In the beautiful city of Kraków, Poland, we met with the horror masters at Bloober Team, having had the chance to try their upcoming, self-published sci-fi horror romp CRONOS: The New Dawn. We played the opening two hours or so, and we’re here to tell you all about it!
Soviets, no thanks
The population of Poland has endured a lot of hardships throughout the 1900’s. The death of approximately 6 million people during Germany’s occupation in World War 2, to the tight grip of the Soviet regime that picked up the pieces afterwards – you name it. Yet, the Polish endured all these hardships, and when the USSR finally started losing their influence over the region by 1990, Poland has gone through painful economical transformation to become a free, European and democratic country.
While contradictions and extremisms remain, there’s one thing the vast majority of the population agrees upon. Poland needs to stay independent and free, regardless of the political direction it’s going to take in the future. The painful transformation from socialism to capitalism was a necessary sacrifice to reobtain the freedom the country so desired for decades, and those years of hardship are a huge part of the Polish identity today.
It is in Kraków that Bloober Team has hosted us, and there couldn’t be a more fitting place for such an event. Not only because this renowned horror game developer has its offices in this very town, but also because of the many iconic stories of resistance and humanity from the area. From Oskar Schindler’s enamel factory, to the relative vicinity of Auschwitz, all the way to where our hands-on preview event was set in: the infamous Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks in Nowa Huta, a district just outside of the main town.
This ridiculously large factory complex employed about 40,000 people at its height, producing almost 7 million tons of steel per year – more than what most entire countries produce in the same timeframe. The soviet leaders have always found the steelworks an extremely important part of their regime, but poor working conditions, non-existent worker rights and hundreds of accidents led to widespread protests and strikes, with the Polish population eventually “reclaiming” this massive factory. In name, as well, as it used to be named after Lenin.
It’s no Miami Vice
Bloober Team is responsible for many of the more unique horror games in recent memory. From the incredibly haunting Victorian mansions of Layers of Fear (and its 2023 remake), passing by the cyberpunk future of Observer, all the way down to the recent, critically acclaimed Silent Hill 2 Remake. Wedged between all these games was the dual-reality, psychological thrills of The Medium. Now, that same team from Bloober are back for the upcoming Cronos: The New Dawn.
While bits and pieces of Polish culture could be found in these titles (Observer was set in a futuristic Kraków, for one), it always felt like the studio wanted to create worlds and environments that could feel familiar and relatable even to people who know nothing about Eastern Europe or the soviet regime.
Cronos: The New Dawn, on the other hand, delivers a time-bending horror adventure that goes knee-deep into the 1980’s soviet regime’s culture and architecture, delivering a story that is supernatural, yet all too real, all too plausible for the times. Perhaps the very name of the game hides all sorts of layers, because Bloober’s new horror romp is “A New Dawn” in more ways than one.
After a publishing agreement with Private Division fell through, the Polish developer decided to self-publish Cronos: The New Dawn – a first for the company, and one they could afford to do after the breakthrough success of their Silent Hill 2 Remake. Needless to say, with no first party publisher involved this time, there’s no exclusivity whatsoever – the game will launch simultaneously on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 later this year.
Gameplay-wise, it’s also quite the departure from the sort of games we know Bloober Team for, trading the more walking sim-esque psychological horrors for something a bit more action-oriented, while still feeling oppressive and “heavy” in its tones. Think Dead Space, The Evil Within or Resident Evil 4 – games where you certainly fight a lot, but with intentionally slow move-sets and limited resources, ensuring that players don’t just spray and pray through any encounter.
A Regime of Old
I also choose to look at the subtitle “A New Dawn” as a reflection of the social and political situation we encounter in the game. The game is set in a somewhat distant future version of Kraków, practically deserted and wrecked to bits and pieces after a devastating pandemic turned most of humanity into dangerous monsters known as Orphans.
The player, inside an already somewhat iconic (not to mention, rather phallic) suit, is tasked by the mysterious Collective to use the so-called time anomalies across the landscape to go back in time to a 1980’s Poland, trying to save certain people who died to this catastrophy and who, apparently, could help humanity solve this near-extinction level event.
Our protagonist merely follows orders though, and our understanding of what really is going on is limited from the start. Indeed, in our testing sessions, we only managed to play the opening 2 hours of this fascinating new horror title. It may not have been enough to grasp the whole picture, but it was more than enough to pique our interest, as Cronos: The New Dawn already made quite some bold statement and is having me quite curious for more.
After a computer voice has us calibrate ourselves towards the upcoming tasks, asking us abstract questions as if they were psychologically examining us, the player is immediately brought up to speed with the current situation. Our character is a Traveller, whose goal is to use rifts in time called Time Anomalies, in order to go back to the Poland of 1980’s and rescue key people for a not yet specified goal.
