Following the impressive remake of Silent Hill 2 by Bloober Team, I’m more than ready to place my trust in their unique style of horror games. Their latest project, Cronos: The New Dawn, certainly caught my eye with its remarkable presentation, reminiscent of the intense and gory atmosphere akin to Dead Space.
In their recent preview, co-directors Wojciech Piejko and Jacek Zięba laid their cards on the table about the inspirations behind this sci-fi survival horror title. The game draws influence from a range of sources including John Carpenter’s The Thing, the German TV phenomenon Dark, and Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys. On the gaming front, they’ve taken cues from Dead Space and Dark Souls. Cronos not only features human mutants as adversaries but also adopts an over-the-shoulder shooting style and includes a limb-severing mechanic. However, Piejko mentions that Bloober Team is approaching dismemberment differently than it was handled by Visceral Games.
Following the cinematic trailer revealed last October, Bloober Team recently unveiled some gameplay footage in a developer diary released on Thursday. In this new entry, Piejko and Zięba delve into the details of the Traveller—a protagonist akin to a deep-sea diver who ventures into the depths of time. Tasked with extracting survivors, the Traveller navigates through the forsaken ruins of human society. The world of Cronos has been devastated by a catastrophic event referred to as the Change, which, according to the game’s lore, obliterated our world during the 1980s.
Both Piejko and Zięba have impressive backgrounds, having worked on Bloober Team’s Observer and The Medium, giving them substantial experience in blending sci-fi with psychological horror. Cronos: The New Dawn stands as an original creation for Bloober, even as the team simultaneously develops another project with Konami.
