Cronos: The New Dawn invites you into a rich and authentic representation of 1980s-era communist Poland in the wake of a terrifying cataclysm – The Change – that has completely wiped out humanity. This strange disease has rendered mankind into grotesque beings, set on merging into aggressive clumps of biomass and in the process becoming all-powerful. It’s our protagonist’s job – the Traveler, ND-3576 – to travel back in time and ‘awaken’ lost souls who refuse to move on. The one key imperative to note here, when you aren’t soaking in all the impending doom, is: don’t let them merge. The game won’t let you forget this in a hurry.
Cronos: The New Dawn review
- Developer: Bloober Team
- Publisher: Bloober Team
- Platform: Played on PC
- Availability: Out 5th September on PC (Steam, Epic), PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2
Survival horror enthusiasts will be glad to hear that Cronos: The New Dawn has all the markings of some of the genre’s biggest cult classics: Dead Space, Resident Evil, Alan Wake, and Silent Hill are pulsing through the roots of the biomass-coated environments you’ll be battling with here. But don’t be fooled: this is no Dead Space clone, and despite initial appearances, in no way are Cronos’ borrowed elements done on the cheap. Bloober Team has successfully created something wholly distinct, mixing the best parts of these games into something authentically new, and in turn showcasing everything it has learnt from the development of the exceptional Silent Hill 2 Remake. In many ways this is Bloober Team’s strongest original work yet.
Storytelling especially – through notes, newspaper clippings, the environment, and the souls of those who remain trapped in the past – is where Cronos shines, with the most attentive of players being rewarded for truly immersing themselves, and taking the time to explore everything this haunting world has to offer. Stepping into the hefty boots of Traveler ND-3576, you’ll travel back in time to reclaim the trapped souls of those who died to The Change, all at the whims of the mysterious Collective. This organisation and their goals are never truly explained; instead, it’s left to you – and ultimately the Traveler – to figure out what their real goal is. As the Traveler initially adheres to the commands of The Collective mindlessly and robotically, those that she meets begin to make this morph into a much more personal story of the implications of The Change, and the fact that many refuse to move on from it.
As is to be expected from Bloober Team by now – who are growing from a slightly hit-and-miss studio to one with genuine expertise in psychological horror – there’s a lot more that lurks beneath the surface. Nothing is as it first seems, and by the end your expectations of this story will have been upturned for the better.