There’s nothing quite like a horror game that can scratch the itch of constantly being on the edge of your seat, never knowing what’s on the other side of the door. Horror games are one of my favourite genres in the medium, and I have many fond memories of scrambling through arenas in Resident Evil 2 or tiptoeing through a monster-infested U.S.G. Ishimura, and we’re experiencing somewhat of a renaissance of that glorious era of horror games.
In addition to the remakes of the aforementioned releases, Konami’s Silent Hill 2 was also brought forth in a new light thanks to the excellent efforts made by Bloober Team. Despite my initial reservations about the developer’s interpretation of Silent Hill 2, Bloober Team pleasantly surprised me with the sheer quality of the product – but I’m more excited for what’s in store for the developer.
Cronos: The New Dawn was announced in October of last year, and while I didn’t pay much heed to the game back then, I am increasingly drawn to the game now that more gameplay snippets have been shared in the days following the initial reveal. It’s scheduled to come out on September 5, 2025, for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch 2, and it might just end up being one of my favourite games this year.
There are plenty of reasons why that is the case, and there are certain possible pitfalls for the game that I would wish for the developers to avoid – but let’s start with the good stuff. The best horror games actually have a distinct air of mystery surrounding them, and that is clearly evident in the atmosphere. The opening act of Resident Evil 2, the smoke-obscured town of Silent Hill, or even the eerily isolated corridors of the U.S.G. Ishimura in Dead Space – it doesn’t take much for a good horror game to make its intentions clear.
Cronos: The New Dawn also achieves this very important goal without much effort, and a lot of it can be attributed to the excellent atmosphere on offer. The concept of the game is quite unique in that it revolves around a scientist exploring desolate environments during different time periods, which lends a distinct charm to its surroundings. Time rifts and oddities are a common occurrence, and the places that we have seen in the trailers seem to be a mix of something that’s eerily familiar and something that’s almost incomprehensible.
While Cronos: The New Dawn has nailed the ominous aesthetic and got its unique look through its ingenious time travel concepts, I am not entirely sold on the protagonist. As can be seen from the trailers, The Traveller always dons a space suit, and nothing of value has been said about him – his motivations, his biggest fears, the whole nine yards. As such, I do fear that Cronos: The New Dawn could end up suffering from a narrative that looks promising on the surface but is actually shallow due to a lack of depth in the characters that comprise this story.
You see, The Change was a massive anomaly that left the world in shambles – and the only way to reverse that damage is by visiting the past and retrieving key figures, which is easier said than done. Deadly creatures, or Orphans lurk in the darkest corners of these places – and this is the end of the world as we know it. But all of that doesn’t mean anything if the characters that are central to the plot have nothing interesting going on about them, and I hope that my concerns end up being unfounded.
What has amazed me about the game has to be the gameplay, which is undoubtedly the star of the show. While it does draw a lot of its foundations from popular contemporaries of the genre, it doesn’t shy away from adding its own touches to carve out an identity for itself. Chief among those touches has to be how the encounters with the aforementioned Orphans play out.
Unlike traditional zombies that we see in most contemporaries, the Orphans are actually transforming enemies that can move and morph in unprecedented ways that make them a really huge threat while exploring. These enemies can also feed on the remains of their fallen comrades, and transform themselves into larger and stronger variants – in turn making them a lot more difficult to take down.
As such, the best course of action for defeating them is to burn their bodies through the use of a flame thrower attached to your back, making it a two-course action. Between this and the fact that resources are limited, each encounter feels like a scrappy fight where you end up desperately dancing around the arena, picking off enemies, hoping to not get lured into impromptu fights with strong enemies.
The best horror games really know how to ease a player with an environment, slowly build up tension, and peak that with enemy encounters and do it all over again. Mastering that rhythm, and occasionally changing to catch players off-guard is something that dictates the quality of the experience – and Bloober Team seems to have understood the assignment really well here. I have gone through the many previews and gameplay snippets multiple times, and the team has done a great job of crafting levels that expertly play on the dread of the unknown. Hopefully, Cronos: The New Dawn will be able to take that impressive showing and maintain that throughout the whole experience.
I also really like the game design that’s going on over here. The developers have made good use of multi-purpose design philosophies, where the same input can be used in different ways to achieve the same result. You can shoot instantly through the press of a trigger, but you can also hold down to unleash more damage, which takes significantly longer to finish. Flamethrowers are primarily used to burn down fallen foes, but you can also use them to shove enemies off when in a pinch. You can find plenty of other such gameplay instances sprinkled throughout the trailer, and that was the thing that really caught my eye and got me excited to know more.
The modular design also extends to the weapon arsenal, where we get to see a singular pistol at the start. But as you move deeper and deeper into the narrative, you will start to find new attachments that can be bolted on to your weapons to transform them from one kind of weapon to another. We saw that the pistol can be turned into a long-range shotgun, or you could turn it into a rifle of sorts and so on and so forth. It’s quite reminiscent of Control’s Service Weapon in that regard, but it could also come with a possible downside.
Remember how important inventory management used to be in a game like Resident Evil 2? I would spend minutes upon end trying to optimize the limited storage – often trading lesser-used weapons in favour of healing supplies or vice-versa, depending on whatever was waiting on the other side of the checkpoint. It was an important design decision that made you feel powerless in the face of peril, but Cronos: The New Dawn might end up skipping that part of the experience, which might not really jive with long-time horror fans.
Conversely, Bloober Team seems to have settled for a less traditional style of player progression, where you will be collecting these weapon upgrades along the way to make your player stronger. You can lean into certain upgrades to better suit your playstyle, which also achieves the same player flexibility in a different way. It’s less conventional, but it should work if the level designs are structured to take leverage of such a player progression system.
However, other things here are looking quite promising here which makes me feel like Cronos: The New Dawn would end up being one of the best in its class. For instance, the developers have confirmed that the narrative is going to have choices that will impact the ending, which could work really nicely given the time-travel concept of the game.
It’s also been a long while since we have seen a truly memorable survival horror experience that isn’t a rehash of a beloved classic, and if the team is able to avoid the pitfalls that I have mentioned – it’s very likely that Cronos: The New Dawn might just end up becoming one of the biggest surprise hits of the year. I’m keeping my fingers crossed until then.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.