This is in no way a simple task, as evidenced by the big, clunky metallic suit around us, featuring a large spheric white headpiece that makes it look like a weird scuba suit – with a line in the middle that has evoked far less appropriate visual comparisons in most people’s minds, I bet. I did mention it’s a bit phallic, didn’t I?
The world we’re meant to explore is… dark, devoid of human life. Very damaged and dirty 1900’s soviet buildings, the insides of homes clearly evoking nostalgia for someone, like me, who’s grown up in that sort of Eastern European context – from tin toy cars, to old telephone booths, all the way down to iconic car shapes like the FIAT Polski (though unbranded, in this case). It is, however, just a memory – with the once technologically advanced human-made creations now serving as a mere reminder of how society used to be. Very few humans are even alive now, and they’re certainly not around erecting buildings or driving vehicles.
COVID-1984
One very interesting aspect of the game’s worldbuilding is that, via audio logs, newspapers, graffitis and more, we get to slowly piece together how the then government handled this crisis situation. It is easy to draw parallels with how our governments handled the COVID-19 crisis a few years ago. Initially, people were simply advised to limit contact with others, keep distance when possible, and avoid going outside unless absolutely necessary.
Then, when the pandemic’s spread wasn’t slowing down and hospitals were starting to get overrun, we resorted to curfews and increasingly strict lockdowns. In the case of this fictional 1980’s Poland, the soviet government eventually went one step farther, imposing a permanent lockdown that, no doubt, was also a very welcome excuse to further exercise the regime’s powers and limit any potential organized revolt.
It seems the game’s pandemic was obviously even more dangerous, as the infected would turn into Orphans – body-morphing horror creatures whose look turns increasingly inhuman, and whose arms and legs can twist and turn in frankly quite gross ways.
We even get to see documents about how the government lied about some of the dangers, took credit for containing the virus (which, in hindsight, obviously never happened), and how the all-important “comrades” received preferential treatment over the working force. That’s the soviet way of the time, and it’s awfully believable even in this obviously fictional scenario.
Before long, our journey allows us to reach the previous Traveller’s dead body, indicating us where their mission failed and allowing us to recover some useful tools and information from them. It’s accompanied by the harrowing revelation that we’re really just a ‘number’ – were we to fail the mission, the next seemingly nameless and faceless Traveller will just attempt to make it further than we did, making perhaps a few crucial steps towards what is, hopefully, humanity’s chance of surviving and perhaps reclaiming the lands.
The end goal of that seems to be as far as it gets, and our chances of seeing it through alive are minimal. Because we won’t only have to explore and rescue – we’ll have to fight and survive, in an intentionally weighted combat system that takes cues from various games, but most notably Dead Space and The Evil Within in particular.
The enemies we face off against are creepy as all hell, in a body-horror-extravaganza that takes cues from films like The Thing. These beasties are similarly revolting (in a good way, of course) humanoid-meets-creature designs, with a healthy mixture of sci-fi and brutalism as well.
Like a tank, I’ma
Perhaps from the very lessons learned from their Silent Hill 2 Remake , Cronos: The New Dawn adopts what I like to call the modern equivalent of tank controls. Gone is the needlessly convoluted and precise movement system of classics like old school Resident Evil games (or even Tomb Raider, for that matter), yet things still slow and methodical.
Movement proceeds at quite a crawl. Sprinting can be done, but it doesn’t feel much faster, as traversing in this giant metal suit isn’t the easiest thing in the world. A dodge button would have been nice, but perhaps the lack of it increases the tension and doesn’t allow for a “cheat code” out of battle.
The combat follows this philosophy too, with the player only being able to carry a limited amount of bullets and needing to aim their shots quite precisely, as limited magazines and extended reload times risk leaving us lying face down before long. The player’s single weapon can be upgraded to various modules, such as a shotgun or uzi variant, and they can eventually be upgraded, with even an optional auto-aim mode, alongside other accessibility options, but the game is meant to be quite difficult, as combat definitely rewards situational awareness, more so than trigger finger.
Charged headshots cause a lot of damage, limbs can be shot to impact the mobility of a creature, and there’s even gas tanks and fuel barrels to blow up – a far more convenient option than spending half your ammo reserves. Fire will be your ally in more ways than one, as Orphans can effectively absorb dead bodies we leave behind to become even stronger. Burning the corpses whenever possible is the best way to avoid later surprises in previously visited areas.
