Cronos: The New Dawn

With Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team has cemented itself as a premier developer of survival horror games. Any lingering doubts after the release of 2024’s Silent Hill 2 have been laid to rest. It’s a tense, well written, beautiful horror game that I absolutely adored. The interesting story is engaging from start to finish, and the gameplay is a perfect blend of action horror and exploration that manages to not fall back on tropes of the genre like jump scares.

Cronos: The New Dawn is excellent. Gorgeous graphics, smartly deliberate gameplay, an intriguing story, and incredible music create a new IP that is easily Bloober Team’s best.

What Cronos: The New Dawn lacks in originality when it comes to gameplay mechanics and the overall setting, it makes up for with a stellar slow burn story concerning an apocalyptic event and the role the stoic protagonist (or rather its employer) plays in it. Bloober Team has effectively taken everything good from its obvious sources of inspiration and poured all of it in a dystopian biomass covered 1980's Krakow setting while mesmerizing its audience with a stellar synthesizer soundtrack. It's just a shame that they failed to copy how their sources of inspiration handled dodge mechanics or the implementation of a map though.

Cronos: The New Dawn is the last word in Bloober Teams evolution, in The Medium we started to shift more towards narrative based horror games and now we also get some more survival, I enjoyed my time exploring this version of Poland and the 80s era version of Bloober Team, and I can't wait to see what's next for the studio beside the Silent Hill remake.

Cronos: The New Dawn is one of the best survival horror games made today. Its pace, setting, and combat respect the tenets of a true title in the genre, while also raising the bar for future titles. Despite the lack of enemy variety and resource-gathering balance issues, Cronos: The New Dawn marks a new era for Bloober Team, leaving no reason to doubt its potential.

Intense and gripping, but fair survival horror that is oozing with suspense and a creepy atmosphere.

Cronos isn't big or new and there are numerous frustrations that keep it from the all time best lists. But when it works, it's a gorgeous horror fantasy well worth playing.

It's not perfect, but what Cronos: The New Dawn does right is done so incredibly well. Across the runtime of the game, the battle arenas can be a little tiring, but the bread and butter of the exploration and moment-to-moment combat carry it through easily. This is a very competent, scary and exciting horror title with some amazing, unique visuals. Get on it, horror fans!

Cronos: The New Dawn is a very good choice for the survival horror genre fans. Its old-fashioned mechanics may discourage some players, while certain elements could definitely be improved, such as the scriptwriting, the puzzles, and some technical issues. Nevertheless, the work has been done satisfactorily, and we await Bloober Team's next step with great interest.

Cronos: The New Dawn will entertain horror genre fans, but it will also remind them of how effectively the old Dead Space series managed to combine elements of action, horror, and eerie atmosphere into a package that blew everyone away. This is another solid horror game from Bloober Team and, we hope, a springboard to even more impressive games.

Cronos: The New Dawn proves that Bloober Team has finally found its stride. The studio has crafted a survival horror with striking aesthetics, original monsters, and clever manipulation of time that nostalgically recalls Dead Space and Silent Hill, while still maintaining its own identity. Atmosphere, visuals, and storytelling drive the experience forward, and though it occasionally stumbles on minor design missteps, it stands as one of the best genre entries in recent years.

Cronos feels like an exemplary concept with aesthetics and lore that make a player want to dive deep into the storylines presented before me. But its bulky movement and gritty combat slowed it down exponentially, to the point of feeling like wandering through a tar-filled dystopia with no hope of relief and a pathway that gave the facsimile of an open world but was a very directed path. We had hoped for a bit more from the game, but sadly it fell a bit haggard under the weight of its own armor.

An enjoyable experience with a nice story, but the horror-aspect is a bit lacking. The ambience makes up for a lot of small inconveniences, resulting in a worthwhile game for those who are looking for a somewhat spooky experience.

Cronos: The New Dawn feels like a ‘Greatest Hits’ album - only instead of radio anthems, you get a blend of the best gameplay elements from classic survival horrors. Bloober Team may not have added quite enough of their own creative spin, but they’ve certainly delivered an intriguingly crafted world and an engaging story.

