I’m down to three bullets. The fourth just whizzed past the head of the Orphan barreling towards me, winding back its monstrous right arm for a downward slam that’s about to send me back to the loading screen. I catch the bright red of a gas canister in my periphery, just behind and to the right of the Orphan as its attack makes contact. I’m in the red now. I fire a quick shot at the red barrel, but the Orphan’s bulbous leg stops the bullet before it can reach the explosive. It’s right on me now. I hold to charge a desperate shot as the orphan prepares his finishing move, bellowing a guttural howl. The pistol whines with potential energy and bursts with a dry crack, piercing the flesh and igniting the canister. A mighty boom turns the Orphan into mincemeat. I’m showered in gore, but alive. Silence. The doors of the locked arena shudder open, and a sing-songy AI voice utters the familiar mantra of The Collective: “Let our work continue.”

Cronos: The New Dawn understands and applies tension with expert precision. Few survival horror games have ammo and health economies this tightly tuned. You’ll go from rags to riches and back down to even shabbier rags over the course of just one desperate fight. The game’s enigmatic fleshy homunculi, known as Orphans, are spongy and dangerous. Luckily, there’s a depth of strategy here that’s unique to Cronos while still taking healthy inspiration from the all-stars of the survival horror genre.

The protagonist, ND-3576, is stoic, enigmatic, and dons a bulky suit of black armor. There’s a weight to her movement that is reminiscent of Bioshock’s “Big Daddies” or even Isaac Clarke in the original Dead Space. Equipped with a distinct arsenal of pistols, shotguns, and carbines, ND provides a much more overtly militaristic power fantasy than other survival horror leads. Unique to Cronos are the torch, which scorches the ground nearby in a wave of fire, and the pyre, a launchable fire mine.

Those last two are especially important and make the combat really click. The aforementioned Orphans can have additional properties like acidic attacks or armor. When an Orphan is killed it’ll ball up into a writhing mass on the ground, inviting other living Orphans to merge with it. You can interrupt this process with timely gunfire, or you can make use of fire to burn the bodies away permanently. The added tension of needing to babysit the bodies of dead enemies, or risk having to deal with tougher versions of those same enemies, gives Cronos its own identity.

The environments and level design are equally compelling. Cronos takes place in a post-apocalyptic, dreary Poland bathed in ominous fog. The socialist government of The New Dawn failed to contain the spread of the biological plague known as the Change, transforming cities into empty, bleak monoliths. Cronos is profoundly lonely, save for the horrific Orphans haunting the alleyways and apartment blocks. ND ventures through city streets, industrial buildings, and underground train stations that loop around on themselves nicely while being largely linear. Shortcuts are plenty, optional routes are never too out of the way, and I never felt truly stuck while playing. Solid level and encounter design all-around.

Unfortunately, Cronos doesn’t land all of its big ideas. The story of ND-3576 and her quest for meaning at the end of time is compelling, but the game suffers from a meandering script and endings that don’t give you the kind of answers you’d want. The game asks these questions over and over again about basics of the plot but then actively avoids answering those questions all the way to the end.

Take the Warden, for example. He’s the only other living time traveler we interact with over the course of the game, and he’s profoundly important to the game’s story. He’s seemingly gone against his programming and become more human, engaging with music and using fancy turns of phrase. I found his story to be much more interesting than any of the other characters, but most of the plot involves finding seemingly random people that just are not interesting. Doctor Zybert is a doctor who is sad the plague is happening. Edward is the crazy guy who knows about the time travelers. Gabriel is a steelworker who saw what happened at the steelworks. Boy, I hope they tell me what happened at the steelworks!

Let me be clear– I love a good mystery, and I especially love when the mystery lingers after the credits. In the case of Cronos, however, I found that the story was actively uninterested in answering its most fundamental questions so that it can do psychological horror “all in your head” stuff. The Collective seems really interesting as a faction. Where did they come from, what’s their deal? What’s with the Terminal? The game does not tell you. What the game does tell you, however, over and over and over again, is that the government was inept in trying to handle the Change and Doctor Zybert tried really hard to cure the sickness. It’s like the game’s script is trying to change the topic instead of engaging with the rich fiction it built.

Near the end of the game, there’s a section where you have to navigate an abbey looking for the Pathfinder, one of the original time travelers who hopefully has some answers for ND-3576 and the Warden. The Change in this area is unique in that it speaks into the protagonist's mind, similar to the Gravemind from Halo. The dialogue is unfortunately cliche and doesn’t add anything to the story whatsoever– just lots of blabbering about holiness with no substance. I found this aspect of the story completely unnecessary. The script completely overplays its hand here and it would have been better if the talking hive mind was cut entirely. A total miss for me.

Perhaps Cronos’ worst fumble is that the arguably best ending requires a full second playthrough in New Game Plus. This is disastrous for the game’s story, even if a second playthrough makes things fall into place a bit more. Cronos does not justify its New Game Plus whatsoever. There are absolutely zero meaningful changes in New Game Plus, it’s just the same game again. There’s so much missed potential here, I wish they could have pulled from the likes of Armored Core VI or NieR: Automata to make the second replay more engaging. Just a huge flaw in what could be a survival horror classic.

