.

Luckily, I will find out all about this in the coming days with the final version for the review of Crisol: Theater of Idols, and I will see how far both its narrative and its gameplay go.