“a game that was sharted out just in time for the October "Horror" season"
PC | PS5 | SWITCH 2 | XBOX SERIES
HOW I PLAYED: I played the Battlefield 6 open beta on my R7 7800X3D, RTX 3080 gaming PC via Steam. I played at 1440p and was able to get around 120fps.
STORY — 12/20
INTRO -4
Cronos starts you out in a very ominous post apocalyptic world as an unnamed character. You are given a mission to find your counterpart and retrieve them. Your first task is releasing yourself into the very dark and gothic environment Cronos sets you up in. You can definitely tell that this team worked on the Silent Hill 2 remake... as the environments are very... "similar" with a lot of fog obstructing your view of what is a few steps in front of you.
I felt like Cronos had a great start, I was definitely immersed into this sci fi horror aesthetic and I was digging it. Silent Hill meets Stranger Things meets Dead Space.
It really stands out in some of the cutscenes and the NPC models just looked disproportioned. The enemy NPCs looked decent enough but they were a bit repetitious (more on that later).
One of the characters looks like Doom The Dark Ages Doom Guy but with a dumber helmet... no joke, you won't be able to unsee it!
Again I feel like this game would have been more effective with more subtlety and maybe didn't show the human characters as much.
Just my opinion.
The 80's LoFi Stranger Things tunes are a big driver in Cronos. I really dug the atmosphere and vibe in the general ambience in the game. And I played the game with headphones on most of the time so I was very creeped out a lot of the time.
This was one of the game's strong suites and I think Bloober Team really deserves props for NAILING the feelings and emotions of this type of game.
I was happily surprised that Cronos had very few bugs. Most times they were just cosmetic with debris and particles getting stuck in random places. And I had a few instances of my player character getting stuck in geometry but nothing massively game breaking. I did experience a bit of traversal stutter.
But that is basically as expected with UE5 titles. But I was pleased to see that Cronos has a Shader compilation step when booting the game. And I feel like that did help with shader stutter.
If you have played RE2, RE3, RE4 remake, or Alan Wake 2 the controls for Cronos will make sense to you. Basic 3rd person shooter controls and an inventory management system. Switching weapons was smooth and I felt like everything flowed decently. They definitely took notes when working on the Silent Hill 2 remake.
I wish the game included a dodge or block button but... it is what it is...
.gif "Cronos The New Dawn Overall Score")
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I felt like Cronos had a great start, I was definitely immersed into this sci fi horror aesthetic and I was digging it. Silent Hill meets Stranger Things meets Dead Space.
CUTSCENES -3
Cutscenes in Cronos were kind of a mixed bag. At first I was very intrigued and found myself really enjoying the short drips of story that the cutscenes offer. Your player character starts off as a person who speaks few words. But by the end of the game they were a total YAP FEST!
I really felt like this game should have leaned more on its obscurity rather than having its characters full out exposition dump dialogues. And some of the characters looked rough in the cutscenes which did turn me off a little.
Less is more! Keep it short, let the player's imagination do most of the work. I find that is always a way more successful tactic when it comes to horror.
I really felt like this game should have leaned more on its obscurity rather than having its characters full out exposition dump dialogues. And some of the characters looked rough in the cutscenes which did turn me off a little.
Less is more! Keep it short, let the player's imagination do most of the work. I find that is always a way more successful tactic when it comes to horror.
WORLD BUILDING -3
You get most of the world building through NPC dialogue. There are some notes you can read and get more exposition. So pretty standard for this type of game. You can also run into these "Essences" of NPCs in the game and they have more dialogue audio for you to listen to, and there are also these tape recordings you can listen to with further exposition dumps. But it got fatiguing at times.
OVERALL STORY -2
I'm gonna be straight up with you... the overall story was a mess in Cronos: The New Dawn. I feel like Silent Hill 2 remake got to Bloober Team's head a little and now them making a game that wasn't already written for them truly showed their weak points... which is writing!
The whole time I felt like Cronos didn't know what it was trying to be. It starts off with a lot of environmental storytelling which I love... but then about 1/3 into the game it turned into a weird half assed take on a psychedelic horror. There was a lot of wasted potential with the game's setting and characters. A lot of it just came off as corny and totally cringe at times. My main complaint is the character dialogue... the more the player character talked the more out of immersion I felt. The "Twist" at the end, I was totally able to guess pretty much right away so for 2/3 of the game I was just waiting for them to come out and say it...
This happens a lot in modern games and even modern cinema. Everyone is so fixated on trying to have a really convoluted story with lots of intelligent twists and diverted expectations. But the delivery is never on point and the whole thing just ends up falling flat or not feeling coherent.
One of the best sci fi horror films is 1979's Alien and it didn't need a stupid overly complicated story to achieve what it did. I feel like Cronos could have achieved a lot more if it stayed simplified and leaned into the unknown a bit more and didn't sit you down and explain everything every 5 minutes.
Too bad...
