Cronos: The New Dawn Review

Player(s): 1
Extra Features: N/A

Bloober Team is a “hit or miss” company for me. Before Silent Hill 2 remake, Blair Witch was the only game I actually liked by them. Silent Hill 2 remake made Bloober a household name in the horror gaming world however. I’m so happy to see that the streak of good games continues with Cronos: The New Dawn. Cronos is a third person survival horror and a new franchise from Bloober. If you like RE4-style gameplay, you should fall right in line with this game from the get go.

In Cronos, players take control of “The Traveler”. The Traveler wears an astronaut-like suit and works for an organization called “The Collective” while serving in a mission known as “The Vocation”. The Traveler faces the hazards in a post-apocalyptic wasteland to find an anomaly that will allow her to travel back in time in order to extract certain individuals who did not survive “The Change”. The Change is an event that turned mankind into monsters called “Orphans”.

If you like The Evil Within’s “what the hell is going on” style of story telling, you’ll probably find something to enjoy in Cronos. It has sort of the same feel to it, except less mind-bending. The most interesting part about Cronos is that you are thrusts into this unknown world with basically unknown purpose from the start and have to fight these unknown enemies. This game’s narrative is explained in more detail as you continue through the game, but from the start, you know nothing. The game is far from the standard survival horror formula in storytelling, which is fantastic. Half of the fun of the game is just trying to figure out what is truly going on.

Cronos looks like Dead Space, but it controls a lot like RE4 overall. The game borrows gameplay elements from a lot of survival horror games. Once you’re in actual combat, it feels a lot like RE4. The Traveler’s main weapons are the handgun and shotgun, both of which can be charged for greater damage. All weapons can be upgraded at shops by using energy pickups. The Traveler’s suit and other items can be upgraded as well. Resource management is a really big part of this game. Nearly everything on you takes up inventory space, so you’re in constant need of space. The game has safe havens just like in RE4 and Dead Space – where you can save your game and access a shop and item box. You can pick up certain items that will allow you to craft ammo and healing items.

As already mentioned, the main enemy types are called “Orphans”. These look a bit similar to the Necromorph from Dead Space. They are mutated humans that are all in different stages of mutation. You can shoot them in the head, body and legs for different reactions. Once they die, their carcass can be absorbed by other Orphans. Orphans that absorb others gain the power of the dead Orphan and become tougher and more deadly. You have the option to burn bodies using a fire shot but you have very limited use of it. During battles, you have the constant threat of creating new enemies by having the existing enemies consume the bodies of enemies already defeated. This adds a lot of complexity to each battle. The simplest battle with three enemies can become a major uphill climb if you don’t approach it well.

Cronos is a very hard game. It’s so nice to see a survival horror that can get so punishing at times. I love it! Just like RE4 and Dead Space, the game offers you the “courtesy drop” of ammo when you’re running low, but doesn’t always do this. Your resources are so limited if you rely on drops and environmental items alone. If the game starts giving you too much, there is likely a big battle coming up that can take it all away. With the style of the enemies, big problems can showcase themselves at any time as well. Get used to dying because you will eventually do so a number of times in this game. To keep you from getting completely stuck, the game does allow you to buy ammo and healing items however. If it didn’t, you could actually get stuck with a save point at the wrong time so very easily. The Traveler has melee attacks (punch and stomp) but they are not near as good as Isaac’s from Dead Space. Melee is definitely a last resort in Cronos.

Along with the normal enemies, you’ll fight boss enemies as well. Some boss enemies appear later as normal enemies. Even bigger enemies can be absorbed by other Orphans in this game. It’s really something when a small enemy absorbs a bigger enemy and becomes a ferocious death machine that consumes a good chunk of your ammo to kill. Not that it every happened to me – oh, no!

Cronos is an absolutely beautiful game. The environments in the game keeps getting better as your progress. The majority of the game is a wasteland. You’ll eventually reach a point where you journey back to Poland in the past however. The past areas are often calm but eventually have a more sinister side to show. All locations eventually lead you into a gooey nest of Orphans – basically their hive. The graphics and sound design really stick out once you enter Orphan nests. You hear constant crackles and Orphan cries in the distance while exploring nests. Orphans can break out of the wall or even the ground to thrust you into instant combat. It can all get so very nerve-wracking. The soundtrack for the game is also really good.

The controls are overall precise. The game uses the standard RE4-style of inventory, weapon switching and aiming. Reloading has to be done in real time. I had several problems with aiming in this game mainly because you’ll feel the need to charge every shot. Your weapons take off more damage per charged shot so naturally, you’ll want to charge each shot. This leads to problems with aiming (as enemies sway) and enemies hitting you from taking too long while charging a shot. You can upgrade your stability and charge time as shops, but from the starting, this can all lead to a major waste of precious ammo and healing items. It’s just something that you’ll have to cope with. It’s partially what makes the game difficult.

The game feels like it needs a dodge button. Enemies will often lunge forward with an attack and you have to stop aiming and run to the side to avoid them. Some sort of dodge mechanic would make moments like this feel less awkward. The way it stands, you just have to run around enemies and then turn to fight them. Many enemies take a while to recover from their attacks, so dodging them is a good way to get them open to your attacks.

The main character is hard to connect with and fully enjoy. This isn’t much of a flaw (since it is part of the story), but it is noticeable. The Traveler has very little feeling to her voice. She’s very robotic. This IS her character though. All of the other Travelers that you meet act this same way. Human characters that you meet in the game are all acted out very well with good emotion, but the Travelers are all monotone.

Overall, Cronos: The New Dawn is a fantastic survival horror that should be played by fans of RE4 and Dead Space. I was very impressed with the Silent Hill 2 remake and feel that SH2 remake is a better game than Cronos, but Cronos impresses me more since it’s an original franchise that Bloober didn’t have source material on. It would be awesome to see this as the start of the a new franchise for Bloober. Cronos definitely is a game that I’d like to see a sequel to down the road. Good job on this Bloober!

The Good:
+ Interesting horror game setting and overall story
+ Fantastic overall look
+ Really good sound
+ This is a hard game (in a good way)

The Bad:
- The main character is difficult to connect with because of her personality
- The difficulty can lead to frustration at times
- This kind of game needs some sort of dodge button