Crisol was a pretty good game. I felt that for the price, it was a total steal. It's not perfect by any means, but it felt like a mixture of Bioshock and Blasphemous. And i quite enjoyed my time with it. **Some various spoilers below**
I give it credit for trying something new in the blood/ ammo mechanic. This mechanic essentially leverages your health bar as a pool of ammunition for you various weapons. Stronger weapons require more blood, and therefore sap more of your health. You replenish lost blood/health by "consuming" deceased creatures (and humans) scattered around the world. I wish they would've leaned even further into it! This was a novel feature that I really loved. Yet, this neat feature is not without its baggage. For starters, the mechanic really gives the game a survival horror feeling in the beginning of the game, when your character is weak, and blood and weapons are scarce. This was great. But it takes a toll on exploration. There is no rare ammo to find. Every crate you destroy drops a consumable called "Plasmarine," which is akin to Adam vials in Bioshock. Not very exciting smashing open crates when you know that every. single. one. will contain Plasmarine. And for better or worse, the game loses the survival horror feeling as the game progresses. Blood management essentially becomes a non-issue in the latter stages of the game, as your character becomes incredibly over-powered. Some players will love this, others will wish for more of a challenge. I beat the game on the hardest difficulty on my first attempt (which removes autosaving a la Resident Evil). But I'll come back to this "overpowered" point later on.
The enemy variety wasn't amazing, but fighting the shambling, erratic mannequins was always a pleasure. The gunplay was just okay. I very rarely used anything but the handgun, with the sniper and shotgun being utilized sparingly. The other two weapons were essentially irrelevant. You also get a knife, which has a durability mechanic, much like RE4 remake or the more recent RE9. The knife was a let-down. It was useful in the early stages of the game where the survival horror feeling was most present. But even then, its durability was so little it *very* quickly breaks down. As you progress, its utility dwindles more and more. Ironically, you can upgrade its durability as you move through the game and its usefulness nosedives due to the player gaining more power in other areas. There also aren't a ton of weapons (or upgrades for them), and outright upgrades to the player character aren't truly bountiful, and unfortunately, don't translate to a truly palpable feeling in-game. Still, the game is better off having these systems in place. They just aren't as tuned or as fleshed-out as I would have liked. We never come close to reaching any sort of build-crafting or play-style tuning like you'd find in the Bioshock series with plasmids and tonics. But, this game is far more linear, and what we receive is good enough.
One of the biggest selling points of the game is the setting and vibe. Playing in an alternate history Spain was really cool. Again, think dystopian Bioshock blended with ultra-flagellant Spanish hyper-Catholicism in the same vein as Blasphemous. This was really refreshing and cool. The incessant rain and religious iconography looked stellar. Also, playing on an OLED monitor, the deep blacks and darkness carried the atmosphere to new oppressive heights. Street lanterns reflecting in rainwater pooling in the alleys of ouur locale, Tormentosa, looked fantastic. This is how my nostalgic brain remembers Bioshock looking all those years ago. Character design is fantastic too. The pursuer of this game, Dolores, continues to decay and visually degrade as the story progresses, much like the Tyrant in RE2. Major props to the presentation and setting. But...the characterization in this game was doesn't serve the game as uniformly. The protagonist, Gabriel, and his protege, Melodia...are just off. Especially with Melodia. Her demeanor is at complete odds with the grim tone of the game. She is bubbly and ditzy, and often times annoying. From what I have seen and heard, the way to play this title is with its original Spanish voiceover. The English dubbing only further detracts from the experience and again feels wholly at odds with the tone of the game. When the Spanish VO works, it really works. When it falters, it stumbles and trips as a result of janky, off-kilter dialogue. (As a goofy side-note, Gabriel has some of the most poorly-implemented "exertion grunting" I've ever heard in a video game. If you play, you'll see what I mean. This is the rare example of when delivery hurts more than the script.)
I mentioned a lack of enemy/weapon variety, and how the blood mechanic can seem at odds with the protagonist's power-surge as you approach the back-half of the game. Again, for better or for worse, combat is broken-up by the aforementioned pursuer segments and various puzzle segments. These sections, I think, largely detract from the experience. The Dolores hunts are too frequent, and the puzzles are largely too archaic and plentiful. There is not enough combat in Crisol to take advantage of your power-surge, and during these chase scenes and puzzles, I often felt myself groaning, wishing I was fighting those creepy wooden mannequins. So, there is a divide present in this title. Crisol couldn't strike a balance appropriately between survival and action horror, being unsure of which flavor it wanted to indulge in more. And by the end of my time with this game, I wish it would've leaned more into the action horror element with more dedication. You do get that wish in the final chapter though, I don't want to give away too much here, but the final chapter really lets you take advantage of your power and abilities and I loved it. The game absolutely ends on a high-note in my opinion, with a satisfying enough boss-fight. The final chapter of the game nails everything Crisol does well. It nails the setting, and even builds on it in unique, unexpected ways. The vibe and atmosphere here is firing on all cylinders. It indulges the power-fantasy that has been building. The game really leans into pure action horror here, and it does fantastic! As for the boss-fight, you get one in the style of "shoot the glowing orange bits" like you'd see in any number of RE titles. But it worked here, and the revolting design of the boss tied in nicely with the story and setting. So the final chapter of Crisol actually did some heavy lifting for me. It was probably the most fun i had in the entire game, and not many games can say they end on a satisfying high note.
So yeah, I enjoyed my time with the game. Especially for the $18 price tag...you're stealing this game for that price. The low barrier for entry ought to add a lot of enjoyment to this title. It isn't a perfect game, but it is MORE than perfect for such a low price. This game could easily be sold for $60, and I wouldn't feel ripped off. After beating it, I'd feel like I would have gotten a great deal at $30-45. And there are nice touches like collectibles and an art gallery to unlock much like RE. It ain't perfect, but the unique blood mechanic and setting paired with the absurdly low price tag almost make this title a must-buy for fans of the horror genre.
Thanks for reading my terribly long review. Cheers!