The player character model looks great. But the NPCs leave something to be desired, I never played the Silent Hill 2 remake but when I look at my colleague Max's review, even then I see that some of the NPCs were a bit... "choppy."The whole time I felt like Cronos didn't know what it was trying to be. It starts off with a lot of environmental storytelling which I love... but then about 1/3 into the game it turned into a weird half assed take on a psychedelic horror. There was a lot of wasted potential with the game's setting and characters. A lot of it just came off as corny and totally cringe at times. My main complaint is the character dialogue... the more the player character talked the more out of immersion I felt. The "Twist" at the end, I was totally able to guess pretty much right away so for 2/3 of the game I was just waiting for them to come out and say it...
This happens a lot in modern games and even modern cinema. Everyone is so fixated on trying to have a really convoluted story with lots of intelligent twists and diverted expectations. But the delivery is never on point and the whole thing just ends up falling flat or not feeling coherent.
One of the best sci fi horror films is 1979's Alien and it didn't need a stupid overly complicated story to achieve what it did. I feel like Cronos could have achieved a lot more if it stayed simplified and leaned into the unknown a bit more and didn't sit you down and explain everything every 5 minutes.
Too bad...
GRAPHICS — 11/15
CHARACTER MODELS -4
It really stands out in some of the cutscenes and the NPC models just looked disproportioned. The enemy NPCs looked decent enough but they were a bit repetitious (more on that later).
One of the characters looks like Doom The Dark Ages Doom Guy but with a dumber helmet... no joke, you won't be able to unsee it!
Again I feel like this game would have been more effective with more subtlety and maybe didn't show the human characters as much.
Just my opinion.
ENVIRONMENTS -3
There were some cool environments in Cronos, but by mid game you have basically seen all there is to see. The same Christmas Tree and luggage assets on repeat. There is this cool effect introduced early on in the game that could have totally opened up the level design to some crazy 3D vertical designs but I felt like much of the game this feature was heavily underutilized and kind of just thrown in.
SPECIAL FX -4
It's UE5 so the effects look good but nothing mind blowing. I did feel like some of the "gore" looked a little too shiny and not dirty and grungy. But overall it served its purpose and I have no complaints.
AUDIO — 10/15
AMBIENCE -4
This was one of the game's strong suites and I think Bloober Team really deserves props for NAILING the feelings and emotions of this type of game.
BOSS MUSIC -2
Sucks... non existent just uptempo beats. I really hate how a lot of studios get lazy with this aspect in games. I think some incredible boss tracks would have really elevated the scare factor in these boss battles. But instead it just mildly made the pace feel increased.
SOUND DESIGN -4
This game is a SHART FEST, there are so many creepy sounds and jump scares... everyone is very fortunate I did not record myself playing this game live as you would have heard me scream like a little girl many a time!
The sound design of Cronos is excellent... the only thing that brought it down for me was the voice acting. Again it just took me out of the experience and really ruined what I felt like the game was going for.
Voice acting is very difficult and rarely is done well. We are spoiled with games like Elden Ring and Final Fantasy which have INSANE voice acting. So when other games don't have great direction it really stands out.
My biggest complaint is the dialogue and delivery. It just didn't make sense for the characters who were speaking them in my opinion. I dunno... maybe I'm just crazy!
The sound design of Cronos is excellent... the only thing that brought it down for me was the voice acting. Again it just took me out of the experience and really ruined what I felt like the game was going for.
Voice acting is very difficult and rarely is done well. We are spoiled with games like Elden Ring and Final Fantasy which have INSANE voice acting. So when other games don't have great direction it really stands out.
My biggest complaint is the dialogue and delivery. It just didn't make sense for the characters who were speaking them in my opinion. I dunno... maybe I'm just crazy!
PERFORMANCE — 8/10
FRAME RATE -4
I thought with my aging GPU that I would be lucky to get a stable 60 fps in this UE5 title. But I am happy to report that with some modified settings mostly at high I was able to get 90fps and above. So I had a smooth playing experience which was great. With the pace of this game 90fps is more than enough.
STABILITY -4
But that is basically as expected with UE5 titles. But I was pleased to see that Cronos has a Shader compilation step when booting the game. And I feel like that did help with shader stutter.
GAMEPLAY — 23/40
CONTROLS -4
I wish the game included a dodge or block button but... it is what it is...
MECHANICS -3
Very standard survival horror mechanics. There are limited resources you find that can upgrade your suit and health and the number of inventory slots you have. You can also use "Energy" to upgrade weapons. You obtain energy throughout the game and you can sell random objects you find to get big payouts of energy at any hub.
But Bloober Team included the most BAFFLING IDIOT mechanic in this game which makes absolutely no sense.
There is a FUCKING CAT MECHANIC in this game? What the Fuck? Who thought to put this in a survival horror game?
I'm not even joking. In this sci fi HORROR game, they throw in a random ass mechanic where you find random cats who can drop upgrade materials. Like I get it... Ripley had a fucking cat... but come on!
This is the stupid shit type of brain rot that is in modern games... and as soon as I saw this was in the game I just knew their dev team was totally fucking lost.
DUMB.
