After Silent Hill 2, Cronos: The New Dawn Might Complete Bloober Team’s Redemption Arc

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As a devoted fan, I initially had my doubts when the exceptional remake of Silent Hill 2 was credited solely to Bloober Team. After all, they’d built upon a solid foundation laid by Konami’s original masterpiece, and their earlier works hadn’t exactly set the world alight. Yet, the team has never been one to shy away from its past.

For me, taking on the responsibility of living up to a game that is so deeply cherished was no easy feat. But if you’re among those eagerly anticipating whether Bloober Team can repeat their success and create something uniquely their own, Cronos: The New Dawn seems to be shaping up as that very game.

Last October, Bloober Team shared with me that they plan to continue creating horror games indefinitely. During Summer Game Fest Play Days 2025, they emphasized their intention to establish a unique gameplay mechanic for their upcoming project. Drawing inspiration from Dead Space’s dismemberment combat and Alan Wake’s method of disabling enemies with light sources, they made it clear that they didn’t want their next horror game to be just a point-and-shoot experience. This led to the creation of the “merge system.

The time-traveling horror narrative is established in a backdrop where it takes place both prior to and post an epidemic that decimated most of humanity. Consequently, the locations you traverse frequently contain numerous deceased individuals. The situation deteriorated rapidly, leaving only remnants of people who have been rebranded as “orphans,” the game’s term for its hostile creatures. These fearsome creatures manifest in various shapes and sizes. Some are armored, while others spit corrosive bile at you. Others lash out with slimy, blood-red tentacles aimed at your face.

In this game, individual enemies can become formidable adversaries, but what makes them particularly challenging is the merge system. This system allows multiple enemies to combine into a single powerful entity, amassing numerous abilities simultaneously. Essentially, it creates boss battles that the player, unintentionally, brings upon themselves. Enemies achieve this by moving towards each other and absorbing their counterparts, thus inheriting their abilities. The game’s tagline, “Prevent them from merging,” encapsulates this concept perfectly. During a hands-off demo, Wojciech Piejko, the co-director of the game, humorously demonstrated this by intentionally allowing the monsters to grow, stating, “This is not how you should play this game.

Piejko shared with me that during the testing phase, the team didn’t impose any limitations on enemy merging, leading to colossal monsters that occasionally became too large to navigate through doorways. Now, there will be restrictions on this system, such as enemies that don’t merge, and of course, the boss battles are confined within controlled environments. However, the game’s ability for enemies to amalgamate and produce super-enemies was a discovery that seemed like they had finally found the engaging mechanic they were searching for.

In this game, players can stop mergers from happening by quickly defeating enemies, or more strategically, by cremating the dead bodies to prevent their reanimation. However, your flamethrower, which operates as an area-of-effect attack when triggered, needs fuel, a scarce resource in this horror setting. This means that you’ll frequently have to make tough decisions: Should you use the flamethrower to eliminate potential enemies before they respawn, or conserve fuel for critical moments during intense battles for survival?

Apart from the merge system, I came across a game that appeared more advanced than expected considering it was merely announced recently, less than a year ago. The gunplay seemed challenging as it ought to be, with headshots proving tricky against enemies, even those boasting multiple heads. The exploration was replete with familiar survival-horror elements I must admit I’m still fond of: gates locked tight and demanding boltcutters, puzzles within the environment that stretch the limits of what can reasonably be found in inhabited spaces, and a safe room accompanied by its own distinct soundtrack piece. Scribbled notes and audio logs offered insight into a deliberately puzzling narrative reminiscent of Netflix’s Dark. The third-person survival-horror gameplay builds upon the foundation laid by games and stories that have preceded it.

Despite being concurrently developed by separate teams within the studio, it appears as though Bloober Team has incorporated lessons from Silent Hill 2. The game’s time-bending narrative piques my curiosity, and the blend of survival-horror combat and exploration, while reminiscent of familiar styles, seems impressively executed from this vantage point. I usually exercise caution when judging a game based on limited previews, but Cronos: The New Dawn has potential to redefine this studio’s narrative in a more promising light.

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2025-06-08 18:39