Cronos: The New Dawn Impressions Prior to Launch

Is Bloober Team’s latest attempt at original horror following Silent Hill 2’s success worth playing?

Cronos: The New Dawn is available today for anyone who has purchased the Digital Deluxe edition of the game and will be available everywhere on Friday September 5th, 2025 on Steam, Epic Game Store, GOG, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2, narking the first new original game from Bloober since 2021’s The Medium. Can Bloober Team make a GREAT game from an original IP?!

After Silent Hill 2 remake’s release last year, Bloober showed us that  they have what it takes to handle a behemoth of cult classic psychological horror. Surprisingly Bloober – as a horror game developer – has had a spotty track record up until its iteration of one of Konami’s most beloved games. Before then, the Poland-based studio had released several horror games to mixed reviews since its founding in 2008. Their history with horror starts with 2016’s Layers of Fear with several sequels and remasters, then they produced Observer, Blair Witch, and The Medium seeing varying degrees of critical and player reception, but still selling well enough for additional projects. I, for one, have never found any of these outings particularly great, so when the news came that they would be handling an updated remake of one of the most beloved horror games of all time, there was genuine cause for concern. I’m sure plenty of people were also considering some of the flak that Bloober Team has faced for its portrayal of characters with mental illness and insensitivity in their writing on the subject material. With the very average review scores that these games garnished, Bloober mostly existed as a mediocre development team regularly releasing fairly boring and ultimately not scary games.

Thankfully, Bloober Team proved that they could enter the fog and walk out on the other side stronger as the Silent Hill 2 remake was of a much higher caliber than any of their previous outings. I found it a surprisingly fresh take on the original game and thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. This is mostly influenced by the addition of a more action-focused combat system that flies in the face of the original game’s clunkier feeling combat. The creative liberties made the core gameplay much more engaging and entertaining without losing the dark desperation of the story, which for me was the best thing they could’ve done. 

So now that the Silent Hill 2 remake is behind them, has Bloober Team learned how to make a truly great horror game of their own design? Yes! 

Throughout my time with Cronos: The New Dawn, I never felt like I was “playing a Bloober game”. It immediately felt much more grounded, with a clear direction with a clear identity of what it is. It felt bigger and more grown up. The story and setting of Cronos is one that is foreign to me and drew me in to the mystery of your player character.

You play as Traveler ND-3576, a humanoid entity that seems more like a robot or android created by humans to serve the Collective. You awaken in a stasis pod called a Sarcophogus, to a computerized overseer that quizzes your mental functions with a series of tests. You are then given a Relic called the Shiftblade, an advanced pistol-like weapon that can be modified. You are sent out into a dystopian world that has been ravaged by an unknown plague that turns humans into grotesque amalgamations to find your Predecessor, a Traveller that came before you and has fallen. Essentially, when one Traveler dies, a new one awakens to resume the previous one's mission, what they call “The Vocation”.

Although the Traveler appears human, “her” mannerisms, voice, and way of speaking are all very robotic and lack any emotion.

The world of Cronos borrows from many inspirations and games. Much of the technology of the Collective and Travelers feels like it was designed by H.R. Giger. The computer systems and the various terminals you interact with look like they came from the set of Alien. The save machine even reminds me of the saving terminal in Alien Isolation. When you begin to explore areas affected by rifts or time paradoxes, you will see distorted landscapes and whole pieces of architecture that've been broken apart but floating in limbo. It's in these areas you encounter various floating objects and elements that feel like Control. All of these design elements are complemented by a heavy and punchy combat system that is reminiscent of Dead Space – more on that later. Cronos is unique in its ability to use all of these pieces that feel familiar, but are put together and composed in a beautiful way.

The game also plays with time and setting by allowing the player to witness the Change and use rifts in time, allowing one to travel back to 1980s Poland in order to extract key people from the past and bring them back to the future. You do this with a Tool called the Harvester, which absorbs a person's essence to be Ascended and preserved. The “ghosts” of these people live with you in your suite and affect the gameplay and story. 

