Cronos: The New Daybreak is a daring new sci-fi horror from Polish developer Bloober Crew. It proudly wears its influences on its sleeve, whereas standing out by itself with a brazen visible fashion.
In a method, it may possibly lack originality – particularly the place gameplay is worried – however what it does, it does rather well. As followers of the likes of Useless Area and The Evil Inside, we could not get sufficient of this twisted sci-fi thriller.
The world is in break, all because of a calamitous occasion referred to 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 actual 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 save lots of the people of Earth or not is slightly up within the air, because the mysterious Collective’s intentions are ominous at greatest.
The story was our first huge shock with Cronos. It is the type of narrative that is not afraid to depart 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 by means of distinct areas, whether or not these are an condo complicated or a steelworks manufacturing facility. 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, identified solely as ND-3576, is performed, with discordant dialogue and small glints of humanity by means of her supply. ND-3576 is nearly 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 will get full marks. This claustrophobic world is full of brutalist structure, phenomenal lighting, horrifying creature design, and extremely detailed environments.
The aesthetic carries on by means of sturdy cinematography, and whereas ranges is usually a bit samey in direction of the top, there’s all the time some new visible facet to get pleasure from. 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, nevertheless? Effectively, the gameplay in Cronos is probably going essentially 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 inside the style. You’ve seemingly performed one thing like Cronos in that regard, even when the whole lot it does remains to be to a excessive normal.
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, however it’s onerous to decipher at occasions what’s the surroundings and what’s an enemy. It is a deliberate design alternative that retains us on the sting of our seat.
Then there’s the physique scanner indicator, slightly 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, however it massively amps immersion as you stroll by means of hallways affected 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 instantly, always maintaining you in your toes.
One other significantly tense inclusion is the merge mechanic, which sees enemies attempt to mix their energy with foes you’ve got overwhelmed. In the event that they merge, enemies change into larger, stronger, and way more troublesome to kill. You may burn our bodies if in case you have a gas 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, huge brutes, multi-legged acid spewers that scale partitions and ceilings, after which a more durable, mixed model of enemies too.
What disappoints barely is the fight. Gunplay is stable sufficient, and it definitely spices up within the latter elements of the sport as new gear and weapons are found. Nevertheless, we could not assist however really feel prefer it’s lacking one thing just like the dismemberment from Useless Area. The merge function is sweet, however general fight lacks that dynamic really feel.
We do not need that coming off like fight is unhealthy, nevertheless, as a result of it definitely is not. There are some fights throughout its marketing campaign, particularly concerning bosses, which can be loads of enjoyable, particularly when you’ll be able to let unfastened along with your weapons.
Between fight encounters, Cronos will see you discover pretty linear areas, with a few offshoot optionally available areas. It is in these optionally available areas you may usually discover an abundance of Power and Core foreign money, ammo, items of lore, and even weapon variants. Type 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 circulate 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 along with your character. It’s going to seemingly entice gamers again for the brand new sport plus mode and more durable problem unlocked as soon as you’ve got accomplished the sport.
Irrespective of how upgraded your character is, nevertheless, there’s all the time an excellent energy stability. Stock area is restricted, so you should select your weapons, ammo, devices, and therapeutic provides correctly. And as soon as your stock is full, you should 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 gadgets would serve us greatest and whether or not gadgets we discovered alongside the best way have been actually value taking on the area. It means when fight encounters come round, we’re searching for methods to take care of 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 appears to be like 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 somewhat than locked at it.
Moreover, DualSense haptics are slightly underwhelming. The thuds of gunshots are appropriately chunky, however adaptive set off implementation is minimal, and a few points are lacking any type of haptics. It is a disgrace after Bloober’s glorious DualSense work with its final mission, Silent Hill 2.
