I played new game from Silent Hill 2 Remake devs. Cronos: The New Dawn is a promising horror title with room to grow

Polish gamedev has a good reputation despite facing tough business, personnel, and emotional challenges. The success of games like The Witcher, Cyberpunk, Painkiller, Frostpunk, and Dying Light didn't just happen by chance. In all of this, big studios tend to sprinkle in some references to Polish vibes rather than fully embracing them. The situation with Bloober Team is different, they've made showcasing local realities their trademark. After a break for the American-looking and Japanese-origin Silent Hill 2 Remake, the studio is making a grand return to its own backyard.

During a special event, we were able to play the Cronos demo. Fans of games like Resident Evil and Dead Space should be happy with this one, although it might not be for everyone due to its difficulty level. Despite this - and a few minor flaws, Cronos is already impressive. Overwhelming and positive at the same time. As a decent horror should do.

Anger

So far, Bloober's horrors have kept their head close to the ground (Medium or even Silent Hill 2 Remake), sometimes only entering into a marriage with SF and cyberpunk (Observer), but in the case of Cronos, they are not messing around. This is a marriage of rusty retro-futurism, dirty, depressive SF in the style of Terminator, 12 Monkeys, and body horror.

We jump into the suit of the Traveller, another of the many units prepared by the mysterious Collective organization, to find gaps in time through which it can reach Poland in the 80s and extract the essence of outstanding individuals who may likely have some impact on the future. It's all because the future is painted in brown-apocalyptic colors, as the world has been hit by a phenomenon called The Change, related to an epidemic that transformed a large part of humanity into aggressive, mindless creatures that absorb each other to grow stronger.

Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team, 2025

When you think about it, we, by extracting the essence from people who died during the cataclysm, are doing something similar. It's actually pretty cool how the theme is connected, and even though we only played for about two hours during the show (I played a bit less because I chatted with the creators in the meantime), the story already leaves us with some interesting questions right from the start.

Do we really differ so much from the new biological entity, pushed to the brink of extinction? I also wonder if the whole story will revolve around the dilemma: do we sacrifice the past and the present to save the future? Because of this - and because of the suggestive, eerie design of our jumpsuit and the "programmed" behavior of our character, I started to doubt the positive and life-saving role of the Traveler and the Collective. All the messages related to our organization sound like the programming of an authoritarian group that wants to impose its order.

Discovering the nightmare

There's no way we can answer these questions based on such a small snippet of the game. The devs estimate that one playthrough will take twenty, if not more, hours. Especially since the storytelling is a bit, I mean, just a bit, reminiscent of Dark Souls. This means that Bloober Team wants to combine FromSoftware's enigma with cinematic expressiveness and a much more obvious goal. We'll probably grasp the main plot by playing the game, but understanding everything and putting it in the full context will require some extra investigation. To me, it sounds like the perfect balance in storytelling.

Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team, 2025

We basically get to know the story through pretty spectacular and cinematic - but also overwhelming - cutscenes, but not only. The surroundings tell a lot of stories from the destroyed world.

Apart from the cutscenes and environmental storytelling, we learn a lot from the recordings of previous Travelers and other survivors of the disaster. There are also various notes scattered around the maps, presented in a clever way and in manageable portions that leave an impression and make us want to find more and better understand this twisted, rusty world.

Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team, 2025

Moreover, although we will likely go through the locations in the same or similar order, our narrative choices are supposed to lead to different endings. Apparently, it will matter a lot who we choose to extract, but I think there will be other important factors too. During the intro, our Traveler answers questions from an enigmatic psychotest checking her cognitive abilities. When I asked the developers if this would also matter, they said that every story has satisfying consequences, like Chekhov's gun. I wonder how this "detail" will affect the plot of Cronos. For sure, during the game, we'll be able to play the role of the Traveler and decide whether to approach the task and existence more like a servant or to show a bit of humanity.

Playing for time

I am also curious how much of this apparent and hidden non-linearity will result from the gameplay. Because so far, the game itself is engaging and encourages playing, although fans of easy solutions may be put off by the roughness of this survival horror. Cronos combines the old with the new in a very intriguing mix. On one hand, it's a really modern game with quality-of-life features, but on the other hand, it hits us with an old-school challenge. It doesn't hold back, and the way the Traveler moves takes some getting used to.

For better or worse, we feel the weight of every action performed in the armored, heavy suit. Control, both on the keyboard and on the controller, requires a bit of attention, but is fundamentally logical and responsive. The creators really wanted to emphasize that we're not playing as ninjas, but as people in not very practical armor. Moving around feels slow (even though it's not really, at least not enough for us to get bored in the location), the character's movements look like the air is resisting them - it has its charm, although during the show, I also heard complaints about this heaviness. It suited me and created a good atmosphere in dealing with the difficult world around us.

Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team, 2025

First and foremost, however - Cronos has a fairly high level of difficulty. Not hellishly difficult, but just that: quite difficult. Dealing with two opponents is manageable, but facing three is like a slow but adrenaline-pumping dance of death, where one or two wrong moves and we're down for the count. Everything is based on the mechanics of merging, around which we have to play.

It's easy to shoot a single "zombie" or infected - or even beat them by hand - although it costs some resources. However, if we encounter an opponent who has managed to consume the corpse of his pal (or worse, several), we suddenly face a much greater threat. "Merge" can make the enemy stronger in different ways (more resistance to our shots, stronger hits), but it's never a good thing for us. Especially if the buffed monster is accompanied by one or two "normal" companions.

No mistakes allowed

The game doesn't forgive mistakes, but I can already see that it's worth playing on different levels. First of all, our Traveler will become stronger as the game progresses and the character develops. We can upgrade the properties of the suit, like its capacity (at first, our backpack is ridiculously small, and if we don't manage it wisely, we end up leaving behind a lot of useful stuff, which really hurts) and its resistance to damage. We have to make smart decisions because we unlock enhancements through special, relatively rare, and probably limited cores, kind of like in modern Doom games.

Besides that, we are also developing weapons, the gun had a really solid feeling, where parameters such as reload speed or greater sight stability come into play. We tinker with weapons in exchange for currency we earn during the game and from selling valuable items (in my case, it was a camera). Combining crafting and character development really reminds me of ID Software shooters and is enough to provide satisfaction, and allows for creating your own "build" - at least at the beginning, it forces us to focus on what we need the most to survive.

Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team, 2025

The devs assure that it's heading towards a situation similar to Dark Souls. A well-developed character and a strategic approach to combat will give us a huge advantage and tilt the scales of victory in our favor. Of course, Cronos is not a soulslike game, it's more like an evolution of the survival horror concept.

First of all, we get a lot of tools to deal with problems, and these toys have a lot of hidden mechanical possibilities that are worth using. Many of them rely on balancing risk and reward. The demo focused on hand-to-hand combat, shooting, and using a flamethrower. These toys may seem simple, but using them turns out to be quite sophisticated. For example, our gun can shoot regular, quick shots, but it's much more effective to hold the trigger for a moment and charge the ammo - this way, we can deal more damage with one shot and stagger the enemy for a split second. Of course, this creates a tactical dilemma - because we're sacrificing precious moments when the enemy is closing in. We, on the other hand, are taking a double risk here because until we invest in stabilizing our aim, it's pretty easy to miss the target.

Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team, 2025

All materials repeat not to allow creatures to "merge." And indeed, we have the tools for it. First of all, we can stop the process with a simple punch, which usually works, but we might not always reach it in time, and we risk being within the attack range. The second option, the flamethrower, becomes available after less than an hour and adds a lot of fun to the game. It definitely boosts our offensive and defensive capabilities.

It works not like a typical "cannon," but like a charge of a flaming shock wave that spreads around us. The basic application is the burning of bodies, as in times of plague, to prevent monsters from merging. At close range, it works great as a stun (the only issue is that by default, we can only carry one charge at a time), which paralyzes all nearby enemies. Then, for a moment, we can do whatever we want with the monsters, and if we manage to wrap up before the flames go out, the bastards will burn, and we won't have to worry that the next Cronenberg-Carpenter "something" will feast on the remains of their brethren.

Of course, in all of this, we need to make sure we have enough ammo (usually taken from special, thankfully renewable, dispensers), and there's another strategic decision to consider: when to launch our "nuke." When we're emotional, we can miscalculate everything. Nonetheless, it greatly increases the dynamics and complexity of the clashes, and I think it will be one of the main attractions.

It definitely works much better than, for example, the flashlight from Alan Wake, which became monotonous over time. From what I've seen in the skill tree, it has a progressive mechanic, just like other gadgets we use, as long as we invest in it.

Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team, 2025

The environment also plays a big role in combat - the distance, terrain, and obstacles are crucial, and positioning ourselves well increases our chances of survival without relying on autosave. In the places where we have to engage in more intense battles, there are often objects we can use, like explosive gas canisters. If we aim well, which requires some precision, we can get rid of many problems at once. But if we stand too close or miscalculate the distance to the enemies, we're just wasting our health and ammo. And renewing these initially isn't easy.