Feeling truly powerless and helpless again? The latest Bloober Team game can help. In this space-age survival horror, people seem to die every second. You have to like it – but it's a lot of fun.

Cronos: The New Dawn captivates with its atmospheric atmosphere, deliberate use of light and darkness, and terrifying enemy designs. However, the intense action significantly diminishes the horror experience.

Playing Cronos: The New Dawn is a memorable experience, not so much for its moments of pure terror, but for the way it immerses you in a devastated, abandoned, and, at the same time, dangerous world. The constant sensation is that of walking through ruins and distorted memories, knowing that every step could change something, and that every choice has a real impact on the fate of the Traveler and that of the inhabitants of a humanity struggling against its own end. There's a subtle, persistent tension that pushes you to observe, plan, and carefully evaluate every action, as if you were truly part of that broken time flow. It's a game that lingers more for its atmosphere and worldbuilding than for its technical perfection or shrewd game design choices, which are often cumbersome and unable to work perfectly together. It's tough, at times frustrating, but ultimately satisfying.

If the movie The Thing means anything to you, if you've heard of the legendary artist H.R. Giger, who also brought the Xenomorph designs in the Alien films to life (pay attention to the Outer Shell design!), and if you're looking for a different and original experience in the horror genre, this is your game. Because Cronos: The New Dawn, while it may not usher in a new dawn, serves as a lighthouse for those seeking to navigate these waters.

Cronos: The New Dawn cements Bloober Team's status as masters of horror. Following the highly acclaimed Silent Hill 2 Remake, the studio has clearly gained confidence, offering us a fresh take on survival horror with this new release.

If Silent Hill 2 was the adrenaline shot that brought Bloober Team roaring into life, Cronos: The New Dawn is the solid, ironclad follow-up that shows that this studio is far from a one-hit wonder, but a bona fide horror powerhouse, and I'm very excited to see what they come out with next.

Cronos: The New Dawn is a lot of fun as a survival horror. While not terrifying, it is still stressful and does something unique with the genre.

Cronos: The New Dawn is Bloober Team's best original game yet. An immersive romp through a suffocating portrayal of 80s Poland, where your journey is far from what it first seems.

There are aspects of Cronos the team would be wise to improve upon with its next horror game. Particularly, knowing when not to challenge me with combat, but instead leaving me with a guttural sense of dread, could go a long way to marking future projects from Bloober Team as being on the level of its landmark remake project. Still, that's not to say what the team has done here is less than great in its own right. Cronos: The New Dawn is Bloober Team cementing itself as not just a studio obsessed with horror--it's been that for over a decade already. This is Bloober Team becoming a trusted voice in horror.

Cronos: The New Dawn hurls you into a shattered sci-fi wasteland where ammo is scarce and monsters are plenty. The pacing may sag in places, but its relentless challenge and gripping atmosphere keep the tension razor-sharp.

Cronos: The New Dawn is a remnant of the legacy of survival horror. It takes whispers from two titans of the genre and blends them with its own ideas. It would have benefited hugely from ruthless editing in areas, but remains a masterclass in world building and a perfect balance of tension and release.

Cronos: The New Dawn is a retrofuturistic horror-action game featuring tense survival combat, atmospheric world design and rewarding upgrades. Its slow-paced storytelling and eerie soundscape build tension to deliver a gripping 15-hour experience. However, scarce ammo, frequent deaths and tough bosses can make it feel punishing.A demanding but memorable journey for fans of atmospheric survival horror.

Cronos: The New Dawn is a superb new IP from Bloober Team, taking inspiration from survival horror greats such as Dead Space and Resident Evil. With an eerie atmosphere throughout and excellent art direction helping to provide top-class environmental storytelling, all while being supported by weighty, impactful combat, Cronos: The New Dawn proves that the space of sci-fi survival horror isn't dead yet.

Cronos: The New Dawn is a great new survival horror property and I hope we see more of The Traveller’s adventures in future. The clear influences from genre legends are combined with some original touches to make a game that feels familiar but also manages to innovate and surprise players too. The intriguing narrative, the enjoyable progression, and the challenging combat all combine to make an experience that cements Bloober’s place as horror specialists.

