Cronos: The New Dawn Image
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77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 78 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: Cronos: The New Dawn is a pulse-pounding, third-person survival horror game that throws you into the heart of a deadly struggle against overwhelming foes, all while uncovering the mysteries of a twisted time travel story.

    In the past, you will witness a world in the throes of The Change,
    Cronos: The New Dawn is a pulse-pounding, third-person survival horror game that throws you into the heart of a deadly struggle against overwhelming foes, all while uncovering the mysteries of a twisted time travel story.

    In the past, you will witness a world in the throes of The Change, a cataclysmic event that forever altered humanity. Meanwhile, in the ravaged wastelands of the future, every moment is a fight for survival against dangerous abominations that will test both your reflexes and your tactical thinking.

    You are a Traveler acting as an agent for the enigmatic Collective, tasked with scouring the wastelands of the future in search of specific time rifts that will transport you back to 1980s-era Poland.

    Your mission is to locate key people from the past who perished in the ensuing apocalypse. Using your all-powerful Harvester, you can extract their Essences and have them accompany you into the future.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 58 out of 78
  2. Negative: 3 out of 78
  1. Sep 19, 2025
    90
    Cronos: The New Dawn is far and away the best work Bloober Team’s put out and a splendid survival horror game in its own right. What starts as a post-pandemic Dead Space cover version becomes its own brand of scary that conditions paranoia into its players with undeniable expertise. There's a great script to go with the A-grade psychological puppeteering, and the whole package deserves to be seen as a genre classic...I am truly impressed.
  2. Sep 3, 2025
    90
    Overall, however, this is definitely a triumph for a studio that has taken some well-deserved knocks in the past, but which really shines here. Whereas Silent Hill 2 Remake was a comeback for many, it's ultimately not something Bloober has created itself. But Cronos is completely original, and there is no metaphor that adequately demonstrates how big a difference I feel there is between the two projects. Let's just say that Cronos is Bloober's masterpiece, and the proof I needed to really cheer them on going forward.
  3. 85
    It mightn’t be as faultless as the iconic video games it attempts to emulate, but, in attempting to do things no action-horror game has done before, Cronos: The New Dawn etches its deserved place at, at least, the honourable mentions board at the foot of the horror game Mt Rushmore. Bloober has ensured that, no matter what they try next in this genre, we will be seated. Such is our calling.
  4. Sep 3, 2025
    80
    Cronos: The New Dawn is Bloober Team’s attempt to prove they're more than just remake specialists. Did they succeed? You betcha.
  5. Sep 3, 2025
    80
    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.
  6. Sep 3, 2025
    75
    With Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober takes a step forward compared to its earlier original games like The Medium and Layers of Fear. However, what lingers most after the beautiful story is the thought that they need a blueprint—like Silent Hill 2—in order to truly shine in the survival horror genre. As a result, Cronos ends up being nothing more than a decent horror shooter with a very interesting combat hook. Unfortunately, the execution falls just short, which means the real tension doesn’t arrive until the very final part of the game.
  7. Sep 3, 2025
    40
    Cronos: The New Dawn is filled to the brim with potential, that ultimately falls short in how it executes all of its concepts. While there is a great story foundation and some interesting mechanics, the lackluster conclusion to the narrative, combined with irritating combat, frequent glitches, poor pacing of traversal, and repetitive gameplay scenarios make for a product that fails to capture the quality of other entries in the genre.

See all 80 Critic Reviews