As a whole, I think Cronos: The New Dawn is still largely successful with its ideas. It’s finely tuned to create interesting gameplay that’s distinct in its genre. While the story has some issues I think it is worth experiencing; I wouldn’t have played the game twice if I didn’t think there was something special here. Despite its rough edges, Bloober Team have crafted a game that will hopefully have some cultural staying power. If nothing else, I’ll remember those tense scrambles to survive with only one bullet left. Better make it count.

Great game! if you are a fan of dead space of resident evil definitly recomend it.

This game does not hold your hand. Such is our calling.

It assumes you went through RE4 and Dead Space and you want something similar but a bit more focused on horror and survival rather than pure combat. I love it so much and it definitely has a niece spot with elements from RE2, RE4, RE7, Silent Hill and Dead Space 1-2. With world/level design very similar to Dark Souls 1 and 3.

I have no idea where the negative reviewers of this game get their problems from, in particular since most claim they played RE4 and Dead Space which in my opinion are on par or a teensy tiny bit below this game.

The game is 9.5/10 for me. The story is very good in my opinion BUT YES IT DOES REQUIRE READING AND PAYING ATTENTION FROM TIME TO TIME. Level design is similar to Dark Souls 1 and I can't express how much I love that.

Let me address the main "critiques" and why I'm inclined to argue for the game's decisions.

1. Inventory space
The game forces you very often to decide between valuable items, ammo, healing items and tech items. Sometimes you have to throw away a few bullets to get a currency item, sometimes you have to go back to your stash (2-3 min trips at most usually, the game is full of shortcuts to safe areas), sometimes you just don't pick up the healing item and remember it's there in case you get hurt later, etc.

It's a limitation, of course it's frustrating. You must always choose what matters most, your time to back track or what item to discard. Honetly, I felt very rarely that I ran out of space and had to actually make a hard decision. It was never THAT frustrating.

And yes, I agree quest items need a separate inventory. That's bad design, no argument there.

2. Map
The decision to NOT have a map is brilliant, similar to DS1 you're forced to learn the environment and figure out shortcuts, remember locked doors within the level and so on. If the level design was ♥♥♥♥, I agree you would've needed one. This is a critique I have for RE4, the game sells you treasure maps because the level design is not good enough for you to find the treasures by yourself and in general you need to be hand-held by a map system to figure out the environment.

Also, since we're not in 1999 anymore, if you really need a map you can google unofficial maps and follow them, I did it too when I felt I was missing something on the level I was on or I was just generally confused about the area. Bottom line, I think it's a good decision. It really accentuates the horror, the feeling of being lost and finding your way, the genersl eerines and the disgust of having to crawl in and out of orphan nests or other areas you feel cramped and uncomfortable.

I also looked up maps while playing the Souls games in order to make sure I don't miss anything since I also hate backtracking but I don't blame the designers for making it like that. It's a bold decision, just like the inventory space it's an intentional limitation to make you feel constrained and lost. I love it.

3. Level Design, Back tracking and Hand Holding

We all love to hate EA, Ubisoft and hand holding games in general, yet, when a game asks you to memorize a map with 4-5 interconnected areas we all go haywire on how the hell are we supposed to keep all that in mind and God forbid we figure out a way back to the stash on our own and go back to explore for locked doors we might be able to open now.

I really hate it when I have to through a whole game to open a door on level 1, similar to Hollow Knight (all Metroidvenia games) design, but Cronos never does anything like that — all key items (except the bolt cutters) are for that specific level only, you don't need to keep trying to open the same door by 20 ways until you find the right one, if the door is locked in Steel Mill, the key is in the Steel Mill, nowhere else.

Also the Firelink Shrine connectedness of all the maps is great imho. I love how all levels of the game have shortcuts back to a local main safe area or multiple ones. I don't understand how someone can argue against this type of design. Sure, there would've been ways to make areas easier to navigate and general QOL but I really like where the game stands currently. It forced you to figure it out. Again, more horror, more constraints, more survival horror and visual storytelling.

4. Story

Brother, just because the characters don't deliver lines at 300 words per minute that doesn't mean the story is boring or dragged out. The voice acting is PRISTINE. The actors do an amazing job by using just a voice 90% of the time (no face/facial expressions).

Also, without spoiling anything, the game has 2-3 large unexplained mysteries even if you dive deep in it and that's a bit sucky but that's kind of the point, you're too small to understand everything and sometimes life is just misterious like that.

All considered, let me clear something out: Almost all aspects of the story and all characters are detailed and explained more than enough for the plot to make sense if you care read the notes, listen to voice memos and dialogues.

5. Combat

Similar to: RE4 Standard Difficulty, Dead Space Hard Difficulty. Easier than Dark Souls 1/2.

I don't understand wth are people on about enemies dodging too fast/much and whatnot. Brother this is not an easy game but not a difficult one either, just put a modicum of effort and you'll figure it out. Think out a strategy, don't overly rely on headshots, stake out the environment for local utilities, etc.

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To love and spread love about this game is my vocation. Putting at least a gram of effort into a game before declaring it a waste of your time should be your vocation.