Resident Evil is a beloved franchise among the public, so it’s no surprise that it has also generated many games that have imitated its formula. Even if they generally tend to focus more on the classic titles than on the modern ones, it is a constant that horror video games look at what either the first two Resident Evil games or Resident Evil 4 do. But it seems that we are starting to see games very inspired by the modern games, especially Resident Evil VII.

The latest and most striking case is that of Crisol: Theater of Idols. Game developed in Spain and placing a great emphasis on Spanish imagery to create a most suggestive mix between Resident Evil and Bioshock that, although it doesn’t always hit the mark and doesn’t feel as good as it should, has everything to please fans of the genre.

The virgin of the tides says

Crisol puts us in the shoes of Gabriel, a follower of the Sun God who receives a sacred mission. He must travel to the city of Tormentosa to discover what is happening in the city and why it is descending into chaos, caused by a strange cult to the sea god that is overshadowing the cult of the Sun God. With this premise and only armed with a weapon loaded with our own blood, we will have to uncover a tragedy with centuries of history that is unfolding in real time as we arrive in the mysterious city of Tormentosa.

Surely what stands out the most about Crisol is that. Its aesthetics and its narrative. With a quite striking finish, although it does not come close to the level of AAA games, it manages to be quite decent with fairly solid graphics. If we add to that a very inspired art design based on all the Spanish clichés, ranging from bulls to virgins, including the typical posters from the Civil War, it all results in a rather peculiar aesthetic that has a slight Spanish air. Tormentosa does not have anywhere near the care and attention that Cvstodia had in Blasphemous, but it manages to give personality to its particular twist on the aesthetics of Bioshock, even if it never really feels truly Spanish.

The story, on the other hand, is probably its most interesting part. Both the lore of Tormentosa and its struggle between gods, as well as the adventure of its characters to save the city, have personality and character. It doesn’t do anything particularly innovative, but it does manage to keep our attention and maintain our focus during the approximately 10 hours of gameplay we have ahead of us.

Otherwise, the game is mainly based on its combat. Having to kill enemies to obtain resources to upgrade our weapons, dodging them is a terrible idea if we don’t want to find ourselves blocked halfway through the game with weak weapons. Unfortunately, the weapons don’t feel as good as they should. All the weapons feel a bit lackluster, the enemies give us little feedback on whether what we are doing is hurting them or not, and it always feels like everything requires a much greater expenditure of resources than it should.

This does not prevent the game from adopting very interesting ideas for it. As we mentioned, we load our weapon with our own blood, and that is the great differentiating factor of the game. There are no bullets to collect; instead, every time we want to reload a weapon, we will have to spend a piece of our life to have ammunition to finish off our enemies.

This idea about the paper works very well, but it doesn’t always work perfectly in the game. Visually it is spectacular and bloody, but we will rarely find ourselves needing to decide between our ammunition and our life. Something that makes this system irrelevant, beyond the very particular style it gives to the setting.

For the most part, the game feels like the latest installments of Resident Evil. Having to investigate every corner, upgrade our weapons, solve puzzles, and progress through plot twists, it doesn’t quite reach the level of Capcom’s games, but it is a substitute that may appeal to those who enjoy the franchise for its atmosphere, rather than its mechanics or design. Because in the end, that is the great virtue of Crisol. Its art and its story and how they manage to condense it into a playable experience that could be much better, but will not bother those who seek in this kind of games the experience of a macabre nightmare stroll. This time, with killer mechanical virgins.