Bloober Team has seen success with its big releases in this generation with both The Medium and the remake of Silent Hill 2. It has now shifted gears to a new IP that blends survival horror elements with a sci-fi cassette future that takes place in a post-socialist utopian apocalyptic world. Cronos: The New Dawn brings a new big-budget survival horror game to the mainstream that takes multiple elements from various franchises and blends them with new ideas while keeping a superbly grounded experience. This is a love letter to decay, dread and cult classic that raised not only the developers, but also horror fans, in general.

The Horror Sci-Fi B-Movie Plot

The plot behind Cronos: The New Dawn isn't some blank state that evolves over time. The plot develops in reverse as players start in the end result of the world of Nowa Huta as opposed to watching this world fall apart. The term "Cronos" is related to time and is also the Greek God who is the son of Uranus and Gaia that was overthrown by Zeus. Both come into play here as time rifts are searched for to go back in time to not only see how the world got into this shape, but to also find the predecessor to the Traveler.

You play as the Traveler, for who is one of many. You encounter other dead Travelers along the way whose information, or Esscenses, can be obtained. Essences are also obtained from people you meet along the way. You are granted three and they provide slight boots to certain areas such as better head shot damage. These aren't accumulated a lot, but through story progression. Discarded ones need to be permanently deleted and the distress in that person's voice when that happens is saddening. These decisions have to be made at that time as decisions are pivotal in this game.

The game literally starts with decisions that play into the game down the road that you will forget about. It starts with a Rorschach test that dumps you into the world of Nowa Huta after the events of The Change. This event involves a virus pandemic that destroyed the Socialist utopia of Nowa Huta, which was a real idea for Poland and the basis of this game had this city taken off. It would revolve around the Steel Mill in the town and the thoughts and emotions of the failure of this city is read via notes along the way. This is a throwback to the original Resident Evil titles as you get an idea of the world based on journal entries along the way as you pictures these individuals going through this event as it unfolds. The storytelling is masterfully done in this game.

Bloober Team hits it out of the park again with the atmosphere portion in Cronos: The New Dawn. The dark areas with designated lighting and coupled with a sound design while gameplay is extremely grounded. The game isn't really about jump scares, but rather being uneasy as there will be times where enemies aren't encountered for a while. In fact, these are spread out as encounters are important events along the way. Taking in this post-apocalyptic atmosphere that has areas that are created based on real-life streets is intriguing. Players can expect back tracking and more sci-fi implementation later in the game that includes puzzle-solving with base jumping. Puzzle solving is also here, but nothing that is ridiculous. The design of the areas that becomes more infused with large biomass clusters summons vibes not seen in other games.

As mentioned previously, enemy encounters are fairly spread out and it feels similar to the original Resident Evil or Silent Hill in this design. Gameplay is extremely heavy and aiming is sluggish. There's an auto aim assist option in the game to help and this is actually off by default. There are also no 180-degree turns or dodging as this was by design from the devs. The over-the-shoulder look combined with the inventory system generates RE4 vibes. The early portion of the game is a tutorial for a good while and the game simply seems to take longer even though you're feeling progression. Bloober Team states the game is sixteen hours long and that seems more likely for a second playthrough. There are also cats. Yes, you can collect cats that have names and provide a resource when discovered.

Cronos: The New Dawn is difficult. There's no difficulty setting and there's a lot of trial and error. This game needs to be experienced with a high-tier OLED display for not only the atmosphere, but to better see enemy weakpoints. The game preaches to not let them merge, and this is where The Thing or The Blob inspirations come in. Enemies can evolve from dead corpses. Corpses can be burned so this can't happen (Crimson Heads), but multiple can be burned at once if in the same vicinity. This is where a backend strategy comes in as Torch inventory needs to be managed. These are actually free in the save rooms in the game (yes, there are save rooms with accompanying music). They can also be upgraded much like the weapons and resource management in the game, which is again much like RE4.

There isn't a wide variety of enemies in the game, but rather they evolve over time and you'll learn what ammo and what strategy is best. Just because the amount of enemy encounters isn't abundant doesn't mean the amount of enemies at that time isn't. Some of these encounters can get out of hand and explosive barrels can be your friend. Some enemies can projectile vomit, climb on walls, be massive or have massive amounts of armor. The more spikes you see out of an enemy, the more difficult they are. Weak points have to be identified on these. There will be encounters where the Cronos manipulation is used to generate and regenerate explosive barrels. This manipulation is also used for puzzle solving and platforming along the way. You might be getting keys to unlock doors, but you're also manipulating the world to progress to different areas.

The boss battles revolve around implementing the explosive barrel usage, or just the overall usage of fire. This is used to stun and exploit obvious weak points. The boss battles are underwhelming because once the enemy is figured out, the abundance of confidence comes in. This also happens when going back and replaying the game. This is akin to a Souls-like, which makes Cronos lean towards a Souls-like Survival Horror game as enemy encounters feel spread out like that genre does and you're going to die a few times before figuring out what to do. This is with limited resources and ammo, which is a big aspect of this game. Ammo and health can be crafted and credits can be used to purchase a limited amount of resources. You'll revisit an area that you took down quite a few enemies and realize that this could have probably have been skipped. You are literally gambling with your resources throughout this game. It's familiar yet unique at the same time.

