Cronos: The New Dawn

Such is our Calling.

In the world of Nowa Huta, a tragic event at a Steelworks Facility would change the world forever. At the heart of this mystery is the Traveller, who travels back in time to understand just what went wrong. As grotesque monsters roam the streets, hallways, and flesh-covered interiors of a once thriving town, the Traveller will struggle not only with these abominations but with her sanity as well. 

With Cronos, Bloober Team adds to their stable of Survival Horror titles. While The Medium was a fine enough affair, it was the Silent Hill 2 remake that showcased the absolute talent behind this studio. While there was a lot of doubt behind the quality of the remake leading up to its release, it was an undeniable success for the studio, one that will soon continue in remaking the original Silent Hill. However, until we return to that fog-infested freakshow, Cronos: The New Dawn would be the next stop on the tour.

You play as the Traveller, a woman clad in armor that almost feels as if she could survive the depths and pressure of the bottom of the ocean. There is a diving suit aesthetic here that fits in with the self-proclaimed “dives” they take when they activate time portals and return to the past. Nowa Huta is the world this game takes place in, but the world you go back to shares the setting of 1980s Poland. Knowing where the studio is founded certainly makes sense. 

The mission here is to discover what has happened to a Steelworks town as monsters have appeared, and many who had lived here are gone, either dead or missing. You do encounter a few individuals, those who have much-needed information that will aid in your quest. While most games often have you see a world head to ruin, the narrative conceit here is quite the reverse. You traverse around in this post-socialist apocalypse, only to travel back in time to when things were less chaotic, albeit still dripping with disrepair.

From the start, you are tasked with finding individuals who must see their essence preserved. While the procedure is always off camera, long mechanical fingers extract from your wrist as you inject them into the host. After which, you take their essence to a place called the Terminal. This process plays an undeniable role across the story. While this process of extracting the essence and sending it to God knows where is via this terminal, the easy road often has the most predictable roadblocks.

As the Traveller attempts to send these Essences on their way, the Terminal is non-functional. Eventually, you meet the Warden, who attempts to repair the machine, all while feeding us bits of exposition to flavor the world-building here. It is here where we learn more about the mission, the Traveller themselves, and the world around them. All in all, it’s cleverly put together, something I never figured I would say about a Bloober Team game. 

As you collect the essence of your target, you get to learn more about them. While they cannot be sent away via the Terminal, at least yet, the Traveller will be able to converse with what is essentially their soul. You'll discover your next target and gather bits of information that start to shed light on the tragedy that befell the Steelworks plant and how there is more to this mystery than what was initially told to the Traveller, making her doubt much of her mission. It's actually rather engaging, and many of the narrative threads they dangle help the overall story, paying off with a very satisfying reveal of just what actually did happen. 

Now, while the Essences are generally just the remains of these key individuals, they also do provide skills, such as gaining more energy, which is the currency you'll use to craft or buy items, but also combat-focused upgrades like dealing more damage with certain weapons. While you can only house three Essences at once, you'll have a small assortment to slot in, resulting in the complete deletion of the other. In fact, there are a few moments where you'll need to choose the outcome and live with the consequences. Apart from your main story targets, I ran into, I think, two others found on other Travellers who sadly didn’t make it. 

Cronos: The New Dawn shares a lot of its DNA with Dead Space, Resident Evil, and even Silent Hill. The inspirations are clearly there, with Dead Space certainly being the title I see the most. From Isaac Clarke's iconic boot stomp, the zero-grav jumps, to the fully armored protagonist tearing grotesque monsters apart at the limbs, Dead Space is without question the central inspiration here. And while EA is seemingly done with that franchise, it's great to see another studio pick up the ball and run with it.

There is an uneasy atmosphere here, one that doesn't even require the placement of monsters to get under your skin. Bloober Team does an excellent job at keeping the intensity and dread lingering around every corner. You'll encounter long stretches of hallways and rooms that, while empty of any threats, make you paranoid nonetheless. It smartly places groups when needed, with plenty of exploding barrels around to even the odds.

Throughout the game, you'll solve a few simple puzzles. These are manipulated by two abilities you'll earn. One has you firing off a yellow beam to revert things back in time, to another that fires off electrical nodes that you use to complete a circuit. The yellow beam is one that you can use in combat because it can reform most explosive barrels. Since these areas are anomalies, not every barrel can be rebuilt. Still, it allows you to level the playing field when surrounded by hordes of enemies and you are low on ammo. While not really an ability, you do gain grav boots that allow you to float to platforms, and this is another area that feels right out of the original Dead Space. 

