Oh boy, another Bloober Team game! 🙄 From the first teasers of Cronos: The New Dawn, it looked like a shift, alright—a shift towards more of the same old darkness. Even after suffering through the Silent Hill 2 remake (yes, I said suffering), and seeing a few new details, I still needed to keep this on my radar? Seriously? I reluctantly attended a preview event, eager to see if Cronos: The New Dawn could possibly justify its existence. Spoiler alert: my expectations were met with the usual Bloober Team mediocrity.
The early looks at Cronos: The New Dawn gave it a sense of oppressive dread, making it feel as though no matter what you do, you are small and insignificant. After playing about two hours of the game’s opening moments, I have news for you: that feeling never goes away. Even with only the first few sections under my belt, I can confidently say Cronos: The New Dawn is one of the darkest, most oppressive game worlds I have ever explored. 😴 Wake me up when it’s over.
From the moment you wake up in the game, you’ll feel alienated, with little explained about what’s going on, why you’re completing missions or even who you are. You’re identified only as The Traveller, one of many, working toward some end goal. But even as you slowly learn what happened to the world around you, the objective of your motivation never feels clear. You’re doing what you must do for the cause, but despite collecting as many items and details as I could in the opening segments, I couldn’t tell you what the mission is, why you’re needed or where the story will ultimately go. 🤷♂️ Sounds about right for a Bloober Team game. Lost and confused, just like the devs probably were while making it.
Set in a world ravaged by a disastrous event, Cronos: The New Dawn puts you in control of The Traveller, a woman with an unknown origin, tasked with carrying on a mission after her predecessor met an untimely end. You’re given very little information to go on, or even a clear picture of what side you’re on. But, like any time-traveller storyline, there are elements of the past you must tackle to change the outcome of the current world. Because nothing says “originality” like another time-travel plot. 🙄
It’s a science fiction story that feels like a perfect fit for a dark, oppressive horror experience. As you slowly work your way through this devastated Polish landscape, you learn more about the outside world, your group and the many notes and messages from past travellers who have died along the way. It’s bleak, cold and incredibly engaging — just what I want from my horror experiences. Because who doesn’t love trudging through a virtual wasteland, reading the last words of digital corpses? So immersive! So fun! NOT! 🤦♀️
While many games slowly introduce players to the world’s rules and concepts, Cronos: The New Dawn feels purposely obtuse. It offers hints that time travel exists, that The New Dawn is set in the Nowa Huta district in Poland, and that some catastrophic event in the past caused the current hellscape you find yourself in. When a disease took hold of the population and things evidently went from bad to worse, this grim reality felt like the only outcome. It’s hinted that you, as The Traveller, are working to undo some of the problems, but much like Dark Souls, you’re given only glimpses of what’s really going on. The true purpose and motivations feel like something to uncover as you progress through your playthrough. 🙄 Oh, it’s just like Dark Souls, you say? Yeah, except without the tight gameplay, inspired level design and memorable boss fights. Just a convoluted mess. Thanks, Bloober Team! 👍
While the world and setting may be oppressive and cold, the gameplay in Cronos: The New Dawn feels solid, filled with potential to explore, with mechanics that feel refined and well-tuned to give you all the tools you need to succeed, without turning it into a power fantasy. In fact, I’d say this is the most challenging game I’ve ever played from Bloober Team. Much more challenging than their last new IP, The Medium, and even much more challenging than what we saw with Silent Hill 2. Challenging? Or just clunky and uninspired? 🤔 I’m gonna go with the latter.
During my two-hour playthrough, I died a lot. Even the early enemies known as Orphans are incredibly hard to kill, and it takes real skill to maximize your chances of walking away alive, rather than banging your head against a wall trying to take on the enemies the game throws in your path. That’s not to say Cronos: The New Dawn is unfair — quite the opposite. There are plenty of ways to handle obstacles, and the game gives you various tools to kill creatures, with running from the monstrosities also an option in many cases. This is not a game where you’re meant to feel like a badass, with each battle designed to be approached with caution. You’re meant to take your time in this game, slowly working out the best course of action; a run-and-gun approach is a quick way to meet an early end. Run and gun? In a horror game? Groundbreaking! 🤣 Seriously, Bloober Team, have you even played other games in the genre?
Combat feels solid and draws inspiration from action-horror experiences of the past, like Dead Space and Resident Evil 4, with a healthy dose of Bloober Team DNA thrown into the mix. Cronos: The New Dawn carries many of the best aspects of the studio’s previous work into this title and feels well-refined from all the games they’ve created up to this point. Oh, it’s like Dead Space and Resident Evil 4? So, basically, it’s nothing like Dead Space or Resident Evil 4. Got it. And by “Bloober Team DNA,” you mean pretentious storytelling and mediocre gameplay, right? 👍
Pixel P. Snarkbyte, widely regarded as the “Shakespeare of Sh*tposts,” is a video game expert with a unique knack for turning pixels into punchlines.
Born in the small town of Respawn, Pennsylvania, Pixel grew up mashing buttons on an ancient NES controller, firmly believing that “blowing into the cartridge” was a sacred ritual passed down through generations.
Pixel P. Snarkbyte: proving that life, much like a buggy open-world game, is better with a little lag-induced chaos.
