Cronos: The New Dawn Reviews
Cronos: The New Dawn is easily Bloober Team's best original work, delivering a challenging sci-fi survival horror experience with brutal combat in an immersive and tense setting. It's just a shame that it doesn't quite nail the resource management that would elevate it to greatness.
If you like a thick, viscous atmosphere or a sense of mystery, Cronos: The New Dawn is definitely worth a try, if only for the mesmerizingly dark visuals. The designers at Bloober Team have once again shown their skills. But as a game, it simply repeats the big hits of the genre, without bringing anything of its own. Yes, the game mechanics borrowed from other horror games work, but that's all, they are carefully reproduced, but without their own spark and understanding of how they could be made better.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Cronos: The New Dawn is an excellent survival horror game, drawing heavily from other horror games. You can clearly see the references and inspirations, whether in the gameplay, atmosphere, or puzzles. It's important to emphasize, however, that it's not a mere copy. In fact, the title has its own identity and can easily be placed on the same level as other giants of the subgenre.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Cronos: The New Dawn combines a gripping pandemic-tinged narrative, nerve-wracking combat, and smart environmental puzzles into a nightmare that absolutely demands your full attention. Its unrelenting scarcity of resources and ever-present danger keep tension high from start to finish, whilst its time-bending twists and atmospheric environmental design help make for a world that’s wonderful to be a part of… you know… in that ‘I’m scared of everything around me’ kinda way. It’s tough, inventive, and hauntingly memorable, and it easily stands out as one of the strongest survival-horror releases in years. Bloober Team may have earned plaudits for their work on an established horror franchise as of late, but Cronos: The New Dawn proves that their own ideas are every bit as special.
Cronos: The New Dawn is a more than welcome addition to the survival horror genre, with its own identity and all the makings of a truly interesting series.
Review in Greek | Read full review
Bloober Team found their confidence in the Silent Hill 2 remake, and this has shown a side of the studio that could be a force to be reckoned with. Cronos: The New Dawn is easily their best work, and I say that as someone who found the Silent Hill 2 remake to be absolutely jaw-dropping. There is potential for a sequel here, and with some smart choices on improving the aspect around combat, there could be a contender here to the genre that we really haven’t seen since Dead Space.
Cronos: The New Dawn checks most of the survival-horror boxes, but is held back by clunky combat and an underwhelming narrative.
Cronos: The New Dawn presents an intriguing mystery to unravel and a creepy sci-fi hellscape to explore, but its run-of-the-mill combat system prevents it from stepping out of the shadows cast by survival-horror heavyweights like Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 that clearly inspired it.
The scariest part of Cronos: The New Dawn is probably the frustrating combat, and while it boasts a selection of surprisingly cool puzzles, they're not enough to save the experience.
There is a great survival horror game at the centre of Cronos, but it would have been much stronger if it had broken new ground rather than wondering tentatively on what came before.
Extremely limited inventory slots sometimes make these battles feel like I'm holding my breath underwater.
Bloober Team follows its Silent Hill 2 remake with an original horror story that is tense throughout, though sometimes too punishing.
Bloober Team's latest horror game transports players to a post-socialist utopian world, blending classic survival horror elements with unique sci-fi.
Although Cronos: The New Dawn doesn't quite reach the heights of Bloober Team's excellent Silent Hill 2 remake, it's nevertheless the result of a studio that has levelled up significantly from the days of Layers of Fear and Blair Witch. It's a celebration of survival horror, paying homage to all the genre greats effectively, although failing to do anything truly original.That said, the setting and story really help elevate the experience. This is a solid Switch 2 version (assuming a rather unpleasant bug gets fixed soon), and there's real potential here for Cronos to become a central pillar of the genre going forward, should Bloober choose to expand upon it in the future.
But, in a genre where established games rule the roost, Bloober Team has just muscled into the conversation, as Cronos is good enough to rub shoulders with the horror greats."
Cronos: The New Dawn is a game that survival horror fans will love. It's a title that builds on the classic foundations of the genre while also bringing its own creative vision to deliver a truly worthwhile experience.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Cronos: The New Dawn is a great new survival horror property and I hope we see more of The Traveller's adventures in future. The clear influences from genre legends are combined with some original touches to make a game that feels familiar but also manages to innovate and surprise players too. The intriguing narrative, the enjoyable progression, and the challenging combat all combine to make an experience that cements Bloober's place as horror specialists.
Cronos: The New Dawn isn’t my favorite horror title I’ve played, but as far as original ideas go, it’s up there as one that will stay with me for how well its gameplay and narrative work off of each other.
Cronos: The New Dawn's satisfying combat, evocative environments, stellar sound work, polished performance, and inexplicably ambitious story showcase Bloober at its absolute best, solidifying their place as one of the industry's most exciting independent studios in the world. September 2025 is absolutely stacked, but horror fans absolutely must not sleep on this game.
Cronos is a perfectly acceptable survival horror that looks astonishing at times and has an engaging plot (albeit a very confusing one) to ensure players reach the end. That said, there isn't a lot here that hasn't been seen in other survival games before it, and the combination of annoying enemy AI and no real difficulty settings mean some players will have a frustrating time of things.