Cronos: The New Dawn

 

Cronos: The New Dawn

Contains spoilers!

“Such is our calling.”

               I started playing Cronos: The New Dawn right after I had finished Alan Wake 2 and I always thought I needed a break from survival horror. Cronos was such an engaging and challenging game that it kept me going despite my depletion and reduced appetite for jumpscares and frustrated sewer-like areas with disgusting enemies. Cronos: The New Dawn is a new IP developed and published by Bloober Team, the very same team that gave us Silent Hill 2 Remake which was top-notch, so my expectations were sky high for this game. Cronos is a mash up of Dead Space, Resident Evil and Silent Hill 2 Remake. While it hasn’t reached the heights of any of those franchises, I would say that this new bold idea worked, and Cronos did offer a chilling third-person survival horror experience.

Story

               The game starts out as a climatic event where a system is sounding an alert and we see someone in chunky metallic diving gear strapped vertically to a stand. We later realize that this someone is not human, but machine, in huge part anyway, and the system greets her (it has a feminine but incredibly robotic voice) as “the Traveler” and welcomes her to “the Vocation”. We are given a task to locate our predecessor, without any explanation because “Such is our calling.” We then step out of what appears to be a shelter in a hexahedron shape and slowly make our way to an apartment complex, with a bulletin board near the entrance that shows “Missing Person” posters in Polish. In the apartment complex, we find many notes and graffiti (e.g. “We shall know them by their eyes”). What shall we know from whose eyes? There is no one in sight, we find notes that refer to a family, and the kids of this family are experiencing some sort of illness. Through the chilling deserted apartment building rooms, we see one full of mannequins (but of course, some Silent Hill influence must rub off on the developers after all!), and we detect walls lined up with red, human-like corpses that make hissing and breathing noises but nothing sinister as of yet. From the notes we later find, we understand that there is some kind of epidemic going on. There are quarantines, ration control, military action, suppressed free speech, and much death. The atmosphere is super eerie and so well done, I forgot that I was to encounter an enemy in a survival horror game, surprise! A zombie-like entity, called an Orphan, finally makes its appearance and attacks viciously. These don’t mock about; they are agile and relentless. Quite the carrier of hit points too. Eventually, you end up outside, and there is a floating cathedral-like building that is split in half, with one end completely hanging in the air. This is part of ‘the Anomaly’, warping of time and space which Travelers of the Vocation can manipulate to some extent but do not quite fully understand.

The story is told through cutscenes, scattered notes and audio files that usually pertain to the context in which they are found. Our predecessors, i.e. other Travelers that came before us, leave us clues about the place. The story does suffer from what I call “souls-like” writing but definitely not as bad as that. The game starts out slow but later on the notes become more and more interesting, especially the dystopic world of the workers in the Steelworks, the Change, the Anomaly, the virus and how it arrived, the Vocation, the main protagonist, all are engaging and well-crafted. Cutscenes are scarce in the beginning, but they ramp up big time toward the end, I wish there were more scenes depicting the past lives of Edward, Lidia, Weronika, Zybert etc. but you know, budget.

The characters are dynamic and interesting. The Traveler, the main protagonist, is like a clean slate but ever so questioning, it is fun to watch how she grows and starts to understand the past events that have shaped her being. The Warden, or later to be identified as “the Pathfinder” is also a very good character. The way he is keeping information from the Traveler is genuine and easily identifiable but the fact that you can’t quite tell what exactly he is holding back makes it way cooler. Both him and the main protagonist Traveler sound like a robot but they don’t at the same time; it’s as if there is a will of someone in particular inside them that directs their thoughts. Weronika, the elusive and suspicious doctor, is quite a character too. I loved how a familiar idea, putting your loved one’s soul digitally in a machine so that they live in the future, is told very subtly all to the very end until you realize that the Traveler is part Weronika after all. I wish Artur, Edward, Lidia, Gabriel, Eliza and Zybert’s stories were better incorporated into what ends up as Weronika’s story. The intricate relationship between Zybert and Weronika told real time (instead of in notes) would have given more weight to both characters. Angela for example is what I call a ghost character, the game wants to make her important to the story, but it is never clear why and somehow she gets more screentime than say Zybert should have.