It is these haunting elements of sci-fi and time travel that drew me in, leaving me to question everything. You, the protagonist, essentially murder people of importance in the past to bring their conscious mind to the future in order to combat the outbreak.

Are you then actually a villain, or a tool for an unknown entity? Why do the Traveler’s lack emotion and not identify with humans?

What do I  think of Cronos thus far? 

I went into Cronos with relatively little information, having paid little attention to it after watching the initial reveal trailer. So when I began my journey into a dystopian Poland ravaged by a cataclysmic outbreak known as The Change, I was savagely surprised. Straight away I felt influences from some of my favorite horror games and franchises. At its core, the gameplay feels closest to that of Dead Space and the world felt heavily inspired by H.R. Giger with music that felt like it belonged in John Carpenter’s The Thing. It is clear that Bloober Team are going for something crafted or tailored for a particular result. Most obvious is the fact that Cronos has no difficulty setting, making combat feel brutal and challenging by design and it's better for it.

Ultimately, Cronos is survival horror at its peak. 

Fans of Dead Space will feel at home with Cronos: The New Dawn’s core gameplay mechanics. Weapons are upgradable via shop interface allowing for increased power, stability, reload speed, and clip size. The primary “pistol” fire of the Shiftblade can also be charged for greater damage. Your suit is also upgradable with the use of rare resources called Cores similarly to Dead Space’s Nodes.

Combat in Cronos is challenging and difficult by design and there are no difficulty settings. You are meant to face desperate and brutal encounters with enemies where you will either barely survive or die horribly. You must learn from your failures and adapt to what you learned from the previous death. Realizing that a certain number or type of enemy that attacks you and planning are key. Inventory space is limited and resources scarce, this is survival horror as it is intended. You need to make every shot count and go for maximum damage by charging your shots. Melee combat is an option, but only as a last resort as the punch and stomp do little damage. If you aren't confident you will kill something with a melee, don't do it as you will die trying.

Sometimes you are able to use the environment to your advantage. There are gas canisters and fuel barrels strewn about. The Traveler's suit is fireproof, but the enemies are not. Utilize your torch or fire barrels to burn corpses and set enemies on fire, stunning them while unleashing as many bullets as you can. “Don’t let them merge” is continued through the experience like Dead Space’s “sever the limbs” directive. 

You have to be aggressive and strategic as enemies will merge with the bodies of fallen Orphans, making them incredibly tough and strong. If you play defensively and passively you allow the enemies opportunity to merge and become a greater threat.

Environmental puzzles and key items are at the core of Cronos. Locked doors and blocked passages are frequent and require the use of keys, key codes, fuses, levers, and sometimes fire. There are time anomalies called Oddities strewn about the world that you can manipulate with a module for your gun called an Emitter, which allows you to change the landscape or open paths. You need to do this often to proceed along the main path as well as side paths with hidden items.

I know I’ve mentioned Dead Space a lot, but it's done so lovingly as Dead Space is one of my favorite horror games. I am thrilled that Cronos captures a similar essence in an entirely new way. It isn't a clone, but a new thrill that brings back the feeling of playing Dead Space for the first time.

Is Cronos a Bloober Blunder or Wonder?

What does this all add up to? The first standalone game developed by Bloober that is genuinely scary and fun?

Everything from the improved visuals, a story that is weird and bizarre, but much more cohesive than previous games, properly intense and heart pounding with fantastic set pieces and enemy conflicts, tied together with rock solid and entertaining gunplay and resource management on par with Resident Evil 2 or 4. All that I have experienced so far in Cronos: The New Dawn has me considering it as my favorite and might overall be Bloober Team’s best game to date. The story is unique while wearing many influences on its sleeve and the challenging combat makes me anxious to stumble into encounters. It may be in the running for one of the best horror games of 2025.

Learn more about Cronos: The New Dawn on the official website. Pick up the game for yourself on Steam, Epic, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch 2, or GOG and see for yourself. Stay tuned for our full review in Issue #4 of Fearzine Magazine.

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