Cronos: The New Dawn | REVIEW| Nintendo Switch 2 |

''DEADSPACE WITHOUT THE SPACE''

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Developed: Bloober Team

Published: Bloober Team

Genre: Horror

Release Date: Sept 5th, 2025

Platforms: PC/NSW2/PS5/Xbox family

*Game provided to me by Bloober Team

Cronos: The New Dawn is the latest survival horror game to hit the market and it is developed and published by Bloober Team. Coming off success like Silent Hill 2, Blair Witch and even Layers Of Fear, Bloober Team decided its now the time to create a new experience to spook all of us with. But does this game live up to the standard of their previous horror outings? or do they stumble at the finish line? Only one way to find out, so lets go!

''IM LONEY, IM SO LONELY, I HAVE NOBODY..''

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GAMEPLAY:

If there's one genre that has made a major comeback in the last 10 years its definitely the horror genre. For awhile there it seemed like it was completely dead, at least in the AA and AAA market with only indie developers being able to carry the mantle for it. But for some reason out of nowhere it feels like, with my whining and complaining about wanting the horror genre back, it comes roaring in with game after game from Dead Space remake, Layers Of Fear, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Outlast, Resident Evil, Signalis, Still Wakes The Deep, MADiSON, you get it, the horror genre came back and is alive and kicking. Heck you can also include The Greyhill Incident which was a survival horror based off Alien Abductions that freaked me the heck out, because I still have PTSD from watching movies like Fire In The Sky and The Incident In Lake County to the point if I watch something alien related at night, I cant sleep until I get my mind off it, so time to just throw on some Doug and have him hit me with the Quail-Eye so I can feel helpless and stupidified and forget what I even watched. Taking some inspirational from past titles they've created themselves, as well as a bit of Dead Space mixed in, Crono's focuses on a character known as ''The Traveler'' who like in most games nowadays, wakes up not knowing whats going on, where they are, but just know they're vital to a mission they have to complete. Cronos retains that stereotype setup but this time instead of waking up to save a kingdom from an evil force like something out of The Legend Of ZELDA, you now have to deal with a world ending plague that has mutated civilians into monster like mutations that have super strength and capable of transforming into much scarier beings, ala something out of Resident Evil. As the traveler you try to harvest memories of others, sometimes from important figures and try to piece together this big and wide expanding puzzle in the hopes of figuring out if there's anyway you can use this knowledge after learning it, taking it back with you and then avert it from happening to begin with using the information you gather. Its really cool premise and mixing in the eerie environment and dark visual style with dimly lit areas, banging heard in the background and sometimes only the ambient sound of the environment being your best friend with music getting so low that its like you're experiencing it yourself and have to rely on your own eye sight and audio cues to determine the threat, without the help of a cliche jump scare sound or music like most horror movies do. Which is lame by the way, too many movies give away something is about to scare you and have an intense music build up or ''DOOON!'' type sound that seems to tell you ''hey, bro this is supposed to scare you so act scared okay?'', which again as I said, is lame as heck. The only horror game that doesn't have to do that is Bubsy 3D, all he has to do is open his mouth and you're immediately immersed in the horrific world.

The one get up though I have about the title when you get by the exploration, question solving of your sci-fi element, fun melee and shooting mechanics against monstrous foes is that through this entire game, you never really learn about your mysterious character of The Traveler or even their own personal thoughts into the mission and whats going on. In what's setup as something thats not only supposed to scare you, but get you emotionally invested in it because the whole point is to save humanity at all costs, you ultimately are left underwhelmed and feeling nothing for the character, especially with scenes that play up the ''intense and emotional'' side that WANTS you to feel some kind of way, but its just your character standing there, inside their big ol diving suit like you're a created character with a goofy costume on during an important scene that tries to be profound. It just looks weird and feels weird and brings the game down about in terms of immersion and overall is only really saved by the survivor horror elements that keep the game afloat as you transition back and forth to the ''before and after'' of the apocalypse that has taken over Poland. By exploring horror filled environments, finding locked doors and having to venture off into rooms you DO NOT want to go in because its creepy to find keys to areas housing even scarier monsters, figuring out how to manage your inventory and figuring out which items will be usable in the immediate future and what items you cant find any real use for, saving bullets the best you can because they're very scarce and should you run out of bullets, defeating enemies, mostly view melee combat makes everything even more difficult due to the reach and hit detection of enemies, etc. If some of that sounds familiar, its because... well it is, due to taking inspiration from horror titles like Resident Evil, only without Leon aura farming and doing 50 flips before getting a head shot just because he can do it. I mean that's cool of him and all, but I don't see him literally punching a boulder like Chris did, check mate, Leon. While the mechanics due stay true to everything you know about mainstream horror, it can at times feel a bit ''more of the same'' in some ways shape or form due to the game playing it safe rather than overly taking risks. While yes that sounds a tad bit disheartening that no real innovation is sought after, true, it still manages to nail great firearm gunplay, intense engagements against monsters, fluid controls that are responsive and quick and a scary atmospheres even if there's a few downsides to the core of its story and straight forwardness of the games innovation. But hey, at least its not like THEY HUNGER back on the old Half Life 1 days where the rain came up from the ground and instead down from the sky, so that's definitely a plus. Cronos wins that immersion department.

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''HOW IT LOOKS WHEN YOU WAKE ME FROM A NAP''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day, Cronos The New Dawn is a very fun horror experience that does manage to scratch that itch. But at the same time, there's several things that can damper your journey a bit such as lack of emotional engagement for you towards he main character even though the game tells you that you should feel it, lack of evade movements that get you stuck in grapples with enemies that makes you take undesired damage that you CANT escape from initially that can cause you to die and replay a scene multiple times, which rips away immersion and care because enemy hit detection is unbalanced and enemies can hit you from 2-3ft away and immediately grapple you to take half your health, whereas if you're right in their face and melee punch, 50% of the time it does not register the hit, etc. It frustrates you to the point of you constantly asking yourself why instead of staying involved with the great overall game mechanics itself and fighting between you frustrations of combat outside of gun play, lack of emotional depth or engaging story, you're left feeling ''ok this game is pretty good, but there's a lot of issues the bog it down too''. That's where I'm at right now, I enjoyed the game, quite a lot actually, it has great moments, but adding in all the negatives, I cant really tell people go pay full price for it and would feel better saying wait till it hits around $40 and then definitely pick it up because there is fun to be had here, just not for full price with its current issues. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says WAIT.

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