Cronos: The New Dawn Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch 2, Linux, & PC)

The masterful art of crafting a truly terrifying experience doesn’t always come easy. I presume it’s why there have only been a few franchises that have cracked the code, dominating the horror genre for as many as decades. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Dead Space are a few of the big bads you’ll find in the horror genre, occasionally spicing up your playthrough by throwing survival into the mix. 

It’s no surprise, then, that these few franchises have resorted to releasing remakes to keep the genre alive. But now, we have Cronos: The New Dawn attempting to make a name for itself in the survival horror world. While borrowing gameplay elements that are tried-and-tested, it does propose its own, unique, and new ideas. The question is, do the new ideas do enough to leave an impact on the genre? Scratch that, do the new ideas do enough to leave you satisfied? 

Cronos: The New Dawn is certainly not a smooth sailing experience, with a few bumps you’ll have to make do with down the road. Yet, for attempting to bring something new to the genre, I commend the Bloober Team, even if there are a few areas that still need ironing out. For all the questions you may have, the doubts and curiosities racking your mind, we’ll be putting them all to rest in our Cronos: The New Dawn review below.

The Plague Called the Change

Brace yourself for Cronos: The New Dawn’s story. It truly is a long-winding web of mysteries and heavy themes, many of which take a long-ass time to unravel. That’s because the story wants you to unravel it on your own, exploring the world for tidbits of lore, notes, diaries, audio logs, codex entries, and so on. And as you might already know from this style of storytelling, it’s not always easy to piece together a coherent plot. It’s like putting the pieces of a puzzle together, which takes time and effort before you can begin understanding the core arcs and characters important for the climax to hit in the ways the developers intend. 

In more ways than one, this potentially surprising and satisfying impact of the climax and the ending of the story of Cronos: The New Dawn will be lost on some players. Those who would give little care for hunting down notes and diaries, feeling like the storytelling idea has been wrung dry at this point. It doesn’t help that some of the arcs grow on you, portraying the challenges and struggles the characters you meet face during a forceful lockdown imposed upon them by the government. 

It harkens back to COVID themes, which you might be all ready to put behind you. Or the opposite, they may still hold a heavy, emotional impact on your soul, with the memories still fresh in your mind. Cronos: The New Dawn’s world truly is an oppressive, depressive place, with many a misery to fill an ocean. And it’s not only covered by the conversations you have, but the decaying environment you traverse.

Back to the Past

Beyond the impressive, post-apocalyptic atmospheric and environmental design, you explore time-travel story and gameplay ideas. I won’t delve deep into these, except to say that they do inject a fresh breath of air into your playthrough. In an effort to combat the apocalypse that has turned nearly all of the human population into ghastly and deadly necromorph-like monsters, you travel back in time momentarily. The goal is to extract Essence, which are human souls you then bring back to join the Collective, and well, it’s all significantly interesting. 

Even more so is the impact that extracting Essence has on you. The more trips you make to the past, the more paranoia grows within you, which makes you view the world through an even more grotesque lens. Overall, if you have the patience for it, Cronos: The New Dawn’s story can truly awe. Its ideas and themes can be pretty heavy, encouraging you to chase more of it and enjoy a horrifying, unsettling narrative.

Where Orphans Eat You Alive

This strong storytelling, barring its flaws, is further enhanced by an unnerving world. You explore areas crawling with zombie-like monsters called Orphans. They come in a decent variety and attack on sight. And can further merge with each other to grow more powerful. Fighting them is tense, thanks to your helmet-wearing protagonist being pretty fragile, especially in the beginning. And moreover, your resources are scattered few and far between, especially ammo. 

Orphans may go down easily, but your ammo drains even quicker. And so, every shot must be well planned, thought-out, and maximized. It’s not surprising to run out of ammo mid-combat and have to run back to saferooms to craft more. And even then, you might not have enough resources needed to restock. And even then, there’s a high chance you won’t make it far enough before the Orphans devour you. 

Bundle of Nerves

In that sense, Cronos: The New Dawn does have its moments of panic. It can truly terrify in the seconds you realize you’re out of ammo, and the Orphan you thought you’d killed is now merging with another. When you’re desperate to make the most of every single shot, only for the Orphans to begin crawling on the roof and muddy your aim. There’s also imaginative additions like Orphans playing dead, but at least you can identify them with your weapon glow light.

Cronos: The New Dawn certainly understands how to implement survival horror’s best gameplay elements. It doesn’t do much differently, but adheres to the limited resources, low health, and hordes trifactor. And it has worked so far in Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Dead Space. So, hey, I’m not mad at it. Similarities definitely exist, even in the monster designs. But the setting is new and stunning in its constantly unnerving atmosphere, and that matters the most in your overall experience. 

Nitty Gritty

More precisely, Cronos: The New Dawn scatters different weapon types in its environment. It limits your inventory space, although you can certainly upgrade it, so you aren’t always carrying the same weapons. Your shotgun does come with its variation of higher blast damage or double, quicker shots. And the same goes for the other handgun, carbine, and assault rifle alternatives. 

There are certainly ways Cronos: The New Dawn’s weapons could have been more versatile. For much of the gunplay, it feels like a straightforward point-and-shoot. And even the bosses have their easy-to-hit weak points. The trick here is always your ammo supply, which there are ways you can substantiate.

Out of the Box

You can aim at explosive barrels, for instance, to take out more enemies. Or you can use the dagger to counter-attack the possibility of missing a shot against mobile enemies. Yet, it still feels a little boring, needing even more ways to get creative with your weapons and attacks.

Fortunately, the puzzles help switch things up a bit, especially the ones you solve through the time oddities. You can use the time-traveling rifts through the world to rebuild bridges and tunnels. And these help you remove obstacles and solve puzzles in your exploration. But there are far more creative ways it could have come in handy during combat, say, rebuilding explosive barrels or rewinding time to correct a mistake.

You also have the Gravity boots, which allow you to walk on walls and floors. But again, it feels underutilized, solely providing a new perspective from which to appreciate the stunning, sci-fi, hellscapes, post-apocalyptic universe. Otherwise, there isn’t much you can use it for or get creative with in the more intense combat sequences or brutal fights.

Verdict

Cronos: The New Dawn is certainly a breath of fresh air in the survival horror genre. It’s not an easy game to beat, with extremely limited resources and ammo found in the world. In fact, many of your exploits will be enshrouded in a harrowing and terrifying world, filled with tragic stories and misery. It’s the exploration of the aftermath of a devastating plague, after all. And the world design and character stories do a good enough job to deliver on the hopelessness of it all. 

Still, the story takes a while to sink in, charging you with hunting down lots of notes and diaries to piece it together. While the ‘80s Poland world is harrowing and beautiful, the story can easily get lost on you. Meanwhile, the combat has its intensified moments, particularly when you run out of ammo and are up against waves of the grotesque Orphan monsters. You’re always in constant awareness of the environment around you, with danger leaping out of the shadows at any moment. 

But there are a few things missing that would have truly taken Cronos: The New Dawn to staggering heights, from a lack of innovation to only a few creative ideas, to truly, narrowly escape and survive through a nightmarish world.