Bloober Team, the developer behind the critically acclaimed Silent Hill 2 Remake and cult horror hits like The Medium and the Layers of Fear Remake, has recently uploaded a developer diary for its next major horror title, Cronos: The New Dawn.
The developer diary in question delves deeper into the game’s plot, various characters you will meet along the way, and hints at gameplay decisions the player can make that could change the course of the story.
Here’s what’s been revealed for Cronos: The New Dawn from this developer diary video.
Cronos: The New Dawn is a third-person sci-fi horror game where you must travel back in time to prevent humanity’s destruction by harvesting the souls of key targets while fighting horrific, mutated monsters that can only die by being burnt to death.
The developer diary reveals more of this game’s plot in greater detail by first stating that humanity was brought to the brink of extinction by a disease emerging during the 1980s called “The Change”.
The last remnants of humanity in the present have formed a mysterious organization called the “Collective”, armed with advanced technology that allows their highly-trained operatives known as “Travelers” to travel back in time to the point where Mankind ended.
You play as one of these Travelers, and your goal is to travel to the past and extract the souls of key human targets who perished in the apocalypse as a part of a grander scheme that could potentially save the future.
However, sucking out a person’s soul will not be a walk in a wasteland park. Throughout the game, you will learn about the backstories and personalities of each of your targets and will be forced to decide whether you extract their soul or leave them be.
Depending on how many souls you extract, the game’s plot could alter in subtle or drastic ways. Additionally, harvesting souls may grant you special perks that could help you survive on your journey.
Be warned that carrying souls within you will cause you to become haunted. As you gain more souls, your hauntings will gradually worsen from voices in your head to nightmarish visions that could make you go insane.
During your mission, you will encounter another Traveler called the “Warden”. He will assist you by providing helpful tools and maintaining the game’s main hub, where you will spend time preparing your gear in between each soul hunt.
The Warden is a strange, creepy, enigmatic figure who views humanity as an ‘anomaly’. You will have many conversations with this man in the game, and some of them may provide insight into the Collective organization’s motives and some of its darkest secrets.
This game feels like Dead Space, Bioshock, and Silent Hill formed into Lovecraftian Horror, and I want to know more.
I don’t often delve into survival horror games, but Cronos: The New Dawn looks so bleak and insane that I can’t help but be intrigued to find out what kind of disease would’ve caused this world to end up in such a horrifying state.
Not to mention, the game is appealing to my nostalgia as it reminds me of some of my favorite horror-themed games.
The combat and shape-shifting monsters you fight feel reminiscent of Dead Space, the foggy, distorted, ruined world evokes the nightmarish atmosphere of Silent Hill, and the idea of extracting souls of potentially innocent people to gain power at the cost of your humanity calls Bioshock to mind.
It makes me wonder what kind of abilities harvesting souls will give us in the game, and if absorbing too much of them will turn us into a monster worse than the creatures we’re fighting.
Either way, I can’t wait to solve the mysteries of this scary upcoming Xbox title/upcoming PC title when Crono: The New Dawn launches on September 5, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.