The game does have variety and it’s not just plain gameplay or simple-minded horror. Sometimes there were funny moments like our Traveler saying “I need to activate the tram…again.” or Mother Eliza saying “Behold our body…” which I found amusing because… look at the body!

The game holds real emotional impact and tells a story of a potential future of humankind if such a biological and societal catastrophe is met. The game is more gameplay than story though, you cannot expect a Final Fantasy or Xeno World-level storytelling here.

I love the mysterious targets appearing on the screen like this, especially with Mother Eliza Zybert. 

Gameplay

Cronos is a challenging game, particularly during the first few hours where you don’t really know what you are doing and the resources are scarce. The enemies are tough and will easily take five or more focused shots to be killed. The game allows the player to either make a quick shot or hold the RT button to focus the shot which deals more damage. I found that focusing is the way to go, I almost never dealt damage that was not focused.

No real puzzles, so in this respect no Resident Evil or Silent Hill influences here. A bunch of fuse gathering here and there, some finding keys, connecting electric wires and so on but no real back tracking, no “I have to use this item here and here 20 min later in the game”, basically no puzzle solving of major scale. This does not come as a negative point, as the game immediately identifies itself as more action than solitary contemplation game.

The game can be scary and disturbing, I found myself saving a ton (rather like in Resident Evil). Thankfully, there are safe rooms with an enigmatic sci-fi background tune, where you save, upgrade your gear etc.

Boss fights are wimpy and by far the easiest challenges of the game. I find that areas with many enemies coming at you are more difficult than a boss fight where incendiary containers pop up regularly and all you have to do is to lure the enemy toward them. One strange thing on the internet that I could not relate to was how the final boss battle with the Pathfinder (a.k.a. the Warden) was very difficult and silly. On the contrary, I found it to be one of the easiest fights in the game. I think his constant disappearing act threw people off but as long as you run away and shoot as he is making a lunge forward it’s fine. I usually died in many places but I did the final boss in one go. Eliza the Mother was far more annoying in my opinion.

I dislike double killing in my games but that’s just me. Like in Resident Evil 1 (and now I realize to my dismay, as I have just started playing it, also in Resident Evil Requiem), you can burn enemies that you’ve already killed and they won’t be able to merge with other enemies to make even stronger enemies.

You cannot and should not kill everything in sight. You should always kill when necessary to preserve ammo and use the environment effectively (e.g. shooting a compressed gas container etc.). This is absolutely essential to the game and the only way to survival. Before you pick up keys, activate something or pull up a lever, make sure you remember the area you are in and if you are convinced you can run, never to return, then run. The game will shut all doors sometimes and expects you to clear the area completely so killing all is unavoidable but there were many instances where I simply ran (e.g. when activating the tram, twice!).

I played the game on normal (“Anvil of the Collective”). Personally, I am not bothered to do the challenge mode “Forged in Fire” that is unlocked in NG+ but for challenge fans this could be good. The only downside is that the True Ending is hidden in that hard mode but I can just watch a video.

My favorite weapons were handgun and shotgun, as per usual with me so whenever I could, I upgraded those first. The game does give you more options (so called “Relics”, e.g. carbine weapons) but I wasn’t impressed by any of them. Maxed out “Sword” (handgun) is hands down the best and most effective weapon for singles; when multiple enemies attack Hammer the shotgun is the best. The charged shots with the handgun is the way to go. The rest are gimmicks and not particularly appealing visually either. There was no incentive for me to use any of them except when the game clearly forces you to use one of the carbine weapons because it keeps giving the ammo for it and not enough handgun ammo. Thankfully, I found this to be a minor issue.

I do hate the grabbers on the walls so very much. They are so annoying, easy to spot and kill, but still annoying and satisfying to get rid of.

