Cronos: The New Dawn Review On Xbox
Cronos: The New Dawn, is a third-person survival horror game by the well know Bloober Team who did the Silent Hill 2 Remake.
The premise is you play as a Traveler working for the enigmatic Collective, tasked with scouring the wastelands of the future in search of time rifts that will transport you to 1980s-era Poland, in a bid to extract key individuals leading up to a world changing event.
The game boasts an intriguing story, grotesque monsters that when killed can be absorbed by others to create stronger variations, time travel, a collection of powerful weapons and gifts from petting cats!
Accessibility
With regards to accessibility, the developers have provided a large number of options, such as an input mode, reticule style and size, Subtitle height and opacity and size. There is an Accessibility tab, that provides colour blind options and quick time tap settings. Audio is also well done with night mode and dynamic ranges to ensure the best options available. In all regardless of your disability, the game does really well to help address it.
Gameplay
This game was very much on my radar when it first came out and I was looking to grab hold of it as soon as funds was available. However, my research did find complaints of its difficulty due to limited resources, which I expect from a survival horror. However recently the developers dropped their newest update, an easy mode called ‘’Temporal Diver’’. Thanks to the Bloober Team I was able to test it out, so without further a do, lets see what Cronos: The New Dawn is all about.
The game starts ambiguously as you, a traveller, are tested by some sort of AI, before being let out into unforgiving broken diseased world. From the moment you leave one thing is certain, you are no spring chicken. You walk with noticeable weight similar to that of deep-sea diver that ensures the player always feels vulnerable, regardless of the location. There is no dodge, but yes you can sprint, if sprinting is akin to that of a mild jog. This impacts everything, from exploring, to dealing with enemies, and takes awhile to get accustomed to.
You soon learn that the game is set mostly in the Poland’s future, decades after a world pandemic, referenced to as The Change. Millions are dead, and those that survived have become some monstrous. You, working for a group called the Collection, are there to try and fix things by finding rifts in time to get back to the 1980’s where certain people will be extracted.
Narrative aside, the game has all the hallmarks mechanics from every classic survival-horror game that exists. Limited inventory to mange, check. Long list of different enemy types that need specific tactics to deal with, check. Barely getting to the limited escape room to save, check. Puzzles to progress and revisit with new items, check. But all this is meaningless if the gameplay isn’t fun and intense.
No such issue here. From the moment you meet your first enemy, you learn basic combat that you help you progress. The Traveler is equipped with a gun from the beginning whose arsenal expands as you progress. Nearly every gun has a basic shot and a charged-up shot, with almost all being better when using the charged-up shots. Basic shots do damage but charged up shots often stagger and do a lot more damage. The crux, the time it takes to charge, leaving you vulnerable to attack whilst doing so. This means the choice is often to waste lots of basic bullets or half of them using charged ones.
Not easy when more than one enemy is bounding down on you and the best you can do to get away, is waddle or a light jog. Combine this with limited resource to create ammo and health and things can get pretty deadly quickly. Difficulty was a big issue when the game was first released from what I can tell, with spikes at bosses being the biggest complaint.
Listening to the players, those critical and approving, Blooper did the best solution possible. An ‘’easy mode’’ for those that want it. This mode from the patch notes confirms the doubling of the players health and halves enemy health. Perfect for those that want to engage with the game but prioritise the story and puzzles somewhat.
As with all games attempting the genre, it needs something different. The gimmick here, is the game's "merge system." Enemies can absorb the bodies of their fallen comrades, creating new horrendous versions that double- or triple-up the original monsters’ abilities. You learn pretty quickly that once enemies die, burning said bodies is a must, or face the tougher consequences. Thank God for crafting on the go, otherwise one wrong move and you will be inundated with death.
To deal with these monsters, the game provides you over time with a nice collection of weapons and gadgets to ensure you always have some method of dispatching the looming entity. Even on easy mode, the game hits that perfect balance of just enough ammo to see you through an enemy spike but not enough to make things easy.
Regardless as you progress through the game, inventory space soon becomes the main focus. Weapons and ammo take a slot, so careful management is key until you can hit a save location and use your resource to expand it. Speaking of the save zones, here is where you upgrade everything. Cores, which are scattered around the world, will be spent on upgrading different facets of your suit, like health and inventory. Energy is used to upgrade weapons, purchase ammo and healing items. This ties into the whole mechanic of the charging system, as do you buy more damage, quicker recharge time, or even bigger clips size.
The gameplay is superb and just kept me engaged that I have found other survival horrors unable to do.
Graphics
The reason gameplay is superb is hinged not only on its combat being fun, but the games intensity, which is where the graphics back it perfectly. The atmosphere is pure unnerving perfection in its brutal disturbing rendition of a world gone to hell.
Fog, lighting, snow and organic matter covering various bleak locations are just a superb visual treat that ensures everything is not only beautiful to look at but disturbing in equal measure. Combine this enemies littered in several cramped corridors, small rooms, dark basements and organic covered hallways, and you will be watching every dark corner feverously.
Speaking of the enemies, there are great collection of some truly horrendous abominations in fantastic detail. Things only ramp up further when they merge with a horrific animation of blood strewn tendrils ensnaring the dead, blending the original brute into a bigger, tougher, and more visually disturbing monster. The only things that beat that are the truly disgusting boss fights that showcase off some ‘’The Thing’’ like horrors.
When I was playing the game was silky smooth, which is what I would expect 6 months after its initial launch. I saw no tearing or odd visual pop-ins either during cutscenes or in-game with the action being crisp and enticing.
Sound
The game does support voice acting and again is equally superb in its rendition. The voice actor for the traveller, perfectly provides an unnerving flatness to the dialogue that is crucial in how they coldly interact with the people around them. Npc and other characters voice actors are also well done in coming across paranoid or sceptical to the players actions.
The story is another great set piece with you starting out with no notion of what is going and piecing together the history with every note scrap and recording you find. This soon turns into a clever collection of abstract events that all come together when you get to the true ending. Music is a variation of repeating piano chords blended with synth wave sounds to ensure senses are tense.
It works perfectly to create an uneasy atmosphere using the games haunting music and background sounds. High pitched to low pitched chords scrapping at each other are designed to ensure your always on edge regardless of the location.
My recommendation again here would be a good quality soundbar to really pick up the tense nature of the game’s horrific world.
Verdict
This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Cronos: The New Dawn is a ‘’Must Own’’.
If you are after a unique experience in the Survival Horror genre, this is the game for you. It nails the fun and intensity so few except older titles, have managed to capture.
The game is currently priced on Xbox at £49.99 or approx. $60 and depending on skill and patience would give you about 20+hours to fully complete and a further 20+ for new game plus. There are hidden cats, narrative choices, locked off rooms alongside 3 alternative endings all ensure great replay ability.
The game is a true harrowing experience, that thrills and disturbs in equal measure. New and old players to the genre will be happy with their choice when playing this game.