Cronos: The New Daybreak is a daring new sci-fi horror from Polish developer Bloober Group. It proudly wears its influences on its sleeve, whereas standing out by itself with a brazen visible model.
In a method, it may possibly lack originality – particularly the place gameplay is worried – however what it does, it does actually effectively. As followers of the likes of Lifeless Area and The Evil Inside, we could not get sufficient of this twisted sci-fi thriller.
The world is in break, all due to a calamitous occasion known as ‘The Change’. Buildings are fractured, chunks of land float round aimlessly, and it is all coated in an oppressive layer of fog. What’s worse is that, as you delve deeper into the leftovers of its neighbourhoods — styled after the true Nowa Huta area in Poland — mutated abominations fester.
You play as The Traveller, a time-jumping determine tasked with heading again to Nineteen Eighties Poland to gather the essence of key figures. Whether or not that is to avoid wasting the people of Earth or not is a little bit up within the air, because the mysterious Collective’s intentions are ominous at greatest.
The story was our first large shock with Cronos. It is the sort of narrative that is not afraid to go away you with extra questions than solutions. The central story flirts with concepts of the place the illness got here from, how The Change occurred, and what your predecessor needed to do with all of it.
These questions (and solutions) are informed via distinct places, whether or not these are an condominium advanced or a steelworks manufacturing unit. Letters and audio tapes fill in a few of the blanks, with intermittent cutscenes doing the remainder of the work.
We love how our protagonist, recognized solely as ND-3576, is performed, with discordant dialogue and small sparkles of humanity via her supply. ND-3576 is sort of humorous at occasions, regardless of the crushing world that surrounds her.
Whereas it did admittedly take us a second to settle into the groove of the sport’s narrative, one factor you may instantly gel with is its visuals. If Cronos is scored on its visible design alone, it could get full marks. This claustrophobic world is stuffed with brutalist structure, phenomenal lighting, horrifying creature design, and extremely detailed environments.
The aesthetic carries on via sturdy cinematography, and whereas ranges could be a bit samey in the direction of the tip, there’s all the time some new visible facet to take pleasure in. And topping all of it off is an exceptional rating that pulsates between tense soundscapes, synthy tracks, and even ethereally unhinged choir work. It merges collectively to create a visible and auditory delight.
How a lot of that influences the gameplay expertise, nonetheless? Properly, the gameplay in Cronos is probably going probably the most acquainted facet of the sport. The weapons, the extent design itself, and even options like a stomp are all pulled from different video games throughout the style. You’ve possible performed one thing like Cronos in that regard, even when every thing it does remains to be to a excessive commonplace.
There are some little pockets of distinctive magic, although, just like the design of the creature nests, that are lined with the mutated stays of the fallen. Paranoia units in because the gurgling sound design lets you recognize an enemy is close by, but it surely’s laborious to decipher at occasions what’s the setting and what’s an enemy. It is a deliberate design selection that retains us on the sting of our seat.
Then there’s the physique scanner indicator, a little bit colored marker in your weapons that point out which our bodies are alive and ready to pounce, and that are actually lifeless. It is a small factor, but it surely massively amps immersion as you stroll via hallways plagued by mutated corpses.
Then there are the extra on the market areas of the sport, as you employ gravity boots to leap throughout varied platforms. It is trippy and all the time delivers a few of the greatest visuals within the sport, as do segments that see environments change right away, continually conserving you in your toes.
One other notably tense inclusion is the merge mechanic, which sees enemies attempt to mix their energy with foes you’ve got crushed. In the event that they merge, enemies grow to be larger, stronger, and a lot tougher to kill. You’ll be able to burn our bodies when you’ve got a gasoline torch on you, however even nonetheless, it is a good way to amp up the strain, particularly since enemies are so aggressive.
Enemy selection is sort of sturdy, as you get common enemies, chargers, large brutes, multi-legged acid spewers that scale partitions and ceilings, after which a harder, mixed model of enemies too.
What disappoints barely is the fight. Gunplay is stable sufficient, and it actually spices up within the latter components of the sport as new tools and weapons are found. Nonetheless, we could not assist however really feel prefer it’s lacking one thing just like the dismemberment from Lifeless Area. The merge characteristic is sweet, however general fight lacks that dynamic really feel.
We do not need that coming off like fight is dangerous, nonetheless, as a result of it actually is not. There are some fights throughout its marketing campaign, particularly concerning bosses, which are loads of enjoyable, particularly when you’ll be able to let unfastened together with your weapons.
Between fight encounters, Cronos will see you discover pretty linear areas, with a few offshoot elective areas. It is in these elective areas you may usually discover an abundance of Power and Core foreign money, ammo, items of lore, and even weapon variants. Form of like a Resident Evil, you may seek out keys, passcodes, and random knick-knacks to unlock doorways, or there would be the occasional puzzle.
Power and Cores are used to improve your character. Power offers with weapon upgrades, bettering injury, stability, clip measurement and so forth, whereas Cores improve stock area, well being, and devices.
There is a good movement of foreign money and upgrades, so throughout the roughly 16 hours it takes to finish the sport, you may all the time really feel such as you’re making significant progress together with your character. It will possible entice gamers again for the brand new sport plus mode and more durable problem unlocked as soon as you’ve got accomplished the sport.
Regardless of how upgraded your character is, nonetheless, there’s all the time a very good energy stability. Stock area is restricted, so you must select your weapons, ammo, devices, and therapeutic provides properly. And as soon as your stock is full, you must delete or use one thing to clear the area — you’ll be able to’t simply drop it and are available again for it later.
It’d really feel restrictive for some, however we personally loved managing our stock, determining which objects would serve us greatest and whether or not objects we discovered alongside the way in which have been actually price taking on the area. It means when fight encounters come round, we’re searching for methods to cope with enemies effectively.
We performed the sport on PS5 Professional, the place there is a high quality and efficiency mode, concentrating on 30 and 60 frames-per-second respectively. The sport seems beautiful as we have talked about, however there are sometimes body fee stutters as you enter new areas. We’re not Digital Foundry, so we did not have counters out, however the body fee did really feel prefer it was aiming for 60 quite than locked at it.
Moreover, DualSense haptics are a little bit underwhelming. The thuds of gunshots are appropriately chunky, however adaptive set off implementation is minimal, and a few features are lacking any type of haptics. It is a disgrace after Bloober’s glorious DualSense work with its final challenge, Silent Hill 2.