I didn’t care at all for the gravity boots thing. It’s unnecessary and way over used. At times I even found myself going back because you were allowed to travel backwards. Not to mention nauseated.

You meet the deceased bodies of the past Travelers, whose memories can be accessed but usually you find audio notes left by them. However, some Travelers and some NPCs (“the Targets”) can be extracted for their Essences, basically their “souls”. For gameplay, this means that these Essences give you special attributes, such as more firepower in your shotgun etc. I found these to be few and far between and they don’t add much to the gameplay. It depends on your style, if you like using the shotgun, then you would want to keep that Essence for the shotgun etc.

Main gameplay item to collect is “Cores”. I found this to be the most essential item in the game. These can be found all throughout and be used to enhance your gear, such as to increase item slots and max health. Here, I prioritized max health as I seemed to die more often than I’d like. Toward the middle and end game, this may not matter as much because you do get used to the game’s mechanics and its expectations. Other items include scrap metal and chemicals that you can combine to make ammo and healing items (extremely useful).

The game has some good replay value, you may try different strategies of killing enemies etc, but you wouldn’t do it for the story, just having fun with the gameplay.

You collect cats and each will you leave useful items like “Cores”!

Graphics

Cronos: New Dawn is mostly bleak, dark, grey, rather like Silent Hill 2 Remake. However, the environments are well made, incredibly detailed and gorgeous when the game wants to be. The cathedral and the hospital area are all graphically interesting (if a little disturbing in its infestation level). I can’t say that any one particular area stuck in my head as beautiful (it is no match for Silent Hill 2 Remake’s downtown area that is filled with details) but effects and the general look are superb. Enemy looks are varied and interesting. Perhaps the game has more sudden “scary” flashes than I’d like. It’s not that I was scared, but just distracted.

Performance-wise, the game is great but does hiccup now and then. Someone on Reddit did mention microstutters and after that I seem to notice more of them in my own gameplay. I’d say it’s tolerable but it’s not perfect. I think I suffered something similar in Silent Hill 2 Remake so perhaps it’s not surprising.

Expect chilling grey scenery like this all the time!

The character models (e.g. Weronika, Edward etc) could have been made better as they looked like they came out of a “TellTale’s The Walking Dead” game sometimes (see below).

Weronika is pissed and wants a future even if she dies a gruesome death.

Sound

Sound effects and direction are all good. The sci-fi atmosphere, the wailing of the zombies, screams of the wall grabbers are well done. The voice acting is great and moving, no complaints there. What is haunting here however, is the occasional choir. Women’s choir kick in at the most somber moments and the harmony of the voices with the environment is awesome. I have to say though, I wish the melodies were better developed, and that there were leitmotifs (the very last song has the rest room beat in the song but eh). There is some solid intention here, I wish we were given more. Of course, just because this came from Bloober, do not expect a Yamioka-level soundtrack, there most certainly is not. I do appreciate the rare choir entrance which creates a chilling effect.

I won’t write a separate review for the soundtrack, composed by Arkadiusz Reikowski because most of it is atmospheric, ambient pieces. The choir pieces that work so well in the game, that I wish were more developed, are Finis Via Prope (latin for “The end of the road is near”), Traveler Remains, Vita Aeterna (latin for “eternal life”) (the best track in the OST), Aut Omnia Nihil (latin for “Either all or nothing.”), Don’t Let Them Merge.

Conclusion

Cronos: The New Dawn is a fresh survival horror game with familiar features as well as new takes. I enjoyed my time and would give it a solid 7 out of 10. I am rather picky when it comes to story elements and the gameplay could have had more engaging puzzles. The graphics are gorgeous and detailed but the character models could have been more refined. The voice acting and music do take you by surprise but again they could have given us more here. Overall, this is a game I will look back fondly and will fire it up occasionally for the fun and terrifying gameplay. Looking forward to what bloober is cooking next! Silent Hill 1 Remake?