Cronos: The New Dawn Takes Inspiration from Dead Space

Hot on the heels of Silent Hill 2’s critical and commercial success, developer Bloober Team has revealed its next big project in the form of survival horror game Cronos: The New Dawn. With its sci-fi aesthetic and time travelling premise, it’s shaping up to be a very different kind of experience from what we’ve seen from the studio in the past- though as per the developer, there are specific survival horror classics that it is taking inspiration from.

Speaking in a recent interview with IGN, co-director Jacek Zieba and Wojciech Piejko revealed that Dead Space serves as one of the inspirations for Cronos: The New Dawn. In particular, as per Zieba, similar to Dead Space’s dismemberment mechanics and Alan Wake’s flashlight, Cronos’ combat also features a central mechanic that Bloober Team will be talking more about later.

“Definitely, Dead Space is there because of the protagonist and stuff,” Zieba said. “We can share a little about a special approach to combat. Just like Dead Space has the cut off the limbs mechanic, we also have something we will share later. Also like Alan Wake with the flashlight.”

Piejko added, “It’s something that brings up the tension. It’s not only run and gun but you need to think. We put a little more strategy in the combat.”

Zieba added that Resident Evil titles – classics and remakes alike – were also “a very, very big inspiration” for the development team. “Besides those, Japanese survival horror, like the Resident Evil series, the old ones, the remakes. Those were a very, very big inspiration for us,” Zieba said.

Cronos: The New Dawn is due out next year for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.