Cronos: The New Dawn review

It’s been less than a year since Bloober Team impressed us with its phenomenal remake of Konami’s horror classic Silent Hill 2. And though the developer is hard at work breathing new life into another entry of that series, it isn’t doing so at the expense of not being able to create its own new IP. So, here we are with Cronos: The New Dawn, the first original game by Bloober Team since the release of Silent Hill 2, and one that truly does establish the developer in the survival horror genre.

Jump into Cronos: The New Dawn and you’ll find yourself in control of The Traveler, an enigmatic agent of a mysterious group known as the The Collective. Set in a future where the world has been ravaged by some kind of cataclysmic event, you’ve been awakened and have an important task to fulfil: locate and capture the essence of a number of key people. They’re not currently alive, however; your task will find you seeking out points where you can ‘dive’ into the past to locate them.

If that’s not arduous enough, considering the apocalypse and all, then there’s also the fact that you’ll encounter grotesque creatures along the way. Once human, these warped and twisted foes will truly give you the shivers, and even from the outset they’re formidable. Some get close and try to punch you with their extended limbs, others spew what appears to be bile at you from a distance. New enemies are introduced piecemeal, keeping you on your toes, and many of them have a fearsome trick up their sleeves; being able to merge with their fallen friends to effectively power-up and grow even more horrendous-looking and stronger.

It all makes for a tense affair, especially considering resources here truly do feel limited. You can run past some enemies to conserve ammo, but for the most part you’ll want to – or need to – fight. Clad in what looks like a cross between a space suit and a diver’s suit, thankfully you can take a bit of a battering, and you also have a nifty weapon that can be upgraded throughout the course of the game. First it’s just a simple pistol, with you able to charge your shots to make them more powerful, but attachments found as you explore will enable other forms such as a shotgun.

Being clad in a large suit, you’re not the most agile, so there’s no dodge manoeuvre here. You are agile enough to evade enemy attacks if you anticipate them, though, and savvy players will also make use of the environment to their advantage. Gas canisters and oil barrels can be shot to start fires, for example; useful for burning bodies so that enemies can’t merge. And explosive canisters will obviously cause a great deal of damage to any enemy caught in the blast. As you perform your job and collect essences, you’ll gain benefits from them, too. One makes it so that burning enemies take more damage, so you get even more benefit from using the environment. You have various fire-based tools you can employ to get the upper hand on enemies as well.

While the gameplay of Cronos: The New Dawn is fairly typical of the survival-horror genre, with you needing to find keys and other items in order to progress, it does do a number of things to stand out. Its setting feels rather unique, for one, or at least when you’re in the post-apocalyptic future. You’ll also find yourself manipulating time in certain areas to solve basic puzzles, restoring broken stairwells and moving other objects. There are some gravity-related shenanigans, too, with you using special boots to jump from one pad to another, whether it be on a wall ahead of you, or in a void above.

Cronos: The New Dawn isn’t a game for those who don’t like a challenge, though. With no difficulty options available at the outset, some may find it quite tough to get through thanks to its frequent combat encounters. It’s really easy to run out of ammo and other consumables, and using your melee abilities to take on enemies here really isn’t a good idea. Thankfully, checkpoints are decently placed, and you’re rarely too far from a safe area where you can manually save and manage your gear.

The story here takes a little while to get going, too, and it’s not helped by its rather emotionless protagonist. You’ll quickly find yourself becoming more invested, however, and after a few hours you’re likely to be fully engrossed. This isn’t a short experience, either; like Silent Hill 2, you’re looking at 15 hours or more for your first playthrough, and if you want to revisit it, there’s an unlockable Hard mode and New Game+.

Ultimately, Cronos: The New Dawn is another triumph for Bloober Team. It presents an interesting world, and will have you on the edge of your seat thanks to its fantastically foreboding atmosphere. The visuals are eerie and the sound design is on point, making you tense throughout. And with things like ammo being so scarce, it truly does feel like a fight for survival at times. If you have any love for the survival horror genre, consider this a must-play.