Cronos: The New Dawn on Xbox is a survival horror that thrives on its oppressive atmosphere and otherworldly tone, delivering a bleak and memorable experience that occasionally meanders into the overly familiar. With a heavy, cumbersome player character and lethargic combat, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Cronos falls for all the survival horror tropes, but beneath the surface there’s more to this time-bending adventure than meets the eye.
Cronos begins in a plague-ridden, futuristic cityscape; its streets twisted and broken, its architecture collapsing under the weight of corruption. The setting is immediately foreboding with shadow and fog quickly establishing a mood that is both fascinating and terrifying.
I found myself lingering in certain areas just to absorb the detail — the way neon signs flicker against ruined walls, or how the silence of abandoned buildings can be punctuated by unsettling ambient sounds. Cronos excels at creating spaces that feel alive in their desolation, and that sense of otherworldliness is one of its defining strengths.
Combat in Cronos is deliberately slow and methodical in the same way as every other game of this kind that I’ve played since about 2010. Your protagonist moves with weight, every swing of a weapon measured, every dodge sluggish. This design undeniably heightens tension, forcing you to commit to actions and making encounters feel dangerous. Yet, as someone who has played many survival horror titles, I couldn’t help but feel that this mechanic is beginning to show its age.
The heaviness sometimes felt more like an artificial handicap than a genuine source of fear, and I long for the days when someone will take a risk and try something new. Still, Cronos uses this pacing to reinforce vulnerability, and in moments where I was cornered by grotesque enemies or forced to fight in tight spaces, the deliberate combat did succeed in amplifying the dread.
Narrative delivery is one of Cronos’ most compelling aspects. Rather than relying on heavy exposition, the story unfolds through environmental clues, cryptic encounters and fragments of lore scattered across the world. This ambiguity invites interpretation, much like the best entries in the genre.
At one point, I stumbled into a derelict cathedral, its altar covered in strange relics, and the sheer unease of that discovery lingered long after I’d moved on. These moments of quiet dread are where Cronos shines, rewarding players who take the time to explore and absorb its world. In another sequence, we explore a tenement block and learn about how a family falls victim to the plague one by one — a sad tale that tells us just enough, but not too much, about what might have happened in this city.
Technically, Cronos performs well on Xbox Series X. Visuals are striking, with lighting effects that heighten the atmosphere — shafts of dim light cutting through fog, corrupted machinery glowing ominously in the dark, and grotesque enemies rendered with unsettling detail. Sound design is equally strong, with ambient noise that keeps you on edge and sudden crescendos that made me jump more than once. Together, these elements create a sensory experience that reinforces the game’s oppressive mood.
Replayability is built into Cronos through branching paths and subtle choices that alter the world, although once you’ve seen the main story through, I can’t see many returning for a second bite. Different character builds and approaches to encounters add some variety, but the reality is that the weapons don’t feel sufficiently different to really differentiate the experience from one play to the next. Nonetheless, there’s enough scattered and hidden lore that real fans might want to find every scrap. For fans of survival horror, Cronos offers both familiarity and freshness, borrowing inspiration from classics like Silent Hill and Dead Space whilst still carving out its own identity.
The name itself links to the concept of time, and whilst the plague (and its victims) appear to be the main antagonists, the concept of moving through time — or more specifically, advancing objects through time and space to affect their position in the present — is a key mechanical feature. This idea is very much on the surface of gameplay, with few of the time-bending puzzles amount to much in terms of real challenge, but if they do nothing more, they add yet more intrigue to fuel the bonfire that will keep players pressing forwards.
Cronos: The New Dawn is an excellent survival horror experience, defined by its oppressive atmosphere and haunting world-building. While the slow, heavy protagonist may feel like a well-worn trope and the core time mechanic a bit of a mechanical bolt-on, Cronos’ tone, setting, and storytelling more than compensate, creating a journey that is both unsettling and rewarding. For me, the moments of quiet dread and the sheer weight of its world made it a standout — a game that lingers long after the credits roll.
Cronos: The New Dawn is available now for PC, Linux, Xbox and PlayStation.
