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Cronos: The New Dawn Gamescom hands-on is a love letter To The Thing, Dead Space
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Alyssa Mercante
In Cronos, a faceless, nameless woman, known only as the Traveler, moves through this ash-covered version of Poland in search of people she needs to extract for her mysterious employer. “You don't really know much about what the traveler is,” co-game director Wojciech Piejko tells me. “You know she is cold, very strict, almost like militaristic, almost robotic, but how you perceive her and her journey changes dramatically by the very end.”
But at first, she is just the Traveler, and you aren’t sure what she’s doing and why. Brilliantly, Cronos’ cold opening forces you to make some decisions that seem consequential, but it’s unclear how they’ll play it.
“Listen to the will of those who will not speak,” a voice intones at the beginning. Then, smash cuts of black and white newsreels—explosions, gas masks, death, all interspersed with what sounds like a spaceship crashing to earth. “Lazarus protocol engaged,” a robotic voice says, before telling me that my predecessor (whoever that is) has died, and I’m to take their place. A series of Rorschach tests pop up on a monitor in front of the Traveler, with only two options to choose from for each. Then, a few simple questions like “what is your purpose,” with the game only providing the vague answers of “pave the path” or “bring them back.” I linger over every one, wracking my brain trying to figure out how these choices could affect me in a game whose plot I have no concept of yet.
“I think we took that risk to create this cold opening for the game,” Piejko says. And it pays off.
By the time I’m done with these questions (the last of which is a lightning round of word association), I’m eager to be let loose to explore this dark, ashen Poland. Armed with a handgun that can shift and change like Jesse Faden’s in Control, you step out into this barren land in search of the remains of your predecessor. At first, it feels like a Resident Evil or Dead Space game as you squeeze between cracks, search abandoned homes for supplies, and manage your tiny inventory, but once you start engaging enemies, Cronos drastically diverts from its inspirations.
Cronos’ enemies are known as Orphans, and they’re slimy, humanoid monsters with yucky tendrils that may feel familiar, but are far from it. You’re not dismantling necromorphs limb-by-limb here, and at first, taking down an Orphan seems pretty straightforward—I drop the first one that breaks through a door and lunges at me (conveniently opening up a path I need) with a few shots. But later, you realize that, just like John Carpenter’s The Thing, these freaks can meld together into a hulking mass of gross. If you don’t destroy the Orphans’ remains, an alive enemy will consume a dead one and absorb its abilities.
“We push this into more tactical territory, so you don't need super accuracy in the game; you need to think,” Piejko explains. “Later in the game, you see different types of enemies, and who will you drop first? Maybe you think, ‘Okay, I will kill the shooter,’ but then the armored guy can absorb the body, and he will also absorb the ability, and then you have to fight like an armored shooter. This creates more tactical decisions.”
And with limited available resources, you have to not only conserve your ammunition, but craft items thoughtfully. Crafting a health pack uses the same resources as ammunition, which affords players a level of choice: are you going to run into a room with ample metal for these suckers, or are you going to ensure you can stay upright?
“Some of us grew up in the ’80s, so this is a love letter to not only survival horror games (you saw Resident Evil kind of vibes, there’s a Dead Space vibe) but to that decade. The themes of the story, the aesthetics, we connect all these things, it’s like being in a shop with memories and going ‘I want this, this, and this’,” Piejko says.
Cronos: The New Dawn feels like a clever amalgamation of some of the horror greats (games, movies, and otherwise). Though I only got to play a brief snippet of it, I can already see how easily overwhelmed players will get by congealed masses of Orphans, and how much delightful chaos will ensue. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with Cronos, but I can now say for sure I’m looking forward to it.
You can pre-purchase the game now on Epic Games Store.
