Cronos: The New Dawn

First of all, I write this review to counter the negative reviews. Honestly, what are some of these reviews? Crying because it is 50 US, which is normal. Crying because it is Bloober Team . I never understood the hate. They are an extremely talented studio in my opinion and I loved them since Layers of Fear and Observer was a masterpiece. Yes, they are not really innovative and copy some things but they don*t have to be. They are one of the few studios which make bigger budget horror games and it is interesting to see how they have grown. Or crying because it is an amateur game sold as a Triple A game which is a blatant lie or crying because it is too hard and you don*t have a dodge button which is undoubtedly by design and adds to the tension. Concerning the game, it is a real survival horror game where you have to manage your ressources and where you have to utilize everything to survive. You need to hit the head for more damage or the legs to cause the enemies to fall to the ground and afterwards you need to stomp them. You need to use fire to stun the enemies and afterwards hit them with melee attacks. You need to use the environment like a car for instance to block enemies if there are too many or explosives and sometimes you simply have to run. In other words you need to play smart. The game is challenging but not too hard. Like I said it is a real survival horror game like the first Silent Hills or Resident Evils and it is extremely satisfying to (sometimes barely) survive the encounters. But the real stars here are the setting, the story and the atmosphere. I love the post apocalyptic, sometimes surreal, Polish scenery. The gameplay itself is very smooth. It is also rather slow and methodical and not only action which I like. I fully recommend the game to any horror fan and I hope to see Bloober Team evolve further. I also would love to see Cronos 2 and hope the negativity of some people will not prevent this.

I would like to preface this review by stating that I am a huge critic of Bloober and of their games. I have played everything that they have developed from Observer to this title, and it is impossible to speak of this game in isolation as Bloober has undergone a sort of metamorphosis in and of itself. Basically, I have always considered Bloober to be Eurojank. What is Eurojank? Well, it's Eastern European games having a grand vision, but a sloppy and buggy execution. While all their previous titles: Blair Witch, Observer, The Medium, Layers of Fear were "good enough", they were always buggy and poorly poorly optimized. Those games were acceptable to me because they were not presented as a AAA masterpiece. They fit the budget and fun was had, but were still rather somewhat annoying at times with the performance issues. Then we fast-forward to my utter contempt for Bloober....Silent Hill 2 remake. I feel as though it were not actually much better or worse than their previous attempts (optimization included), but received far far far too much praise because of the IP and nostalgia. I feel if it (SH2) were judged upon its own merits, it wouldn't stand out at all, but would be just another middling AA title. Now, we come to Cronos. There is no IP to back it, nor are there any nostalgia glasses clouding anyone's eyes. Bloober has taken their experience working with Konami, it seems, along with UE5, and also the newfound fame, and are doing their best to transition to a competent AAA Dev team. This game has ambiance for sure. The combat is brutal, the resources scarce, and the struggle to survive is ever present. Now, there are technical hiccups....I mean...It's Bloober after all. Hardware Lumen (RT) absolutely tanks fps even on the 5090, and there is still the shader compilation traversal stutter ever present in UE games. The price is absolutely ridiculous too for a new IP. However, all things considered, Good Job, Bloober Team!!! You have made it!

excellent jeux, gros ambiance , bonne histoire

Survival horror fans rejoice, this game is it. Compelling story & atmosphere, satisfying combat, strategic inventory management, and well designed encounters. Aside from some crashes I was able to get around by skipping the cutscene, game ran perfectly for me. I spent a comfortable 18 hours playing, not too long not too short. And it's on GoG? Chef's kiss. Most things I've read people don't like about it is kinda silly imo: - "Not enough resources" - there was absolutely enough. Be strategic, that's part of the gameplay. Craft the right things at the right time - "Weapons don't do enough damage" - literally one of the first things you're taught is how to charge your weapon. Aim for heads. Upgrade damage. - "There's no map" - the environment is really not complicated, I found it nice to not have to open a map every 10 seconds. Pay attention a little, stop looking at your second screen or phone. - "It's just Dead Space" - I mean if you just look at it on the surface. Completely different setting, different weaponry, different enemy variety, different puzzle mechanics. It's more methodical than Dead Space Idk man if you're an ADHD zoomer maybe you won't like it, but this was so refreshing to play. Between the Silent Hill 2 remake and this, Bloober Team has officially become a studio I'm excited for now

The game is quite intresting unfortunaelly at this stage the bugs are imparing quest progress. I'll revist later on after they managed to cover at least the main issues.