The game requires either quick reflexes and precision, or learning the arenas related to a particular fight. And best of all, everything at once and quickly. I really enjoyed figuring out specific battles - they're like skill-based puzzles with a few possible solutions, depending on the toys we brought with us. At the beginning, we don't have much, but the further into the forest, the more complex Cronos should become. It's a shame, though, we don't have a dodge (at least for now). The question is whether the fight wouldn't become too easy too quickly.

Cracks on the socialist realist monument

The only thing that's on my mind and maybe worries me a bit is the fact that the clashes seem to follow a certain pattern. There is a risk that every major fight will start the same way, by triggering the appropriate scripted situation. Enemies spawn for larger battles from special "organic" points when we approach a certain area or pick up a specific item. If we don't meet the conditions, we might have to hang around in a given area for many hours.

On one hand, it allows you to better explore the area after the first failed encounter, prepare better, and set traps. On the other hand, I'm not sure if it takes away some of the sense of horror and unpredictability from the encounters. Bloober was also really focused on a strategic approach to combat, and I don't think it can be done any better. It's also possible that this "initial schematics" will become less important when we can play with more gadgets, like the gravity shoes shown in the videos, but not available in the demo. So we'll see what it will look like in the long run, and there's no denying it, it has a retro flavor. For better and for worse.

Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team, 2025

The second issue that was a bit bothersome was the occasional, but still noticeable, poorly disguised invisible walls. What stood out to me the most was that I couldn't walk up the perfectly functional and unbroken stairs because a flipped, not very high cabinet was blocking part of the way. This is one of those moments when ludonarrative dissonance spoils the fun a bit. I get it, we're playing as a block in a clunky spacesuit, but we can still lift our leg 2 feet off the ground.

This looks bad, especially considering that we can't jump over most waist-high obstacles unless the developers anticipated it. I know that survival horror games aren't about bunny-hopping around the map at lightning speed, and the game design didn't allow for that much freedom of movement. But still, you can feel the limitations at times. Getting rid of the limitation or at least reducing it would add more depth to the combat and exploration.

Good and scary

Apart from that limitation, New Dawn world was fantastic to explore. I won't say: pleasant, because that's not what survival horror is about. Exploring in search of clues, resources, shelter, and anything that might be useful, however, provided the appropriate satisfaction and kept the tension high. Because if we ignore the issue of some overly flashy invisible walls, we're left with a really good level design that pulls us into new locations, intrigues us, pushes us forward, and encourages exploration - and rewards curiosity (and caution).

The whole thing is spiced up with the beginnings of environmental puzzles, which will grow into some real brain teasers over time. The ones I dealt with were pretty simple, but that's because they were at the beginning. They involve finding keys, codes, or using a special device that, by exploiting "holes in space-time," restores objects to a reasonably usable state and thus unlocks passages. I noticed during the demo that the challenge gets more complex as you progress. You have to find the right points to shoot at and then do it in the right order.

Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team, 2025

Now I simply see their potential, but if the designers have properly linked these mechanisms together, they will constitute a quite intriguing and satisfying challenge. This will diversify the gameplay while maintaining a steady pace as we traverse the game world without disrupting the rhythm.

And there is something to wander about. Cracked by time and cataclysms, Nowa Huta - composed of actual locations and those that were planned but never realized - makes a stunning impression. The artists from Bloober really nailed the fusion of late, solidified, and fenced-off socialist realism with post-apocalyptic vibes. It came out dark, overwhelming, and makes you want to know more about this world, even if all the warning lights in your head are flashing red and telling you to run to a safe place - because these locations, combined with the eerie, organic, and body-horror sound design, really stimulate the imagination. They don't scare, it's not that type of horror, unless we're in deep trouble, but they're slowly surrounding and enveloping us. Especially if we're playing with headphones. Also, from an artistic perspective, it's top-tier survival horror. The locations smoothly transition from destroyed everyday life to horror with a touch of abstraction (a touch that will probably resonate even stronger in the later stages of the game).

Plan rather executed!

I have rather small concerns after the show. The issues I wrote about, Bloober Team probably won't fix, but even with such baggage, Cronos: New Dawn promises to be a very solid technical survival horror in a unique, intriguing setting. I saw some cool new game mechanics and concepts, as well as great artistic design, and I got a taste of an exciting story. If all these aspects live up to their potential and are properly developed during the game, we might just have a hit on our hands, or at least a strong, solid game.

Cronos: The New Dawn

September 5, 2025

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• Overview
• Review

• Bloober Team
• survival horror
• Polish games
• Poland in games