Despite nearly sharing its name with a joyful Mario squid enemy, developer Bloober Team makes horror games almost exclusively, but its track record is spotty. Its last game, however, the 2024 remake of Silent Hill 2, was met with nearly universal acclaim. The positivity surrounding that game inspired confidence in Cronos: The New Dawn, and while there are some clear lessons the team has taken away from its time in foggy scary town, Bloober’s time-travel horror game is not without its pain points. If you’re in the mood for something that recalls games like Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space, though, Cronos might hit the spot.
Taking clear inspiration from the 1995 Terry Gilliam film, 12 Monkeys – a movie I like a lot – Cronos: The New Dawn follows the Traveler awoken without memory for a mission of such great importance that it is treated with religious reverence. A mysterious incident in 1980s Poland caused a horrific disease outbreak that infected humanity, turning us into violent, powerful monsters with the ability to merge together to become even more violent and powerful. The Traveler must survive the present and go back in time to extract the memories of important individuals to figure out what happened and hopefully prevent it.
The science-fiction premise is fascinating, and whether intentional or not, the art direction emulates the dangerous and hopeless mood of 12 Monkeys well. I was intrigued by the Traveler’s robotic devotion to the Collective and its mission to save humanity, but emotionally, I was left hanging. The ending devolves into difficult-to-track ambiguity that left me more confused than curious to learn more. It also doesn’t help that the protagonist is faceless. She never leaves her diving suit or removes her helmet, so moments meant to feel weighty and important often come off as goofy, with the performance relying on large swinging arm gestures.
The narrative’s shortcomings, however, are offset by generally solid survival-horror mechanics. The Traveler makes her way through the pre- and post-apocalyptic eras of Poland, finding keys to open doors, managing her inventory, keeping track of ammunition, and fighting monsters (named Orphans here) as conservatively as possible. The gameplay is familiar without ever straying too far out of the bounds of the genre, and I appreciated it for that. I was rarely surprised by the task at hand, but as a fan of survival horror, I welcomed the reliable and generally well-balanced gameplay.
Shooting feels pretty good, and the ability to charge every weapon for a stronger attack without expending extra ammo created intense moments of Orphans stumbling toward me while I waited to fire off a shot at the last second. The Traveler is also able to play with gravity later in the game, and it leads to some enjoyable visuals while maintaining the basic fun of the shooting.
I did miss the ability to do the quick 180-degree turn seen in comparable games and would occasionally get frustrated by not being able to do much to dodge enemy attacks outside of trying to run away. Cronos also frequently makes what are meant to be jump-scare moments damaging at best and lethal at worst. These always frustrated me because many are unavoidable, and I would die, and then the horror would evaporate on the second attempt because I knew what to look for. I signed up for a horror game, and I don’t mind getting jump-scared, but it shouldn’t always kill or nearly kill me. At that point, it’s more frustrating than frightening.
Cronos: The New Dawn has an excellent, thoughtful premise that feels dark and dangerous, but does a poor job of executing on its promising sci-fi ideas. A questionable religion born from trying to save the world in the face of a rampaging disease with clear parallels to the global pandemic we all recently experienced is great fodder for a story, but I was left shrugging my shoulders by the end. Thankfully, the gameplay, though familiar, offered plenty to pull me through the approximately 12-hour experience to see the end.
