FPS and Horror Fans Should Keep an Eye on Crisol: Theater of Idols

Summary

Crisol: Theater of Idols is an upcoming game with an eerie baroque style and intense first-person shooting set to release in 2025.
It will be the second of Blumhouse Games’ range of horror titles, following the well-received Fear the Spotlight.
Crisol: Theater of Idols seems to share some design and gameplay similarities with Blasphemous and BioShock, offering FPS action in a unique setting of Spanish-flavored horror.

Over the course of this past June 6 and through the weekend, the 2025 Summer Game Fest took place. As has come to be expected from Geoff Keighley’s annual showcase that has become the de facto replacement for the now-defunct E3, there were plenty of premieres and announcements to go around. A number of these were for forthcoming horror games, with one of the highlights including the reveal of Resident Evil Requiem. And during the Future Games Showcase, fans got another view of an upcoming title called Crisol: Theater of Idols, from Spanish-based studio, Vermila.

Crisol: Theater of Idols was first revealed at last year’s SGF when production studio Blumhouse, known for its work on modern indie and sometimes experimental horror films, announced that it was opening a game publishing branch. Crisol was part of the first wave of games set to arrive from Blumhouse’s burgeoning new wing, and this year saw its latest trailer unveil more about it. Crisol: Theater of Idols looks to be evoking a distinctly eerie baroque style married to tense first-person shooting, and is one that fans of either, or both, should keep track of.

Crisol: Theater of Idols is stated to launch later this year on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

New Horror Game is Like a First-Person Anime Silent Hill

A new horror game is announced that looks like a mash-up between anime stylization, Silent Hill, and first-person perspective.

Crisol: Theater of Idols Looks Like a Feast For First-Person Shooter and Horror Gamers

Blumhouse’s Early Lineup of Horror Games is Off To a Strong Start

2024’s Summer Game Fest featured a variety of horror games, and the centerpiece of this was Jason Blumhouse himself taking the stage to announce that the company would be entering the gaming industry as a publisher and partner. Six titles were revealed as part of the initial offerings, among them Crisol: Theater of Idols. The first game to be released under the label last October, Fear the Spotlight, was a PS1-era survival horror demake, similar to other recent ones like Alisa and Crow Country.

Fear the Spotlight saw solid marks across the board, and made a good first impression. It promised that Blumhouse had chosen interesting, creative developers and projects to work with. Crisol: Theater of Idols is now set to showcase the differing range of horror experiences Blumhouse seeks to deliver audiences, as it’s a stark contrast to the retro style of Fear the Spotlight, being instead a modern and visually striking FPS set in a unique world.

Crisol: Theater of Idols Could Be the Perfect Horror Experience Between Other Awaited Titles

Crisol: Theater of Idols‘ premise and design may remind some players of the 2D Metroidvania series, Blasphemous. Particularly since, like The Game Kitchen, developer Vermila calls Spain home and is invoking a similarly dark take on the region’s folklore, religious, and cultural history for its debut. Crisol will see fans “in a twisted version of Spain known as Hispania as Gabriel, a soldier who uses blood as both a weapon and a lifeline. Gabriel will uncover dark secrets and battle horrifying enemies as he tries to survive the cursed island of Tormentosa.”

The new trailer showed off Crisol‘s gorgeously grisly and decadent-looking world, bringing to mind the BioShock series with its gilded Art Deco environments composed of equal parts beauty and foreboding dread. Gabriel can be seen going up against armed statues of saints come to life, masked puppet-like automatons, and other unsettling creations. With BioShock 4 maintaining its radio silence along with another related title, Judas, also remaining quiet, Crisol: Theater of Idols‘ art direction and action make it look like it could serve as an excellent adjacent experience to these and a few other anticipated games, while standing on its own as a compelling horror-shooter.