XBOX REVIEW | Cronos: The New Dawn

Bloober Team is on a roll! The developer known for their horror titles sticks to what they’re best at, and with last year’s Silent Hill 2 Remake success, they now have a new IP of their own, and it completely blew me away. The first reveal trailers of Cronos: The New Dawn looked amazing, giving huge Dead Space vibes, which is one of my favourite horror games ever. And then when I played the demo at Gamescom 2025, even though it kicked my ass, I knew I’d fall in love with this grim look at humanity’s demise.

NOTE: It was a bit of a wait to get an Xbox review copy (some delay versus the PC & PS5 builds) but I wanted to play this on my favourite platform as I knew the achievements would add more replay value for me. And because this game is no push-over, and I can’t play it when the kids are around (I’d traumatise their young minds), it took me a while to see the credits roll.

Strap in, Traveller, we’ve got a review to get through. Pave the Path.

Things I liked!

• Post-apo(land)calypse | By far the most important aspect of a horror game is getting the atmosphere right, and Cronos: The New Dawn absolutely nails it. Set in a post-apocalyptic version of Poland, Bloober Team’s home country, it feels oppressive from the very first seconds. The world is overrun by a strange disease that causes infected people to join together in monstrous creatures and Biomass that sticks to the walls. You awaken as the Traveller, with a mission to recover human essences from the past and upload them to “save humanity”. You have to make it to specific jump points, created by your predecessors, and go back in time before the whole world went to the crapper. The aesthetics of the world are fantastic, and even though it’s a pretty linear experience, it doesn’t feel as such because of smart environment design.

• It looks amazing | Cronos: The New Dawn is a VERY good-looking game. All the environments are hand-crafted and rarely look alike, with attention to detail in every corner of the world. It feels like a world that was lived in, before the events unfolded that made it look like the hellscape it is today. The lighting is perfect too, but it’s impossible to play this one during daytime. It’s intended to be played in a pitch-black room for optimal visibility.

• The sound design is top-notch | The heavy sound of your diving-suit hulk of a character stomping through the world makes you feel the weight you carry with you, and wearing a headset to play this is a MUST. The directional audio will give you some hints of where the danger will be coming from next, and if a room is safe or not. Moving through the biomass-infested corridors almost sounds like you’re walking through the bowels of some giant beast, and the music does a perfect job at setting the mood. The importance of sound design in games is easily under-appreciated, but just like in Dead Space, it carries the experience and is absolutely vital to the immersion.

• It’s balls-to-the-walls hard | Strap in, because this is not an easy game, and there are no difficulty settings. The Gamescom demo kicked my ass, and turns out this is the start of the game, and it’s not any easier. You start with only your handgun and very few bullets in the chamber, and even the very first enemy you encounter takes 3 charged headshots to take down. Add into this that enemies typically move quicker than you, at least when you’re aiming, and if they grab you, that’s half your HP gone in a single hit. The good news? The game is at its hardest at the very beginning, and as you progress, you’ll upgrade your weapons to deal more damage or your character to be able to take more punishment. Ammo is hard to come by throughout the whole game, however, and careful inventory management is a must. (more on that later). I’m listing this as a positive because at the end of the road, I’m proud to have overcome the hardships, but looking at some of the store-related achievements being stuck at 6% globally, does tell me there may be a need for a difficulty setting so more people can experience the full story.

Here is the Game’s opening hour:

• Charge!!! | Bullets are hard to come by, but most of your weapons have a charge function that can be used to amplify the damage. Because this is not a hold & release type function, but it automatically fires when fully charged, it means you’ll have to have the timing of each of our guns down to an art. But it’s legit a very satisfying way to play: kiting enemies to follow you in a straight conga line and then firing a shot that pierces through all of them is a great feeling. Or drawing them close to an explosive canister and taking out 5 of them with a single shot. Mmmmm, feels good!

• E-merging-cy | Even the most basic of enemies in Cronos are deadly. And if you let them merge with fallen corpses, they’ll become impossible to kill, with armoured plating and more powerful attacks. You can stop this with a charged shot, but the safest approach is just burning them, provided you have the tools with you to do so.

• Time travel & Gravity boots | Two more things that set Cronos apart are the oddities and gravity-defying traversal. The Traveller can jump through time but also trigger Oddities. Time anomalies that can be used in combat to bring an explosive canister into the level to deal with enemies (much like the mechanic in Bioshock Infinite), but it’s also used for solving puzzles. Drop a piece of the road down, stand on it, and use the oddity to lift you up alongside the rubble and continue on. Later in the game, you’ll get gravity boots that let you walk on walls and ceilings, and they’re even used in a fun way in the final boss fight, where you jump around outside of his range.

