From the first teasers of Cronos: The New Dawn, it looked like a shift for Bloober Team, presenting a new dark world to explore. Even with those early teasers, it wasn’t until I finished the Silent Hill 2 remake and saw a few new details about the game that it truly felt like something I needed to keep on my radar. With that excitement and curiosity, when the chance came to attend a preview event for the game, I jumped at it, eager to explore more of what Cronos: The New Dawn actually is and to dive into what makes the game so interesting.
The early looks at Cronos: The New Dawn gave it a sense of oppressive dread, making it feel as though no matter what you do, you are small and insignificant. After playing about two hours of the game’s opening moments, I have news for you: that feeling never goes away. Even with only the first few sections under my belt, I can confidently say Cronos: The New Dawn is one of the darkest, most oppressive game worlds I have ever explored.
From the moment you wake up in the game, you’ll feel alienated, with little explained about what’s going on, why you’re completing missions or even who you are. You’re identified only as The Traveller, one of many, working toward some end goal. But even as you slowly learn what happened to the world around you, the objective of your motivation never feels clear. You’re doing what you must do for the cause, but despite collecting as many items and details as I could in the opening segments, I couldn’t tell you what the mission is, why you’re needed or where the story will ultimately go.
Set in a world ravaged by a disastrous event, Cronos: The New Dawn puts you in control of The Traveller, a woman with an unknown origin, tasked with carrying on a mission after her predecessor met an untimely end. You’re given very little information to go on, or even a clear picture of what side you’re on. But, like any time-traveller storyline, there are elements of the past you must tackle to change the outcome of the current world.
“Even with only the first few sections under my belt, I can confidently say Cronos: The New Dawn is one of the darkest, most oppressive game worlds I have ever explored.”
It’s a science fiction story that feels like a perfect fit for a dark, oppressive horror experience. As you slowly work your way through this devastated Polish landscape, you learn more about the outside world, your group and the many notes and messages from past travellers who have died along the way. It’s bleak, cold and incredibly engaging — just what I want from my horror experiences.
While many games slowly introduce players to the world’s rules and concepts, Cronos: The New Dawn feels purposely obtuse. It offers hints that time travel exists, that The New Dawn is set in the Nowa Huta district in Poland, and that some catastrophic event in the past caused the current hellscape you find yourself in. When a disease took hold of the population and things evidently went from bad to worse, this grim reality felt like the only outcome.
It’s hinted that you, as The Traveller, are working to undo some of the problems, but much like Dark Souls, you’re given only glimpses of what’s really going on. The true purpose and motivations feel like something to uncover as you progress through your playthrough.
While the world and setting may be oppressive and cold, the gameplay in Cronos: The New Dawn feels solid, filled with potential to explore, with mechanics that feel refined and well-tuned to give you all the tools you need to succeed, without turning it into a power fantasy. In fact, I’d say this is the most challenging game I’ve ever played from Bloober Team. Much more challenging than their last new IP, The Medium, and even much more challenging than what we saw with Silent Hill 2.
During my two-hour playthrough, I died a lot. Even the early enemies known as Orphans are incredibly hard to kill, and it takes real skill to maximize your chances of walking away alive, rather than banging your head against a wall trying to take on the enemies the game throws in your path.
That’s not to say Cronos: The New Dawn is unfair — quite the opposite. There are plenty of ways to handle obstacles, and the game gives you various tools to kill creatures, with running from the monstrosities also an option in many cases. This is not a game where you’re meant to feel like a badass, with each battle designed to be approached with caution. You’re meant to take your time in this game, slowly working out the best course of action; a run-and-gun approach is a quick way to meet an early end.
Combat feels solid and draws inspiration from action-horror experiences of the past, like Dead Space and Resident Evil 4, with a healthy dose of Bloober Team DNA thrown into the mix. Cronos: The New Dawn carries many of the best aspects of the studio’s previous work into this title and feels well-refined from all the games they’ve created up to this point.
