A sometimes frustrating slow burn, but one to see through.
There’s a reason Konami entrusted Polish developer Bloober Team to remaster Silent Hill 2. The group has without doubt earned its chops in the survival horror genre; Bloober’s latest original release, Cronos The New Dawn, is in many ways evidence of this fact.
Bloober Team takes the foundation of Dead Space and builds on it with elements of Silent Hill and Stranger Things to create an eerie, atmospheric title that, while not without flaws, is absolutely worth playing.
Known only as a Traveller, your character in her fireproof and slightly steampunk-esque suit explores 1980’s Krakow Poland after an event known as the Change has fractured the city. Buildings lie in ruins, some suspended in gravity defying stasis and a gross fleshy biomass is taking over. Most people are dead and creepy distorted beings known as orphans roam the world looking to turn any living thing in their path into pink mist.
To delve deeper into the story of Cronos would be to ruin a major component of it — rest assured, as I’ll not go into any further specifics. What’s important to know is that the narrative is presented in a near frustratingly slow drip of elements. It’s cryptic and mysterious right up to the last few hours of its 13-hour campaign which makes playing Cronos challenging at times; the motivation to continue isn’t driven by the story in the opening hours.
That said, as someone who has played it through from start to finish, the payoff is well worth it. Big questions are answered and the whole thing concludes in a stack of, “ah, now I get it!” moments.
Firmly rooted in the third-person survival horror genre, shooter resource management is of course a key element of Cronos‘ overall gameplay loop. Ammo, health restoring patches and energy — that is, currency for upgrades — is incredibly limited. The vast majority of encounters with orphans will result in you being completely drained of all ammunition, making most firefights anxiety inducing at best.
During my playthrough there were also several occasions where a single poorly aimed shot was the difference between success and failure. With no ammo in my inventory and none within the accessible area to collect, I often found myself left with only one option: die and try again in the hope that all shots land on their intended target. That, and that ammo drops were a little more generous the second, third, or fourth time around.
It will come as no surprise to learn that Cronos features a bog-standard upgrade mechanic. When starting out, aiming with any degree of accuracy is incredibly frustrating, causing the Traveller to frequently waste ever so precious bullets. When ammo as scarce, it’s genuinely anger inducing; this frustration, combined with a cryptic and confusing story, may end up being a barrier that prevents players coming back. But I must reiterate: stick with it, as Cronos shifts a gear after the fourth hour or so and becomes much more enjoyable. When running at full steam, enemy encounters are much more satisfying and instances where you’re left without ammunition become less and less frequent.
Orphans are a disgusting and creepy enemy to go up against. Most can be dispatched with a few headshots — if they have heads, that is. They come in a healthy number of variants that tick all the standard boxes: bulletproof armour, acid spitters, and those that have the ability to grab the Traveller at range with gross, fleshy tendrils.
Things get a little more interesting through when living orphans merge with dead ones in order to absorb their powers. Allowing this to happen results in standard enemies becoming armoured, or acid spitters, or tendril types — if left long enough, an enemy could merge with multiple enemies quickly creating a very deadly combination. If this happens a quick death is almost guaranteed; running away to recover or reload is rarely an option.
Instead, the use of a fire ability, or fire-related tools — once unlocked — can instantly halt the merging process. Alternatively. pre-emptively burning the bodies of dead enemies helps too. It’s a cool gameplay element that adds intensity to most encounters, though the novelty is hampered by a severe lack of fire resources and the fact that you can just as easily interrupt a merge by shooting the merging enemies a few times.
In the first half of Cronos I was heavily focused on relying on my fire equipment to prevent a merge. In the second half, the fire tools were more of an annoyance, taking up precious inventory space which could have been used for ammo that served the same purpose while also inflicting damage, so I tended to avoid the fire abilities and just used my guns to kill two birds with one bullet.
Evident from screen captures, Bloober Team has excelled on the visual front. Trudging though mostly confined corridors of varying locations, the nearly destroyed city has been handcrafted with an impressive level of detail. The vast majority of Cronos is played years after the change that destroyed the city.
Decaying buildings, half buried in dust and ash are filled with signs that the city was once bustling with people until it came to a very abrupt halt. Other sections take place shortly after the change, showing a still broken world though the extent of the impact that the change will have long-term is yet to be seen. It’s dark, creepy, and in sections where fleshy biomass is taking over, it’s twisted and disgusting.
An incredibly immersive world is made all the better thanks to various documents and letters scattered throughout the game. Collectible documents that build lore are par for the course in a survival horror game, and generally I’m not one to bother to take the time to stop and read every little thing. In Cronos, though, I couldn’t help myself. Every little diary entry, letter or document that I found along the way had my attention. Initially the majority of these set the scene of what life was like as the change was occurring.
These collectibles tell the story of a world that is slowly unravelling due to an unknown illness that spreads quickly and soon forces people to adopt additional hygiene practices before being told to remain in their homes. It’s not long before workplaces start to shut down and government authorities step in to enforce strict rules for the good of the population while scientists work tirelessly to develop a cure. Sound familiar?
While the Traveller’s story is cryptic and vague for the vast majority of Cronos, the experience of the people of Krakow is all too familiar and it brought up some strong memories of COVID that I’d just as soon forget.
I should point out that Cronos the New Dawn does have a few frustrating teething issues. The PC version crashed at random times; it constantly did so in one specific instance, during a cutscene I ultimately had to skip and not view in order to progress. There are also some isolated instances where shooting at an enemy through a gap in a wall resulted in bullets ricocheting off empty space, which was annoying given the rarity of ammunition.
Finally, dying during the final boss fight will result in being forced to rewatch — or skip — two full cutscenes before you can get back into the action and try again.
Slow to start, Cronos The New Dawn is difficult to get sucked into during its first third; growing to like it is a very slow process. But, when it all comes together in somewhat of a crescendo spanning the final three hours of the campaign, the slow burn makes much more sense. Describing it as scary wouldn’t be accurate, but it’s definitely creepy and uncomfortable throughout. Where many games in the genre are littered with repeated cheap jump scares that quickly wear thin, Cronos only has a few, making them more impactful when they happen.
While it may not be up there with the likes of Dead Space, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill, Cronos The New Dawn is still survival horror done well. Fans of the genre should absolutely give this one a go.
Cronos The New Dawn was reviewed using a promotional code on PC, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.
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Cronos The New Dawn6 September 2025PC PS5 Switch 2 Xbox Series S & X
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