This is akin to a Souls-like, which makes Cronos lean towards a Souls-like Survival Horror game as enemy encounters feel spread out like that genre does and you're going to die a few times before figuring out what to do.

The guns also have a charge function and are the preferred way to take down enemies. These monsters will bob and weave, but tend to have a pattern for a short amount of time. Holding down the right trigger will charge up a shot and it doesn't matter what the weapon is. With ammo being so scarce, you can guarantee a weak shot with a pistol or a shotgun, but you'll waste more. Enemies can also be lit on fire to make things easier, which again burns up resources. Downed enemies can be stomped and while melee attacks exist in the game, good luck with that. There are always different ways to handle enemy encounters. There are sections of the game where there are joined twins attached to biomass that will grab you. Following their sound is the best way to try and take them out. Some enemies can also be taken out before they wake up, but failure can wake them up, or it can waste ammo. Again, a ton of trial and error throughout the game which stretches out that first playthrough way beyond the sixteen hours.

Technical Aspects of Cronos: The New Dawn

Cronos: The New Dawn was reviewed on PlayStation 5 and also PC. This was due to the fact that a major patch for the game wiped out the previous save, which was a blessing in disguise. Yes, Cronos runs on the Unreal Engine 5 and offers the same type of experience that many familiar with these games expect. PlayStation 5 offers a Quality and Performance option, and that patch helped to stabilize the frame rates. Visual aspects between the two modes are hard to discern, but clearly a lighting difference or the resolution creates the difference between the two modes. One targets 30 and the other targets 60, and 60 is still preferred. Playing this game at 30 FPS makes it more tanky and aiming is difficult, but it is consistent.

The armor for the Traveler only has specific reflections on the suit, otherwise it mostly looks like concrete. The head design is weird, but fits this idea of a post-apocalyptic world. Enemy designs are gruesome and it's all body horror and insane-looking mutations. Whoever designed the art for this has a love for body horror, and if this is your niche of horror, then it's perfect. The backgrounds are not interactive outside of specifically designated items. The world is in a specific box, so you're not collecting shards of metal or cheese wheels to craft items. Cutscenes will run at 30 FPS as well. The game will shine the best with an OLED display that does excellent dark colors and brilliant HDR results. The game is vibrant when lighting is required, but the world is mostly dull and the lighting is what makes the difference.

The best way to play Cronos: The New Dawn is on PC with at least an RTX 4000 series. This is because frame generation is supported with DLSS. The game does offer TAA, Intel XeSS and AMD FSR as well. There are more options here to make up for any gaps depending on the video card you have. It also supports multi-frame generation. With Ray Tracing on and settings at Ultra using NVIDIA DLSS Quality, the RTX 5080 gets around 45-55 FPS at 4K. Frame generation increases this to 75-80 FPS.

The game will occasionally hit a major hiccup, but mostly the experience with frame generation is fantastic. The fact latency isn't an issue with this type of game, it really showcases what this technology can do. Occasionally, the game seems to almost screen-tear or something is off, but getting that much performance is the way to go. Multi-frame generation pushes it closer to 120 FPS, but it really just needs 60 with overhead. The game offers a 30 FPS and 60 FPS cap option on PC, but can be set to unlimited.

Playing Cronos with headphones is the best way to experience it. This helps with enemy identification as well. This isn't a game where you'll be mowing down waves of enemies, so knowing the direction of an enemy and if they're in a specific room allows for strategy and survival. There will be ambient background sounds mixed with synthwave/dark wave music that will pick up when enemies are near. Voice acting is robotic for some and none of the people encountered have an accent. The sound effects in the game and the soundtrack stand out the best.

Closing Comments:

Classic survival horror fans will thoroughly enjoy the gameplay and design of Cronos: The New Dawn. The extremely grounded and heavy feel to movement and aiming mixed with puzzle solving and ammo/resource conservation is masterfully executed. The world and the atmosphere mix dreariness with vibrancy and the game offers unique dynamics for puzzle solving that haven't been seen in other titles. It plays like a Souls-like and involves a lot of trial and error, but you continue to want to push on. The console experience is solid enough with performance, but if the option for PC is available for you, this would be preferable. In terms of replayability, the story is solid and its portrayal is great, but you'll mainly be playing through at a faster pace on a playthrough. It's definitely more than sixteen hours in its first playthrough. Cronos: The New Dawn offers a fascinating story, but the classic survival horror elements blended with new ideas make it essential for fans of the genre.

/5

Cronos: The New Dawn

Version Reviewed: PlayStation 5

Follow Survival Horror Science Fiction Action 5 Images Pros & Cons

• Excellent atmosphere.
• Gameplay appeals to classic survival horror fans.
• Sound design.

• Console performance/bugs.
• Not a wide variety of enemies.
• Trial and error progression.

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