Cronos: The New Dawn Interview – Story, Setting, Combat, and More

Bloober Team hit the big time in 2024 with its spectacular remake of Silent Hill 2, and in 2025, the studio is set to follow up with another new survival horror title in the form of Cronos: The New Dawn. With a fascinating time-travelling, post-apocalyptic premise and the promise of another full-fledged survival horror experience that takes cues from some of the genre’s mightiest giants, the game is certainly looking like an intriguing prospect. To learn more about it and how Bloober Team intends to hopefully notch a second major successive win, we recently had the chance to Cronos: The New Dawn’s game director and producer Jacek Zięba. You can read the full interview below.

"Cronos is our next step as the “new” Bloober Team after Silent Hill 2, the step where we want to create our next big IP but also something different than previous game."

Silent Hill 2 was very much a step up for Bloober Team in terms of the size and scope of the project. Should players expect Cronos: The New Dawn to follow in its footsteps as a larger and more ambitious game?  

Can you be more ambitious than the crown jewel of masterpiece horror series? Very tough question and I don’t know if there is an easy answer. What I can be sure is that Cronos is our next step as the “new” Bloober Team after Silent Hill 2, the step where we want to create our next big IP but also something different than previous game – this is why we chose to do a sci-fi survival horror.

From the more supernatural horror of The Medium to the atmospheric psychological horror of Silent Hill 2 to the techno horror of Observer, Bloober Team as a studio has tried its hand at many different flavours of horror. How would you classify Cronos: The New Dawn?  

Retro futurism, apocalyptic, mind-bending sci-fi survival horror with a time travel story.

Cronos: The New Dawn’s central premise is one of its most intriguing elements, especially with half the story set in 1980s Poland. Can you talk about why you chose that specific time period, and how crucial it will be to the game’s central themes and larger story? 

I think everything starts with The New Dawn—the titular district where the game takes place. It’s heavily inspired by one of the districts in Kraków (the old city of Polish kings where our main office is located), built by the communists in the 1950s as a monument to the regime’s power and wealth. Combine that with the fact that, in the 1980s, Poland was still under a communist regime, when it was harder and harder for communist to maintain control over Polish population. In 1981 they even declare martial law that last almost two years– all of this to remain in control of more and more angry and rebellious Polish people. We were angry, wanted to rebel but also some of us still work with the regime – it was very hard time in Poland but also the wind of change was felt somewhere on the horizon (after 1989, Poland finally became a free country).

So we take this—the district, the regime, the uncertainty of what’s next (Cold War), and the overall paranoia—and blend it with our idea of a slightly “alternative” history. In our version, some events never happened, while new ones occur.

The 80s also inspire our unique approach to sci-fi, allowing us to draw closer to elements of the first two Alien movies or the original Star Wars trilogy.

All of this will be crucial to Cronos.

"Cronos as a game is more grounded and closer to Silent Hill or Resident Evil, survival horror games. With Cronos, we don’t want to repeat ourselves."

Cronos is yet another new IP for Bloober Team, and it’s always great to see you guys moving from new idea to new idea to new idea. In an industry where doubling down on established IP is becoming the safe financial bet, how are you able to consistently buck the trend? 

I think as Bloober, we’re still searching, still evolving. Of course, we’ve found our focus—horror—but there are still so many stories to tell, so many games and approaches to explore as we continue our journey as a studio. With each game, we grow stronger and wiser, which opens the door to new ideas we feel passionate about—one of them being Cronos. We also try to be smart about our choices. Between our earlier games we also developed Blair Witch, which taught us a lot and opened new doors for out next project – the scale, of course is different but its somehow similar now with Silent Hill 2 – I think our success is built on the fact that at the same time we are chasing some of the trends and we want to create something more ours, something different.

Cronos’ dual timeline premise seems reminiscent of The Medium’s Dual-Reality gameplay. Is that what that idea grew out of? Will players be able to simultaneously traverse both timelines, similar to how The Medium did things? 

The Medium was a lot more of an experimental game with “what if you can be in two worlds at the same time?” Cronos as a game is more grounded and closer to Silent Hill or Resident Evil, survival horror games. With Cronos, we don’t want to repeat ourselves. After The Medium, we want to create something more gameplay focused. That’s why, we’ve embraced survival horror with its own unique twist—though for now, I’ll keep that a secret…

What can you tell us about combat in Cronos: The New Dawn? Other than Silent Hill 2, of course, Bloober Team hasn’t ever focused on combat too much in the past, but how extensive will that side of the experience be in this game? 

When it comes to combat, Cronos is more Resident Evil and less Silent Hill. New Resident Evil remakes also show us how to cleverly combine old-school designs with modern technology and gameplay standards. Each of these remakes is also a bit different, testing different waters – this is a big pool of knowledge from which we can draw to create something that from one way can be similar and known for the players and from the others can be purely unique.

"When it comes to combat, Cronos is more Resident Evil and less Silent Hill."

Outside of combat, how will the game approach exploration and the level design?  

Think about RE2, sometimes mixed with Dark Souls – depending on the level there, will be a beaten path, backtracking, more maze-like levels, etc.

Hypothetically, is there a chance that you end up bringing Cronos: The New Dawn to the upcoming Nintendo Switch successor? 

With current Switch we saw some wild magic with game ports (The Witcher 3!?) so who know what can be possible on the new one. We will see what future holds.