People who read our Gamescom coverage from last year may remember that I voted Cronos: The New Dawn as our Game of the Show 2025. I still stand by it, as it was an awesome game that I ended up reviewing for the site and scoring an impressive 90/100. So when I was invited back for a preview, I didn’t have to think twice.
I did make a small detour first and visited the SAW: Genesis booth (also from Bloober) right next to it, but there was no playable game there, just a photo booth. I’m using this as an excuse to post the silly picks here regardless.
Cronos: Lazarus is the prequel (I think) to The New Dawn and will release next year as a DLC, but from the brief chat I had with the devs, it might as well have been a standalone release because it will have a significant amount of content. In it, we play as the Warden, and I won’t spoil who he is exactly in this preview, but I’m very happy we get to discover more of his background.
Immediately clear was that this will be even more action-heavy than the original game. That demo kicked my ass in 2025, and I wasn’t even able to beat it because I had failed to make a manual save file. I only faced a handful of enemies back then, but they hit so hard that it was still a super challenging experience for me (especially in a time-sensitive setting like Gamescom where you can’t really take your time with it). Seems like a lot of other people struggled with it too, because I WAS able to beat the Lazarus demo. And the final confrontation had an automatic checkpoint right before it; the devs have taken notes!
The Warden comes with a new set of weapons and skills and plays much faster than the Traveller’s more methodical approach. The weapons fire faster, they reload a little faster, but we’re also given a new set of movement abilities that totally alter how you play. You can teleport somewhere instantly, and while it’s mostly used for traversal and crossing gaps in the level, you can also evade combat with it. The B button used to have a dodge function, so when my muscle memory kicked in after a giant Orphan swung at me and I noticed that I now also left a hologram of myself in that spot, I instantly started using it more frequently, and it’s a real game-changer.
In The New Dawn, I used to kite enemies to follow me into a narrow passageway to pick them off one by one. Here, I can just count on them ganging up on the spectral fake, and I get to empty my full clips into their back. I can’t wait to explore more of the world later, but the focus of the demo was very much on the combat, so that’s all I can really comment on at this point. You can expect a full review of the DLC when it launches next year; I can’t wait to immerse myself in its post-apocalyptic world.
Pave the Path!
Robby lives and breathes video games. When he’s not playing them, he’s talking about them on social media or convincing other people to pick up a controller themselves. He’s online so often, he could practically list the internet as his legal domicile. Belgian games-industry know-it-all.