Exploration and backtracking play quite a huge role in this game as well, in what feels like a mixture of a semi-linear single player game like Alan Wake 2 or The Last Of Us 2, but with parts reminiscent of metroidvanias and souls-likes. Initially, the player will be traversing tight corridors in mid-1900’s soviet architecture, moving between dark corridors and strangely nostalgic apartments. A lot of closed doors have to be opened with keys or fuses, barricades have to be smashed open to reveal new pathways and certain furniture can be moved to create new shortcuts.
With how tight these areas are, early on there’s a high chance you find the solution to the mini-puzzle before you even find the problem itself, as you have a 50/50 chance to find one or another first. Before long, however, the levels start opening up, as we manage to explore more open areas like streets, railways, parks and more.
Exploration starts becoming more important as well, as the limited number of resources, bullets and healing items doled out are actually more generous if you take your time to look around. Indeed, at the end of our 2-hour trial, I was slightly stumped by a particularly tough boss encounter, mainly because I wasn’t sure I’d have the time to finish if I explored every corner. Well, turns out I had a little more time, and going back I’ve found tons of extra rooms, corridors and secrets I initially missed, which allowed me to retry the boss with proper preparation, making the scary bad dude go down much easier.
Hold my hand
Every once in a while, the player will find a moment of peace in the form of hideouts. Here we can create a manual save (checkpoints exist, though), craft various utilities like healing items and ammo, upgrade our weaponry and armor, and even stash items for later, as the limited inventory doesn’t quite reward hoarding. Cronos: The New Dawn is expected to be around 16 hours long, but in the 2 hours I’ve got to play, I’d already found a handful of Time Anomalies to interact with, reshaping things around me in a way not too dissimilar from the sadly forgotten FPS, Timeshift.
Since these anomalies allow us to effectively change between the present and past version of something, we can for example “rebuild” a collapsed road, creating a path that was no longer accessible by reaching into the past.
So far, this mechanic has been used in quite formulaic ways, which can also be said for many other elements to be found in the game. Number puzzles, keys and fuses, yellow-painted boxes, barricades to smash and so on. Even the fairly generous tutorial and audio-log hints often tell us exactly how to deal with enemies.
While the game’s atmosphere and ideas are rather unique, in terms of gameplay and progression it seems to be quite heavily inspired by other third person games, horror or otherwise, with not very many original ideas in execution. But in fairness, the game was definitely starting to spread its wings a little bit more by the time I reached the final cutscene of our trial, so I have to wonder what else CRONOS: The New Dawn has got in store.
Indeed, as the game progressed, my fascination with Cronos: The New Dawn has only increased. What appeared to be a rather predictable horror experience, inspired by the likes of Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space, has slowly morphed into a visually impressive and highly atmospheric romp, one with even a surprisingly satisfying yet weighty combat system that really challenges the players’ cold blood, as panic shooting everything is a good way to get killed fast.
The dark and creepy body horror, mixed with an Eastern European soviet style that few high-profile horror games have tackled, creates a rather unique, memorable, yet somewhat nostalgic vibe, one made even creepier by the stunning soundtrack by Arkadiusz Reikowski – of other Bloober titles’ fame like Silent Hill 2’s Remake and Observer.
The game has been diving deeper and deeper into how systemic issues allowed this bizarre pandemic to spread under a careless soviet regime, with a lot of moral themes and mysteries around the so-called Collective. There’s a lot that we didn’t even quite see, just yet. We only saw a glimpse of the first segment in the past, and we have yet to encounter some of the more unique enemies, most of the weapon modules, and even a branching storyline that can lead us to different endings.
Such is our calling
All in all, despite a delayed flight that completely messed up my schedule, my visit to Poland ended with a smile, as the fascinating town of Kraków and the massive steelwork in the Nowa Huta region gave me a glimpse into the complex history of the locals. That very same culture and the stories of oppression and rebellion can be found in the bones of Cronos: The New Dawn, a time-bending action-oriented horror game that tackles creepy bodily mutations just as much at it does the hardships people felt throughout the communist regime of the late 1900’s in Poland.
What initially appeared as a rather formulaic collection of horror tropes, soon gave way to increasingly creepy monster encounters, more and more open level designs, a rather deep and enjoyable combat system, with a fantastic soundscape that really delivers the chills.
As today’s youth would put it, it is safe to say that Bloober Team are cooking here, and Cronos: The New Dawn’s first hours tell me this might become one of the most interesting horror games of this generation of consoles. The Polish developers are leaving their comfort zone with this title, and it seems to have been a good bet thus far. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the full game as soon as possible, of which you’ll be sure to read the review on XboxEra when the time comes – with the release date currently expected for Fall 2025.
