Verdict
Cronos: The New Dawn is an excellent addition to the survival horror genre, featuring an intriguing story that continues to mystify even as you get further in. The enemy design is good, and the combat is sure to please fans of Dead Space.
I love horror. Be it games, graphic novels, manga, TV shows, or movies, I'm here for it all. Over the last few years, Bloober Team has risen through studio ranks to earn a spot among the most popular horror development teams after the release of the hugely popular Silent Hill 2 remake last year, and now it's back again with a new IP - Cronos: The New Dawn. After The Medium, I'm not ashamed to admit that I wasn't all that bothered about Bloober, but they did SH2, one of my favorite games ever, justice last year, leaving me excited for Cronos.
Turns out I had every reason to look forward to the new Switch game, with it proving to be a horror worthy of your attention. You play as The Traveler, and you're on an important mission to collect essence and get to the bottom of the tragedy that befalls Karkov, a stunning Polish city that's certainly seen better days in the world of Cronos. You see, a pandemic swept the land, infecting many people in the town - gee, I wonder where Bloober got the idea for this from.
From the second I took control of The Traveler, I knew I was in for a treat, as the atmosphere is thick with a looming sense of dread as I head around every corner. It's dark, too, and I don't mean because of poor contrast, but by design. If you played the Silent Hill 2 remake last year, you should feel right at home, seeing very little outside of the light casting from your helmet. It makes everything feel so much more tense, though you get some reprieve in some places where you clearly see all of your surroundings.
Pretty early on, you can gather at least a glimpse of what's happening, as these monsters appear and attack you - they were once people. COVID-19 was bad enough; no one deserves the fate that befalls the poor people in this version of Karkov. You can even gain insight into individual stories by picking up various notes and documents throughout your harrowing adventure. One of my favorite things about games like the Resident Evil 2 remake is finding documents and piecing events together, so you can imagine that I was having a great time running around picking up pieces of paper.
Funnily enough, you can stumble across notes from officials ordering quarantines and telling people to do their part by staying home - that's a proper throwback to 2020, when we all stayed home and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom threw parties. However, you can also spot writing on the walls, which helpfully translates to English, and many, tragically, call for freedom. What is really happening here? How did all of this come to be? I'm not telling you anything. You need to play Cronos: The New Dawn and find out.
The environmental design is great; it's dark, eerie, and gross, with a good variety in locations. What I mean by that is that there are tight and closed spaces along with wide areas that give you breathing room, so there's a bit of reprieve to an extent, though you still find many monsters wanting to kill you. However, I will say that the variety in enemies is somewhat lacking, with most of them being the same, just a bit stronger. For instance, one with a bloody leg is killable in one shot if you hit the limb, while a few levels up is a creature with spikes protruding from it, but the fundamentals are pretty similar.
The combat is very reminiscent of Dead Space, another fabulous horror series that I hope finds a home on the Nintendo Switch 2 one day, especially if EA ever graces us with a new game or another remake. Anyway, just like in DS, you can use your weapons to shoot the limbs of your enemy, though the results aren't as bloody, and you're aiming for their legs in Cronos to make them fall over. Nonetheless, I enjoy it, and it makes things very tense if you miss an all-important shot.
Every single bit of ammo is precious, as, in true survival horror fashion, supplies are scarce, so you need to make the most out of your bullets, med packs, incinerator ammo, chemicals, scrap, and pretty much anything you can get your hands on. The scrap and chemicals are there for you to craft ammunition and heal items, so you must look around carefully for them. Oh, and while Resident Evil, Silent Hill, The Evil Within, and many other horror games offer an easy difficulty that increases the resources you find, there's no such option in Cronos: The New Dawn.
You don't have any choice in difficulty during your first run, which may feel unfair to some, but to me, it makes sense. You're in hell, on a mission that has you jumping through time, exploring various areas, and looking for people - it shouldn't be easy. You need to fight to stay alive, and that only adds to the terror; there's no easy path to victory here. You need to maximize your resources and find as much energy as possible, along with cores, both of which are what enable you to upgrade your suit, weapons, and gear. With that in mind, it's worth petting every cat you come across. Yes, the pandemic didn't affect those precious felines, and you can give them some affection.
Something else I have to give Cronos credit for is the sound design. It's all very atmospheric, and the noises your enemies make are quite chilling when you wear a headset, so make sure you have the best Switch 2 accessories to maximize your experience. However, on occasion, I do encounter objects clipping through the floor and walls, along with the occasional drop in framerates, but, for the most part, Cronos: The New Dawn runs well on Nintendo Switch 2, making it a perfectly viable platform to enjoy the game on.
All in all, Cronos: The New Dawn is an excellent horror game that might just qualify as one of the best Switch games to release in 2025. The story is mysterious and intriguing, keeping you guessing all throughout the game. Then, there are the monsters, whose lack of variety doesn't hinder the quality of their design. Cronos is a tense experience that can test even the most seasoned survival horror veteran.
While you're here, make sure you check out our Little Nightmares III preview and Little Nightmares III interview to learn more about another horror gem coming later this year.