Starting out, you’ll get the Sword, a standard pistol-type weapon, but this arsenal will expand as you explore the world and find gear. In the demo I played, I managed to find the Hammer, a shotgun-style weapon that, much like in other games, gives you much more firepower but feels a bit more limited in ammo and clip size. It’s great for stronger monsters, but not ideal when you need to take on a swarm of enemies.
You’ll also find the Torch, and that becomes a vital part of combat — but I’ll touch more on that in a bit. From what I’ve seen, Cronos: The New Dawn offers the arsenal you’d expect from this style of game, while never making it feel too powerful or leaning into the power fantasy that many of these games tend to embrace.
Fights are challenging without feeling unfair. The guns and overall equipment have a good weight to them, and the enemy design is twisted and gross, while showing a strong artistic concept of the world and story they’re trying to explore. As I mentioned above, this is not an easy game, but even with this challenge, there seems to be a fair number of pickups and equipment you’ll find along the way to make things a bit easier.
“Cronos: The New Dawn carries many of the best aspects of the studio’s previous work into this title and feels well-refined from all the games they’ve created up to this point.”
You can push through, working to get straight to the main objective, but you’ll quickly find you’re ill-equipped to take on everything the game throws in your path. Even beyond the scarcity of equipment, ammo and resources, your inventory is another limiting factor that forces you to play smart and avoid pushing your resources beyond their limits.
There will be more enemies in your path than you can reasonably face, and it’s up to you to decide what is a necessity and what is a bridge too far — something that could stop you from progressing deeper into the hellish world. This is where charged shots and burning your enemies come into play, and these tactics can help you push past challenges that might feel impossible if you don’t take time to plan your attacks.
Charged shots let you deliver much more powerful attacks while using the same amount of ammo. Yes, there’s a risk, since they take time to charge, and if you miss, that’s one more shot you won’t have when you need it. But what might take two or three charged shots to kill could easily take six standard shots to do equivalent damage, and when bullets are a scarce commodity, every shot counts.
There were plenty of times in the demo when I died because I didn’t take the time to plan my shots, leading to enemies swarming me once I had no ammo left to fend them off, especially bad when enemies managed to merge with the dead bodies of creatures I had already taken out.
This brings me to one of the more grotesque but unique challenges in Cronos: The New Dawn: enemies merging. It seems to be a major part of how the combat system is designed, and it’s stressful when you see it happen. When you take down enemies, they can be absorbed by others, making them significantly stronger. It can also lead to enemies with one ability gaining the abilities of creatures you’ve already killed. Let me tell you, it’s nail-biting when you see it happen and have no way to stop it.
The merged enemies are incredibly tough, and when ammo is limited, avoiding this scenario quickly becomes a top priority. Thankfully, this is where the torch comes into play, with burning the dead (and the living) being a vital part of the gameplay loop.
You’ll find fuel refill stations around the world, and in some combat areas, they can be used more than once, but unfortunately, you can only refill one at a time. Once you have fuel, you can not only burn enemies but also torch the dead to make sure they’re no longer available for other creatures to merge with. This makes combat scenarios a bit easier, even though the challenge remains very much a part of the experience.
Much like other games in the genre, Cronos: The New Dawn has a range of resources you can pick up along the way, from ammo and health to parts for crafting, and they all play a vital role in how you approach the game’s challenges. While resources are scarce throughout, as you work your way through the game world, you’ll need to make the best use of what you find, meaning you can use them as you see fit.
With only two hours of playtime, I’ve just started to scratch the surface of what Cronos: The New Dawn has to offer. The game is said to have a total playtime of around 16 hours if you focus on completing the main story, with more to discover if you choose to explore every nook and cranny it has to offer. There’s plenty to explore beyond what was shown off.
Even so, the game already looks exciting and feels like a welcome addition to Bloober Team’s impressive output. Silent Hill 2 from them was one of my favourite games of 2024, and while this is their own IP, featuring a world unlike any I’ve experienced, the core of the game has already sunk its teeth into me. I can’t wait to see more.
Slated to launch on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC this fall, I’m excited to see what’s at the core of this world. It feels like an oppressive experience that needs to be explored, and if they can keep up this quality, I’ll be there on day one to experience more of The Traveller’s journey for myself.