• New Game + | There are two main endings to Cronos: the New Dawn. You can easily see them both by just launching a save file made before the final boss (though he’s pretty challenging!). But if you want the real ending, you’ll have to play through the game a second time, luckily while keeping your upgrades and inventory. I immediately started my second run through the game, again on normal, as I think I’m just not cut out for doing some of these bosses in Hard Mode, and it’s a blast to just dash through the game again, knowing the lay of the land, where every surprise is, and with the confidence that comes after having completed it once already. Outside of the 3rd ending, there are also achievements for completing the game while carrying around different essences. Long story short, there is definitely some replay value! (if you’re stuck and really want to see the ending, HERE YOU GO, but beware of story spoilers)

• You can pet the cats | There are a bunch of feline friends to make along the way, and they even give you amazing rewards. Exploration is always encouraged, so keep the Bolt Cutters on you and some fire items to burn through biomass, so you don’t fail to gain entry to a room full of unlooted treasure. Each cat you find will also make its way to the central hub, and you can visit a room full of them. It’s a rare heartwarming moment in a game full of dread.

Mixed & disliked!

• I’ve got baggage | You start the game with only a few inventory slots and you’ll need to make room for important items like Bolt Cutters or keys to get you through the next door. Ammo takes up slots, healing items as well and did I already mention it’s absolutely important to keep some Fire Torches at the ready because the fire is the only thing stopping enemies from merging with fallen corpses? Seeing “inventory full” is one of the most annoying things about the game, so upgrading that first is your first priority.

• Stupid Boxes | Scattered throughout the world, you’ll find energy as the main currency, and if you’re lucky, bullets or materials to craft them. But there are also yellow-paint boxes you can smash and they are programmed to keep the game hard. So if you’re decently stocked with ammo and have been conserving it well: the boxes will just be empty and that feels like punishing players with careful inventory management and shooting efficiency.

• Melee has zero use | you can punch enemies or do a curb-stomp with your boots, but they’re rarely useful outside of breaking the boxes. I saw there was an essence you can carry around that boosts melee damage considerably. I’m curious to find out just how effective it becomes in NG+, but you tend to want to keep enemies at a safe distance regardless.

• Some bosses feel unfair | This ties into the inventory management as well, but it’s very hard to prepare for difficult boss fights because you are limited in what you can bring with you. This means that every boss encounter of the game at some point evolves into running around for more ammo. The very first boss of the game was doable, but I beat it with maybe 2 bullets left and the entire area already plundered. I like this, because it’s amazing how just finding bullets feels like an actual accomplishment in Cronos. But there is a huge risk of saving yourself into a corner with not enough resources left to face them. Like I mentioned before, there are boxes in each encounter, but they don’t always drop what you need. Here is the first fight that gave me some trouble, the Terror of the Steelworks, and I was actually talking to my neighbour the other day and he was stuck here for two days.

The one that broke me, however, was the boss fight in the Abbey. While the boss itself remains stationary, you have to shoot its weak spots while constantly staying on the move yourself. She’ll vomit toxic puke at you that deals damage when getting hit by it, but you also can’t walk over it. Stay still for a few seconds and hands will pop-up from the ground to grab you. Then, when you’ve shot enough weak spots, it starts spamming enemies to chase you and the game just doesn’t give you enough mobility to outrun these, kill them, and still find enough time to also deal with the boss. I felt overwhelmed, and it took me no less than 8 attempts to take it down. The final phase of the boss was even more cruel and because I’m playing on console and had auto-aim assist on, it even targeted the random smaller enemies with the big explosion I was keeping on hand to defeat it, in one attempt. Here is my successful run, for your enjoyment:

• Collision detection issues | My playthrough of Cronos was completely bug-free, except for some weird collision detection moments. There are a few moments in the game where you can shoot at enemies stuck in the biomass through a hole in the wall, but your shot will not make it through. It’s happened in at least 3 different locations already and if you remember how valuable ammo is in this game, you’ll understand my frustration. Also, it gets a little too placement-happy with those wall-growth enemies near the middle of the game. A few of them are a fun change of pace, a corridor with 6 of them behind every corner, is overkill.

How long did I play the review before publishing? about 28 hours (Including 10 hours of NG+)
How long to beat the story? 10-18 hours (depending on skill)
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 935/1000 or 46/47
How long to achieve 1000G | About 35 hours (requires at least a 2nd playthrough in NG+ hard mode)
You’ll love this game if you like these | Dead Space, Resident Evil, The Callisto Protocol

CONCLUSION

Score: 90/100

Cronos: The New Dawn is the best new horror IP since Dead Space,
and has earned itself a spot in my list of favourite survival horror games.

Survival horror at its purest: oppressive, unrelenting, and unforgettable. Bloober Team has carved out a new nightmare that merges breathtaking atmosphere with punishing challenge. It’s not here to coddle you; it will test your will, and if you endure the challenge, the reward is one of the most impactful games of the year.

Such is our calling.