The Polish video game developer Bloober Team has made its name synonymous with horror games in the last ten years. Starting off with series' like Layers of Fear and Observer and progressing into more mainstream titles like The Medium and Blair Witch, Konami handed the development team its keys to the kingdom. The highly successful remake of Silent Hill 2 put the Bloober Team name on the front page of every horror game fan's mind, and the team isn't dwelling on the success of that reboot. Bloober Team immediately introduced a new IP all of its own with Cronos: The New Dawn. We recently got to experience the first two hours of this new purely survival horror game and it's shaping up to be everything that a grounded survival horror fan would want.
Cronos: The New Dawn is set in a post-apocalyptic world that utilizes the actual real-world streets of Krakow, Poland, where Bloober Team is actually based. The plot stems from the failure of Communism in particular in relation to Nowa Huta. This is an alternate world that was based on the Nowa Huta. This is not a historical game, but the story comes from premise of this idea. Things started good under Communism and eventually went to hell. The set piece is a result of that failure, as the game starts with a video package showcasing how the world got this way.
Cronos: The New Dawn is set in a post-apocalyptic world that utilizes the actual real-world streets of Krakow, Poland. Krakow is where Bloober Team is actually based.
What's cool about the story premise in this particular world is its simplicity and how it builds. The developers and writers aren't shy about pulling elements from other franchises. They do admit that Resident Evil is a big inspiration and this is both seen and felt in this early playthrough. You'll play as The Traveller and the mantra of the game is "Don't let them merge!". You will be dropped directly into this world and will pick up the emotions of the complete failure of the city with reading journal entries spread out throughout. You're an agent of The Collective and you'll need to adapt or you will die.
Inspirations and Gameplay Elements
The writers aimed at merging both body horror with a cassette-future and input this result into a grounded survival horror experience that features low ammo and slow pacing. This won't be a high-action, jump scare game. It will rely on a dark atmosphere that will shine on a fancy OLED television with how the environmental lighting works. Enemies are known as Abominations as a result of The Change, which was a mysterious cataclysm that results from the Steel Mill that was the anchor for this once-thriving city.
Abominations can absorb other dead Abominations and will continue to evolve the more you progress into the game. You will need to strategize to burn corpses so other Abominations don't pick them up. Players can expect boss battles as well. Ammo will be limited, but weapons represent the cassette-future dynamic. Each weapon will have an alternate way to shoot and can be upgraded individually much in the same way as the Resident Evil weapon upgrades have since RE4. Other elements can be upgraded including armor and other Traveller-related perks. The inventory system is also similar to Resident Evil.
There are other little things that will pop up that will feel familiar from other games. When asked in an interview about movie inspirations, they all mentioned The Thing and Alien as two of the main movie inspirations. One thing that wasn't implemented was a quick-turn mechanic, which was by design. You are a Traveler in a heavy suit, so the gameplay feels heavy in movement and rather "tanky." Aiming is difficult as the bodies of the Abominations fluidly sway and move and combined with limited ammo, it's fairly difficult to kill these enemies.
You have the choice to run, or use a Charge Shot from the starting pistol or just unload clips. The amount of strategy involved is surprising as it feels like an evolution of a classic formula. The legs can be shot on these to take them out and melee can be used while on the ground, but armor will be added to bigger enemies as you progress. The gameplay is specifically over-the-shoulder, third person perspective. There will also be puzzles to solve for progression and exploration involved, even though the areas are fairly linear. There are ways to branch off and explore for items and locating journal entries. Ammo and more can also be crafted similarly to Resident Evil.
Overall Initial Impressions
There's no doubt that more time is desired for the experience that is Cronos: The New Dawn. Two hours wasn't close enough to get fully engulfed in this experience. The development team stated that gameplay is at around sixteen hours, but with the inspiration there's much more. Even at this stage, the game feels polished and the sound design will be something that needs to be experienced. If you are looking for a game where you're just mowing down body horror enemies, this won't be it. What this will be is the survival horror experience that was described when it was defined thirty years ago.
It should finally be noted that there will be a time-travel aspect that wasn't experienced within the first two hours (hence the name Cronos, which is the God of Time, albeit Cronos is also a 1992 dark fantasy horror film directed by Guillermo del Toro). Cronos: The New Dawn is slated to launch this Fall, but no specific date could be pulled from anyone at the event.
Cronos: The New Dawn
- Released
- September 5, 2025
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
- Bloober Team
- Publisher(s)
- Bloober Team
- Engine
- Unreal Engine
- Number of Players
- 1
- PC Release Date
- September 5, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- September 5, 2025