With its by-the-books survival horror experience, its first few hours feeling more frustrating than fun due to clunky combat and average enemy design, Cronos: The Dawn seemed to be nothing more than an unremarkable survival horror heavily inspired by the Dead Space series. Push past the around two hours mark, however, and the game blossoms into one of Bloober Team's best titles to date, thanks to its quirky mechanics, solid level design, unique setting and mystery-filled story.

While the explicit storytelling didn’t come together, this doesn’t entirely undermine the game’s strong sense of ambiance or the tension of its survival horror loop. Whether it’s frantic encounters that have you juggling between weapons, scares amplified by a demonic flashlight that loves to turn off at inopportune times, or the satisfaction of progressing through these interconnected areas, the act of working through Cronos: The New Dawn is a well-measured mixture of frights and thrills. While its narrative failings prevent this experience from merging into a cohesive whole, at least it channels the appeal of its video game inspirations.

A survival horror game that starts off creepy, arouses curiosity, and sends chills down your spine, but loses its momentum halfway through: Cronos. You might come for the thrill, but you'll stay for the story.

Cronos: The New Dawn isn't the masterpiece it was hoped for, but it's a crucial milestone in Bloober Team's evolution. At times frenzied, often distressing, it embodies the sincere desire of a studio determined to overcome its mistakes and forge a true identity, even if its homages remain too obvious. A demanding, slow, and heavy survival horror, it doesn't seek to seduce but to oppress. An experience that is especially striking for its mastery of the codes of a genre that its creators now know like the back of their hand.

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.

Although Cronos: The New Dawn doesn't revolutionize the genre, fans of survival horror games set in unique settings will be satisfied. A dense atmosphere, a mysterious plot, and a solid dose of anxiety define this new game from Bloober Team.

Like the flesh-merging virus, which exponentially heaps meat onto meat onto meat, Bloober's better ideas can get lost in the pile. That it still feels worth playing to its conclusion is proof of the fundamental strengths at Cronos' core. [Issue#416, p.108]

An ambitious yet flawed survival horror. Its great atmosphere and setting are marred by bugs, repetitive enviromnents, and more bugs. A shame.

While it's hard to ignore some of its flaws, Cronos: The New Dawn is a game that was made with love, and that love is contagious. The plot and time travel elements fit together coherently to offer us an enjoyable story and universe in a setting that is relatively atypical for Western Europeans like us. While the level design is a little too predictable to serve as a solid horror springboard, the same goes for the good idea of merging monsters, which remains too far in the background to be decisive. In reality, it is mainly the balancing act of resource management that will be the real source of anxiety and fear, where every missed shot can cost us dearly.

Cronos The New Dawn delivers gripping tension and atmosphere, but its slow pace and technical and narrative issues hinder immersion.

Cronos is a perfectly acceptable survival horror that looks astonishing at times and has an engaging plot (albeit a very confusing one) to ensure players reach the end. That said, there isn't a lot here that hasn't been seen in other survival games before it, and the combination of annoying enemy AI and no real difficulty settings mean some players will have a frustrating time of things.

The New Dawn is essentially a middling survival horror game that’s just barely salvaged by a disconcerting narrative. Ultimately, the horror that lingers most here is the sense that you can get your fix of gory, fleshy delights in a hundred places more effective than they’re presented here. Socialist ecclesiastical horror is a unique and valuable foundation for a game, and Bloober Team knows that, but as The New Dawn stands, its combat doesn’t prove the narrative’s worth.

Bloober Team focused primarily on combat, which, due to several frustrating design choices, is more irritating than satisfying. However, the game excels in terms of its world, music and atmosphere — these elements are sensational.

The scariest part of Cronos: The New Dawn is probably the frustrating combat, and while it boasts a selection of surprisingly cool puzzles, they're not enough to save the experience.

Fantastic art direction can’t save Cronos: The New Dawn from its boring gameplay, and awkward story.