Cronos: The New Dawn is just as much about conserving ammo as it is about using it. You need to be smart about when to engage, how to utilize the barrels or gasoline containers that can result in some explosive assistance. Ammo can be crafted, but shops have a finite supply of materials. You can find crafting components, but do you use those materials to craft healing supplies instead? This results in a risk-reward level of gameplay where you may look around your environment to clean house or rely on your free torch charges to burn away at your opposition. 

Part of how combat and exploration work is through your torch. You'll need to set enemies on fire, as if they come into contact with the remains of the recently fallen, they can fuse into bigger threats. The worst is when the larger enemies fuse with those who have armored skin, making their weak points harder to decipher. Torch charges are free at safe rooms, but you can also craft them in a pinch as well. Fire is also used to expose hidden areas masked with a black and red gunk that burns away easily. Fire will stun enemies as they burn, allowing you to get in a few good melee swipes or reload your shotgun to take down a group with one shell. 

Shooting isn't just pressing a button and seeing the result explode out of the barrel; you can hold down the trigger to charge that bullet, making it hit drastically harder. You can upgrade weapons to make certain things more efficient. From the amount of bullets in the chamber to that very charging speed, upgrades are worth investing the cores you find in remote places or by tracking down cats, which are the game's collectibles. Still, the charging of rounds may be slower, but they do considerably more damage. Combine that with fleshy weak points, and you have a recipe for bodily dismemberment that is extremely satisfying.

The assortment of enemies is rather small, but the various changes they make when they merge, or the combinations of foes, can make that lack of variety really shine here in ways that shouldn’t make sense. Bosses do repeat as well, making their impact a little bit disappointing, especially given how great they can be, last boss notwithstanding that is. Sorry, I just wasn’t a fan. 

While praise is the name of the game here, as I absolutely adored this journey, it does lack some core quality-of-life features that, while intentional, can sour some aspects of the adventure. First, there is no dodge or ability to quick turn, meaning you commit to where you stand and how close you are. Enemies can slash out, and while you can often prevent those hits with a solid charged shotgun round, that charge takes time ,and you don’t always pull it off. While you don’t notice the lack of a dodge all the time, you will certainly feel its absence in the game’s final battle. This is due to their melee attack feels like it won’t hit you, but it certainly will. 

Another lack of feature that soured some of my time with combat is the inability to auto-reload. The number of times I would be aiming down at my target and not realizing my clip was empty, to just have the Traveller standing there with an empty gun, was far too often. While that may not be an issue with many other people, it happened constantly. I also found it frustrating that you cannot pick up ammo to put in your gun if your inventory doesn’t have room for the clip. It’s a bizarre choice that had me running back to deposit items to then fit the 3-round clip into my inventory. As you cannot just drop an item, it forces you to delete it for good. 

Cronos: The New Dawn is a very linear game, but one that does have some backtracking. As you move on to new areas, you’ll not have the option to revisit past locations. This is actually a good thing as it keeps the action moving forward. Still, there are countless ways to apply shortcuts to safe rooms and to find ways around that make the world feel connected. 

The weaponry is fairly satisfying as well, given the few options you have. Some weapons are missable, but the central few are tied to progression in the story. You have a solid pistol that does some good damage when you start to upgrade it, giving it more ammo capacity, damage, and charge speed. You then start unlocking shotguns, assault rifles, and variations of those, such as a four-barrel shotgun, something that should only be used during boss encounters, as the ammo usage is something else. Weapons have a nice weight to them with a chunky impact to them. This is something else that the game shares in common with Dead Space, especially that of the Plasma Cutter. If I had to knock combat for anything, it would be that the melee attack should have been something you could upgrade, because it is utterly useless. 

Cronos: The New Dawn is gorgeous, and Bloober Team has shown they have a great handle on Unreal Engine 5. Both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have a performance and quality mode, which I kept it on performance from the jump. While the modes are more targeted towards framerate and resolution, the lighting can see some small changes as well. Quality mode does look a tad better with it hitting 30 fps, but Performance mode isn’t a slouch in any regard and hits a nice, clean 60 fps. 

Bloober Team found their confidence in the Silent Hill 2 remake, and this has shown a side of the studio that could be a force to be reckoned with. Cronos: The New Dawn is easily their best work, and I say that as someone who found the Silent Hill 2 remake to be absolutely jaw-dropping. There is potential for a sequel here, and with some smart choices on improving the aspect around combat, there could be a contender here to the genre that we really haven’t seen since Dead Space. Cronos: The New Dawn has some small issues, trivial things in the end, but they are noticeable and could dissuade players from really investing in the game. Still, when the game fires on all cylinders, it’s a joyous bloodbath that Isaac Clarke would approve of.  

Developer - Bloober Team.
Publisher - Bloober Team. Released - September 5th, 2025. Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, PC. Rated - (M) - Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X/S. Review Access - Review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.