Even if putting this mechanic in the game only cost a day's worth of dev time... that was 1 day too many because there were a bunch of half baked mechanics that could have used some extra attention.
The 3D Boots mechanic.
The Reversing time / Inversion mechanic.
Just to name a few...
But Bloober Team included the most BAFFLING IDIOT mechanic in this game which makes absolutely no sense.
There is a FUCKING CAT MECHANIC in this game? What the Fuck? Who thought to put this in a survival horror game?
I'm not even joking. In this sci fi HORROR game, they throw in a random ass mechanic where you find random cats who can drop upgrade materials. Like I get it... Ripley had a fucking cat... but come on!
This is the stupid shit type of brain rot that is in modern games... and as soon as I saw this was in the game I just knew their dev team was totally fucking lost.
DUMB.
Even if putting this mechanic in the game only cost a day's worth of dev time... that was 1 day too many because there were a bunch of half baked mechanics that could have used some extra attention.
The 3D Boots mechanic.
The Reversing time / Inversion mechanic.
Just to name a few...
PACING -3
The pacing is ok, but sometimes you can really see how you are being cock blocked in Cronos. You know you have to get to point B but the game won't just let you go straight there, you gotta overcome 5 bullshit obstacles before you can get there. And it gets reaaaaal old reaaaal fast. The puzzles start off ok but by the end it felt like they were just throwing shit at the wall...
Go get this fuse.
But first find a key by going into a room that is clearly a trap to open the door to the room that has the fuse.
Get the fuse and then walk back but when you put fuse in thing it activates another event that is another trap...
Rinse repeat.
Go get this fuse.
But first find a key by going into a room that is clearly a trap to open the door to the room that has the fuse.
Get the fuse and then walk back but when you put fuse in thing it activates another event that is another trap...
Rinse repeat.
UI/UE -4
No complaints. Nothing really wowed me, again I think Bloober Team took good notes when doing Silent Hill 2 remake as all the menus look pretty similar. I didn't find it difficult to navigate the game menu or system menu settings. And all of the menuing in game was fluent which was nice.
BOSS QUALITY -3
It's what you would expect. The bosses are definitely more varied and elaborate in a game like Dead Space but there were some scary bosses in Cronos. There are some bosses which gave me the rage because they can only be damaged with certain types of damage. And that shit pisses me off, because the game is also all about item management. So if you didn't pack enough of a certain item type you are basically fucked. I hate when devs throw in enemies or bosses that you can't do ANY damage to unless you are using _____ item. It's a shitty mechanic and I have never been a fan.
ENEMY VARIETY -3
The enemy variety starts out decent but by 1/3 into the game you have basically seen everything you are going to face in the game. I know enemy design is difficult but I do feel like it wouldn't hurt to have a few more re skins or different enemy types.
GAMEPLAY VARIETY -2
You walk through hallways and get jump scared OR you can go look for fucking cats... Oh and you solve shitty puzzles... that's it.
REPLAYABILITY -1
This is another one and done. Unless I wanted to maybe speedrun the game... but there are unskippable cutscenes... so I will never play Cronos The New Dawn ever again.
BONUS — 2/3
It's nice to see some actual accessibility options other than just basic subtitle options. Cronos has options for colourblind toggles and some assist modes and aim assist.
Nice work Bloober Team!
OVERALL — 66/100
.gif "Cronos The New Dawn Overall Score")
Cronos: The new Dawn has its moments but it definitely feels like a game that was sharted out just in time for the October "Horror" season. This game is a real shame because I feel like they could have had something really unique, but they lost their way and ended up just making another generic "whatever" game that will be forgotten about by the time I post this review...
If you are a fan of the survival horror genre then you might want to pick this one up when it goes on sale... next October for 1/10th of the current price. I hear this game has been a hit on the Nintendo Switch 2... but that is not surprising as there is nothing to play on that console.
If you are going to make a sci fi horror game... don't put in a fucking Cat finding mechanic... that is all.
If you are a fan of the survival horror genre then you might want to pick this one up when it goes on sale... next October for 1/10th of the current price. I hear this game has been a hit on the Nintendo Switch 2... but that is not surprising as there is nothing to play on that console.
If you are going to make a sci fi horror game... don't put in a fucking Cat finding mechanic... that is all.
PROS
✅ Cool atmosphere and setting
✅ Great LoFi SciFi vibes
✅ Jump scares that will make you shart
✅ Gory and lots of mobs to kill
CONS
❌ Bad dialogue and writing
❌ NPC's look goofy
❌ lazy puzzles
❌ Cat finding mechanic
TLDR: 64/100 (FAIR) Cronos: The New Dawn nails its creepy sci-fi horror atmosphere with strong ambience, solid performance, and a few unsettling moments, but it quickly loses direction with messy storytelling, weak dialogue, repetitive enemies, and baffling mechanics like the infamous cat-collecting system. While it starts strong and shows flashes of potential, poor pacing, underwhelming boss fights, and lackluster variety make it a forgettable survival horror entry best saved for a deep discount.
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